First things first -- our friends Josh and Cammie had their baby last night, and we'd all like to welcome Stella to the world! Sounds like she had a fine, fairly smooth entrance to the world, and from the pictures I've seen so far, she's a beautiful young lady. As if there was any doubt!

It's such an exciting time -- having Drew was the best thing Elizabeth and I ever did together, and we can't get enough of the little guy. I know the proud new parents will feel the same about Stella as we do about Mr. Drew (who's recovered quite nicely from his ear infection).

In other news, I'm about 2-3 pages away from finishing up a brand-new story, my first on in MONTHS, and it's been a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how liberating a story can be -- you can go anywhere in one and not worry TOO much about pulling all of it together later. You just keep making up the rules as you go and moving the goalposts as needed.

I did about 14 pages today, and I'm almost over my word-count max, but I know I can trim this sucker into shape. I just have to figure out how the hell it ENDS.

Once I do, I'd love to get a couple brave first readers to read this story -- about 5,000 words, set in a strangely familiar high fantasy world... It's supposed to be humorous, which is a more or less new arena for me, and I'd be interested to hear if people thought it was funny or not.

And now, to get away from this computer for a while! Later...