Unambiguously good news, that is!

First, major congratulations to Barth Anderson, who just sold a novel to Juliet Ulman at Bantam! (Who is, coincidentally, my editor, too -- Barth and I are editor-buddies!)

Heather and I went to the print shop today. They re-did our entire order, for free, and now Flytrap 3 looks great! Hurray! So very happy. And they'll get our business in the future, too, since they were so cool about this order. Speaking of which, we should get started on this year's holiday chapbook soon. We already know what the chapbook is going to be, though, and it's tentatively titled Pook's Original Miscellany -- it'll be longer and more substantial than last year's chapbook (and will probably be the biggest one ever).

I woke up at 8 a.m. this morning (I am, more and more, an early riser) and went straight to work on my poetry book for the Yale Younger Poets contest. I tossed some poems I'd planned to use, included some others, and agonized over the order for a while, but now I think I have a nice collection that actually works, thematically, as a book. Fifty pages of poetic goodness, titled If There Were Wolves. I printed it out for one last proofread, but it should go out in the mail on Monday. Fame and fortune will, undoubtedly, follow. I'm trying to get all my various writing projects finished this weekend, since I should be receiving edits on Rangergirl soon. I talked to my editor yesterday, and she says I can expect them next week. Whee!

We've been watching The Shield on DVD lately. It's quite good, for the most part -- morally ambiguous, violent, funny, and quirky. It occasionally veers too far into high melodrama, and watching the whole first season over the course of a week revealed a certain level of repetitiousness, but overall we loved it, and are looking forward to the second season. Gotta love Netflix!

We're going to a Halloween party tonight. I'm going as an overworked sorcerer. (Other party guest: "Oh, you're a sorcerer? What kind of magic do you do?" Me: "Oh, man, the last thing I want to talk about is work. I'm just trying to leave all the wizardry behind at the office at the end of the day.") I get to wear a cloak and carry a demon-topped staff embellished with dangling fairy-skeletons and scorpions. It should rock the proverbial house.

Hope y'all are having a fun-filled weekend!