Rain. Rain! Rain. It's bucketing down out there. We've gotten more rain in the Bay Area this year than Seattle has. Bleah. When winter begins, I like rain, as a change from the endless sunshine, but I'd be happy for endless sunshine to return any time now.

I got the mock-up of the cover for Rangergirl. Holy crap, my novel's going to be published. It suddenly seems a lot more real, seeing the title (in a nice old-school font), my name, the Publishers Weekly blurb about me being "a genuine talent," sketched cover art (illustrating the moment when Marzi first opens the Western Door), the back cover copy... it kind of floored me, honestly, and this is just a mock-up. Even the spine looks awesome. Bantam's being so good to me. I'm so excited.

Let's see. Other news of the world. "Bottom Feeding" will be in the August issue of Asimov's, I'm told, so that's something to look forward to.

My savings account is about to be drastically reduced, as I'm going to pay my taxes tomorrow. Stupid taxes.

Tonight Heather went out with some friends in Berkeley, so I got her to dump me off at Au Coquelet on her way. I have a regrettable tendency to do nothing much when I get home in the evenings lately -- well, I read, or play Tetris, or answer e-mail, but I don't do much in the way of work. So I thought a change of scenery might jostle me out of my habitual stupor. I drank three large coffees (mmm, lifesblood) and finished reading Old Man's War, which was entertaining enough. Then I plugged in my ipod, started the "Bridge" playlist (which I'm using to create a Pavlovian "now it's time to write" response in myself), and wrote about 700 words, stopping just on the point of having a fistfight and a magical event. I could have kept going and going, but it was time to go out front and sit on a bench (yes, in the rain, but I was beneath an awning) and wait for Heather to pick me up. At least it will be easy to get into the writing next time, since it's fun to write fistfights. The book is flowing beautifully so far. I'm optimistic for its future.