It's been a busy few days. Everyone wound up working late at A Certain Magazine on Friday (I left around 8 p.m., earlier than some people). We don't go to press until Wednesday, but some things had to be finished early. This next week's going to be difficult, too, at least the first half, but it should mellow a bit after that, once the issue is done.

Yesterday my writing group met down in Mountain View (we meet at a different members' house every month). They critiqued my Rangergirl spin-off, and all seemed to like the story a lot, which surprised me, since it's pretty much full-on weird. Most of their problems were with first-draft artifacts (over-explaining, unclear motivation, repetitiousness, a dearth of sensory details), stuff I always have to fix in revisions anyway, but they pointed out a few problems I wouldn't have noticed and made some good suggestions. Plus, they're smart, fun people to hang out with, and sometimes group meetings are the only socializing I do in a given month, since I'm basically a solitary, hermitlike creature. I'm glad I'm in the group.

Today Heather and I rose (relatively) early, and had our practically-regular Sunday brunch at the Blackberry Bistro, drinking ceylon golden tea and eating yummy food, mmm. Otherwise, it's been house-cleaning, errand-running, laundry-doing, receipt-organizing for upcoming taxes, miscellaneous filing, and etc. We're watching Home Movies on DVD -- man, I love that show. Wish it hadn't gone off the air.

In other news, there is no news. No rejections or acceptances, no checks in the mail, no crazy caffeine-fueled frenzies of all-night writing (just plugging away steadily at the Bridge novel, as I'll be doing for the next few months), no horrible traumas or misfortunes. The closest thing we've had to a crisis this weekend is the lock on the laundry room door breaking. Every weekend should be so peaceful. I'm probably going to cook a chicken-and-ham-and-orange thing tonight, watch more TV, read, hang out with Heather, and enjoy the indescribable bliss of a long lazy Sunday.

And in the morning, I'll get up at 6:30 a.m., and go running in the just-barely-dawn, and then it'll be a Monday, and we've all been through those before.