It's Saturday, early. There's coffee brewing, and music playing, and cats purring. Life is good.

Sometimes I love my day job. Since the weather has been pleasant these past couple of months, my boss has made a habit of setting up wine, cheese, dolmas, olives, and etc. out on the deck for post-workday enjoyment. The past couple of months, we've had champagne to celebrate finishing an issue. This is very nice, and makes me feel good about my job, appreciated as an employee, and so on. It helps that my boss and co-workers are smart people who share many of my interests, so the social aspect is marvelous.

Yesterday was hard at work... we're short on writers this month, so I have a bigger load of news-writing to do than usual, and I cranked away at that for most of yesterday until I could no longer coherently string sentences together (which is why I didn't write fiction last night!). I was feeling a bit wrung-out by day's end, but then we all sat on the deck in the late afternoon sun, drank good wine (better wine than I could ever afford, mostly; my boss has a great wine cellar), chatted, and I felt better.

It's no secret that I'd love to write full time, but while I needs must have a day job, I could scarcely ask for a better one.

Another perk of my job: this weekend I’m reading an advance copy of The Dark Tower, the final volume in Stephen King's mammoth seven-book series (that's seven books just for the main narrative; many of his other books and stories touch on the Dark Tower story to greater or lesser degrees, and I've read 'em all). I've been reading this series since junior high, and it's a bit staggering to realize that, at the end of the weekend, I'll be done with it. (I'm sure it's rather more staggering for Stephen King to be finished writing it, as he'd been working on it since before I was born). I've been looking forward to this more than any other book, probably, and I get to read it a couple of months in advance of publication. Life is good.

Lots of people are posting their Worldcon schedules. I haven't, because I’m not on any panels. I hadn't originally planned to go to Worldcon, so I didn't sign up for any. I could have signed up later, after I bought my attending membership, but I'm not a huge fan of appearing on panels. I'd much rather stand around in a hallway after a panel and have a conversation that goes wherever the subject leads. Which isn't to say I don't have a schedule at Worldcon. For the first time ever, I'm going to a convention with appointments scheduled. I finally get to meet my agent and my editor in person (whoo!), so I have lunch and dinner dates with them, and there are a couple of other things penciled in (pre-Hugo reception for nominees, a big dinner my publisher is hosting for authors). I'll be at the Hugos, natch, and at the loser's party afterward, and at various other parties. We're not arriving until Friday afternoon, so I'm going to miss the nifty Locus Awards functions, which are happening earlier in the day. I'm sure I'll be around the Locus table in the dealer's room at some point, though. I doubt I'll be difficult to find (well, no more difficult than it is to find any particular person in a convention attended by several thousand individuals). I'll probably gravitate toward the bar. Such is my way.

Not much to report writing-wise. I haven't written much in the past two days, but I did, nevertheless, finish a short story, and so completed my goal for the week. No complaints there, and I think I'll go back to the novel this weekend. I also have to do an editing pass on the three-way collab with Greg and Mike, which has been woefully neglected. I expect to finish that today. I got a nice rejection from Sheila at Asimov's last week -- story was strong, not right for the magazine. Fair enough, and fast. I'm used to Asimov's rejections taking anywhere from six to nine months, and I got this one in just a few weeks. I sent that story back out this morning, and have another story I need to get ready to send. Forward movement is good.

I'm trying not to think about the story I sent to F&SF two months ago. I don't think GVG has ever held a story of mine for so long, and that can be construed as a good sign, but I've been sending stories to that magazine for over a decade without success, so I refuse to become hopeful. Though if I don't hear anything in a couple more weeks, I'll query, just to make sure he actually got the story...

I got an editorial request for some poetry, which I'm going to try to respond to this weekend. I'm taking poetry more seriously lately, and I want to send something good, not merely superficially enjoyable and facile. We'll see how that turns out.

It's Saturday, early. There's coffee in front of me, and a lot of interesting work ahead of me. Life. Good. See above.