Oof. Good weekend, but so very social, enough so that I want to hermit up for about three weeks and not see anyone other than Heather. I love my friends, but I do seem to require a large percentage of alone-time in order to maintain mental balance.

Santa Cruz with Scott and Lynne was wonderful. We drove down Saturday morning and had lunch at Seabright Brewery (we wanted to have lunch at Rosa's, but it was distressingly closed, we hope just for temporary remodeling). Seafood bisque! Ooh yeah!

We ambled in the afternoon, with the requisite visit to Pergolesi, the requisite mocha chai and card games, the necessary amble down Pacific Ave. I bought a few things at Logos (insanely cheap remaindered copies of The Avram Davidson Treasury and Crowley's Novelties and Souvenirs), and one thing at Bookshop Santa Cruz (Liquor by Poppy Brite. I read it in two sittings, and would have read it in one sitting except, you know, that would have required missing my writing workshop on Sunday. A breezy wonderful cool delightful book.) The evening? Oh, it was spent eating and drinking. So much eating and drinking. Scott made this amazing meal -- enchiladas, Cuban stew beef. There was tequila sauce. All was wondrous. We wound up eating at around 10 p.m. and just stuffed ourselves, and stayed up until 3 a.m. drinking wine and doing tequila shots. I haven't had a night like that in a long time, and it was fabulous. Sunday morning came way too quickly though, and by midafternoon Heather and I had to depart for Los Gatos to meet with my writing group. They critiqued my story, "Killing the Moon" (which may be retitled "The Crawlspace of the World," which was suggested independently by two group members). It's a good story with some first-draft issues, which is what I suspected, and as always they helped me determine what works and what needs work. Afterward we had a tasty Indian meal and hours of conversation.

Also this weekend I ate many cookies.

Basically, it was a very food-centric weekend, and yet, reading Liquor just made me want to eat more and spend more time in restaurants. Can't wait to read the follow-up, Prime, but I have to read a couple of books I want to review first.

Currently reading Rocket Science, Jay Lake's first novel (now available for pre-order). Good stuff. I'll refrain from further comment, since I plan to review it. Other book review stuff: Recently finished Daughter of Exile by Isabel Glass, which I liked very much, and the next book on my list is the sequel, The Divided Crown. Then I'll probably read The Home by Scott Nicholson. Hmm. I just realized I'm friendly with the authors of all three books I plan to review. It's not favoritism, honestly -- the SF world is just a small field. And I'm inclined to read and review these books because I've read plenty of stuff I loved by all three authors, before I knew them at all socially. (I usually don't know the people whose books I review. The field isn't that small. Or, rather, I just haven't been part of it long enough.)

We're back home now, having come in lateish Sunday. Getting back into the work routine was bumpy. There was some confusion about a dentist's appointment Heather had this morning, so we wound up rushing around more chaotically than we'd planned. And then at work I just cranked all day (I want to say I was rolling; I want to say I was in the weeds; all this from reading Liquor and picking up the lingo). We go to press on Wednesday, so there's tons to be done, lots of writing and proofing and correcting and layout-shifting. We got a lot done today, but there's a lot left to do. And there's no rest when the May issue is finished. Thursday and Friday we're moving furniture in and out of the office so the carpets can be cleaned. Bleah. This means I don't get a day off this week, when I normally would. Sucks, but on the plus side, I get next Monday off instead. Three-day weekends beat Wednesdays off any day. But here from the vantage point of Monday night after a seriously sleep-deprived weekend, it's looking like a long week.

But I should be getting my "Bad poetry / Oh noetry" t-shirt soon, so everything's all right.

Hmm. Other things. Flytrap #3 is sold out. We only have a handful of file copies left, and we're keeping those. You can still get copies from Last Gasp, and we just sent ten to Clarkesworld Books, so they'll have 'em available soon. If you're local you might can buy a copy at Borderlands Books, if they still have any.

We'll work on Flytrap 4 this weekend. It's mostly done, but there's a lot of fiddly things to do, and we have to write some reviews, an editorial, some interstitial material. It's not coming out until the end of May, but I like to finish things ahead of time.

I'm still working on the Bridge novel. Very incrementally, it must be said, but work is work, and I've had a lot going on the past few days. I should be able to focus more over the next few weeks.