Before I start blathering on about my topic of the day, I just wanted to give a HUGE shout-out to our buddies Cammie and Josh, who are expecting their first baby in, oh, about 33 weeks. Woo-hoo! Elizabeth and I are quite excited, and Drew can hardly contain himself, thinking about a new playmate to hang out with. Congratulations, guys!

Must've been something in the water when they were over here for that Super Bowl party...

Me, I'm wishing for something a bit stronger than water to get through this long-ass day. It started off nicely enough, as I got up at 4:30 and got some good work on the novel revising. I actually jumped to the end and tweaked the last 2 chapters for a change of pace.

I skimmed through most of my first research book last night, and I hope to read the second one this week (I just can't seem to fit in time to read anymore!), so I've been adding bits of research and details about the setting and era to the book here and there. I enjoy that process a lot, adding the cool bits of detail here and there that make the storyline and characters really shine.

For instance, I'm trying to find a place to show that the players left their gloves in the field while they were up to bat, and "nobody ever recalled a player tripping or falling over one of the gloves" (according to the Ken Burns documentary).

So of course I have to have a scene where one of my players falls over an opposing player's glove!

Or show one of my pitchers doctoring the ball with licorice or tobacco juice. If you ever see a photo of a baseball player from the era before 1920, which was called the "deadball era," look at the ball in his hand -- it's usually dark brown, nasty, scratched-up, and probably a bit lumpy, as the umps used the same ball throughout the entire game, unless it was lost. Right after 1920 or so, they started using fresh, tightly wound baseballs constantly throughout a game, which helped the hitters WAY more than the pitchers.

But I digress.

You know, thinking about my novel again has lifted my spirits on this long-ass work day. That and the fact that Lizzie just called to let me know that we got the latest Asimov's, which contains Greg's and my story, "California King"! At last. Of course, today's mail also brought a rejection, but what can ya do? You take your bad hops along with your lucky bounces... Later.