Just heard that Strange Horizons is planning to include four, count 'em, four of my pieces in the next volume of their "Best of" series. Cool, huh? They're reprinting "Angel Bites", "Living with the Harpy", "The Birth of Damage: Nina Kiriki Hoffman's A Stir of Bones", and "Carcinodjinn". Whoo and hoo! There's no money (except in the unlikely event of royalties), but it's always nice to be told you're among the best of something.

Speaking of Best Ofs, Hartwell & Cramer's Year's Best Fantasy 4 is now available, featuring my story "Fable from a Cage" and many other fine things. So go get a copy!

Today was my once-fortnightly day off, always a pleasure. I spent the morning, dawdling, washing dishes, reading Something Postive comics, reading the last bit of Caitlín Kiernan's Murder of Angels, and thinking about the Bridges novel. I went into Montclair and had lunch with my co-workers, bidding farewell to our former editor Jenni Hall, who's off to pursue other things. Then back home for further dawdling. In the afternoon I wrote my review for Murder of Angels, and I think it's pretty good. Around 5:30 I headed to Berkeley, hit the PO Box (where I got the new Rhysling anthology, whoo), and went to Comic Relief to buy the last volume of Transmetropolitan. Then I went to Au Coquelet, got coffee, and read. That's such a great comic, and it ends marvelously, and now I want to go back and re-read the whole run, just to experience it in its entirety. Yum. After I finished, I read a bit of the new Third Alternative, which is beautiful as always. Then I got antsy to work on some art of my own, so I jotted down several days' worth of accumulated ideas, images, and lines about the Bridge novel, creating a rough outline of the next couple of chapters in the process. This book is really coming together in my mind. Can anyone recommend a good book about the psychology of suicidal groups? I'm thinking like Heaven's Gate, The People's Temple, stuff like that, and I'm particularly interested in groups that believed they would achieve some sort of transcendence in death (being taken away by nice aliens, being "translated" to another, better planet, etc.). I've read various articles and such, but it seems likely that there's a decent popular study about this stuff out there.

Heather joined me, and we headed home, where we are, now. There are red peppers and portabello mushrooms roasting in the oven (one of our new favorite treats -- Heather roasts a good vegetable!). Speaking of eating veggies, after two weeks of watching my diet, refraining from ice cream and pizza, etc., I've lost 7 pounds. Who knew this restraint thing would actually work?