Hello! Month two of a new year already. I hope none of you are being too aggressively devoured by the great grey beast of February thus far.

For me, things are good, everything's coming up tulips. I just heard from this Dutch publisher today that they want to reprint my story "The Witch's Bicycle" -- in Dutch, natch -- and publish it as a standalone hardcover book aimed at young adult readers (ages 13 - 18). And they're paying more for it than I got for its initial publication in Realms of Fantasy, so I'm extra-happy, since that'll pay nicely for my trip to Wiscon, and go a bit toward financing the next issue of Flytrap as well. Writing is such a sweet gig. Sometimes you get random free money for work you already did, and a good story can keep earning you money for years.

I heard from my editor today. She sent the back cover copy and assorted front-and-back matter for The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, and it all looks good. I need to send them a photo, and revise the bio a bit, but otherwise, all's well. The book is going to be a trade paperback, probably with a slightly smaller-than-usual trim size. Should have a good cover, etc. I'm excited about this. I think the book's going to be lovely as an object.

Heather got the time off from work for our honeymoon, so we're definitely going to Hawaii for the last week of October and part of the first week in November. True, that's almost a month after our wedding date, but the production schedule at A Certain Magazine makes it difficult for me to leave any earlier (the November issue is monstrous, and they really do need me there to work on it). I am so looking forward to this trip, which will be the first real vacation I've had since, like, going on vacation with my parents. Vacation or not, I'm sure I'll still do some writing while I'm there, in addition to snorkeling and getting a snootfull and whatnot. Just planning this trip is going to be awesome.

That's about it for exciting updates. Turning to the past, Scott and Lynne visited last weekend, which was crazy-fun. We drank well, we ate well, we laughed, we wandered, we saw musicians -- hell, I'll just point you to Heather's entry about it. The downside of all that crazy fun was not sleeping much, eating heavy meals, and over-boozing, which pushed my already-weakened immune system neatly over the brink. I spent Monday home sick, snuffling and moaning and coughing and generally drag-assing around. Ah, well. It's winter, everyone around me has been sick at various moments, so it was inevitable that I'd be stricken at some point. I feel pretty much better now.

We've been watching Season 4 of Oz, which is very good.

You've probably already seen this article on how to disappear completely. Very interesting.

I have lots of writing to do this weekend. I want to write an epic (just a little one), and I'd like to write some porn (because I'd love to partially finance my wedding with revenue from writing porn).

Heather's making soup. There's good music on. Everything is la la la.