Well, Elizabeth and I both survived the beach, including the start of Beach Week and the thundering of countless Harleys. You know, Harleys sound really cool the first 4-5 times you hear them, but by the 400th or 500th sound of roaring, muffler-less thunder, it gets a little bit OLD. I think they were racing on the beach the last night we were there. That would've been cool to see.

If you're ever in North Myrtle Beach, by the way, find a place called Joe's Burgers (I think that's the name -- it's next to the more upscale Joe's Bar and Grill). They have the BEST burgers around, and it's exactly the kind of atmosphere I like -- laid back, lots of bottled beer on the tables (no glasses -- those are for wimps!), a wraparound porch, a long wooden bar, and did I mention beer? That was the best meal there. Nothing like hot wings for an appetizer followed by a slaw-dripping chili cheese burger...

I think the bar was about half bikers. And Elizabeth got carded there, so what's not to love?

On the writing front, I'm tearing into the revamping of the Last of the Hand novel, thanks to some good feedback from my fellow writers. I have my query package just about ready to send out, and I've found my main character -- Kelley, a fourteen-year-old. I'll probably write a couple more scenes with her to keep her in the forefront of the novel.

I learned all this at about 5 a.m. this morning -- I'm switching back to morning writing again, now that Elizabeth has to get up at about the same time to go to her fieldwork. It wasn't TOO hard getting up that early (I set the alarm for 4:45, actually, so I can get the ol' computer booted up and the coffee pot brewing and email checked by 5 so I have 2 hours to write). We'll see how easy it is to get up tomorrow...

It'll be nice having nights free to work on our badly-neglected lawn and hang out with Elizabeth again. We're sorta having to get know each other again, now that she's done with her grad-school classwork and I'm not writing non-stop. It'll be good -- it's not healthy to work as hard as we both were working. But man, the transition is tough -- even at the beach I was feeling antsy, like I wasn't WORKING enough. Go figure.

So things are coming together. I had a couple story rejections in the past week or two that sort of bothered me, because I'd half-convinced myself that they were going to sell, but that's the kiss of death, I learned. Just send stuff out and don't attach any hopes to it. It only leads to frustration!

And in any case, I'm having more fun lately with novels, so I'll be sticking to them a lot more in the coming months.

Oh, and finally, one cool note about the Day Job -- in honor of the new Matrix movie coming out on Thursday, our CEO is showing "The Matrix" in one of our conference rooms for us! With popcorn! How cool is that? A bunch of my co-workers are going to see the noon show on Thursday, but I won't be going. Elizabeth is hooked on the Matrix, so I wouldn't think of going without her.

Seems everyone is pumped up about this flick. I think it'll be fun, but as always, ever since the horrid Star Wars prequel of '99, I refuse to get my hopes up ever again about a Big Movie. Three words for ya: Jar Jar Binks.