Ay yi yi, been meaning to update in here for a while now, but things remain busy with work and at home and everywhere in general except on the novel-revising front (too damn tired).

But I did want to make a note of some recent news related to The All Nations Team that made me smile -- the latest batch of Baseball Hall of Fames inductees. Along with screwball pitcher Bruce Sutter, the committee elected a fine group of Negro League-era players and executives into the Hall (along with some from before the NL were formed). Including in that group are three actual people who are in my baseball novel, in fictionalized format: Jose Mendez (he plays a cornet in the book and prevents a riot), Cristobal Torriente (he gets to perform a good-luck Santeria ritual for the players on the team), and the team owner, a white man -- J.L. Wilkinson.

It makes me happy to see all these players as well as Wilkinson (who played in late 1880s or so himself, before baseball was segregated) get their just recognition. And it's always cool to see actual photos of these gents. Makes my novel come alive to me.

Now if I just had time and energy to work on it. Drew's been having a rough time of it the past few nights, ever since he contracted a nasty virus called "hand, foot, and mouth disease" (great name, eh?). He's got sores in his mouth, on his bottom, and some new ones on his feet, and he can't sleep for the discomfort. Lizzie and I have been taking turns getting up with him at night -- about every 2 hours or so.

It's like having a newborn, almost... I guess it's good prep for the next one, when that little Jasperito comes along... But that's all I'm gonna say about that!

I just hate that Drew has to suffer like that. He's been a trooper through it all.

And finally, the upcoming antho Fantasy Gone Wrong, which features my goofy hobbits-gone-bad story "Meet the Madfeet," got a nice review in Publishers Weekly, so I figured I'd share it here:

In this delightful anthology, 16 authors take traditional fantasy premises and color them ironic. The only criteria for inclusion is a whimsical sense of humor and a keen appreciation for the fantasy genre, giving the writers-among them veterans like Alan Dean Foster, as well as virtual unknowns-plenty of room to make their unique voices heard. Almost without fail, the results are entertaining, amusing and original, and remarkably self-contained. Expanding the genre beyond the usual "wizards and dragons" limitations [DOH -- My story has both!!!], authors bring to bear such modern phenomena as psychoanalysis, online video gaming, criminology and management techniques. Of particular note are "Food Fight" by Foster, an intensely funny tale of a man whose food speaks to him; Christina F. York's cheeky "A Day at the Unicorn Races"; and "The Murder of Mr. Wolf" by Josepha Sherman, a police procedural that skewers nursery rhyme and fairy tale staples like Hickory Dickory Doc and Little Red Riding Hood. Though not always as clever as it thinks it is, Greenberg and Koren's refreshing collection should strike fantasy fans just right.(Sept.)

Okay, got all that off my chest (and off my Bookmarks page!). Later!