Hello again. Just wanted to do one last journal entry before I leave the ol' computer behind for a three-day-weekend at the beach. We're heading to North Myrtle Beach in South Carolina, where the number of Wings and Pacific chain stores are only outnumbered by the Harleys and Hooters restaurants.

Okay, so I exaggerated about the Hooters restaurants, but a guy can dream, right? ;)

Because I can only function with deadlines, the upcoming weekend away helped me finish up the story that's been plaguing me for the past month and a half, "Painting Haiti." I already got some great, faster-than-light feedback from my fellow writing pal Paul Martens, and I'm sort of looking forward to fixing it up, now that I have a better idea of what to do.

But that's for next week. I'm just glad to have finished a story! It's been almost a year since I did a new story. All my other work has been on novels. I miss the sense of completion and satisfaction you get with a novel, especially the rush I had today when I put everything together on the story, and with a clicking sound in my brain the major pieces fit together.

Of course, there's a lot of sanding left for me to do on those pieces so they fit together better, but at least I've got all of them in the same place. I have to do some cutting, and a bit of research as well. Then it'll be done.

For the weekend I'm looking to finally read The Iowa Baseball Confederacy by WP Kinsella and some short stories from Baseball Fantastic, which includes one of the best baseball tales ever, by John Kessel -- "The Franchise," in which George Bush (Sr.) faces off against Fidel Castro in the World Series. Wonderful tale.

And yeah, I'm starting to think about the baseball novel. I want to finish working on the SF play as well, but the seeds in my head are starting to grow.

Hmm... I've got clicking sounds and seeds inside my cranium. Could this be a problem?

Have a great weekend, all! I promise not to journal again today. Later!