My weekend was good (I figured I should mention that before next weekend arrives). The barbecue got canceled on Saturday, so we went out to dinner and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory instead. It was entertaining enough, though I prefer Wilder's canny cynic to Depp's neurotic loony, and giving Wonka a backstory was a fairly colossal miscalculation -- Wonka's one of those characters who should be sui generis, I think. The glass elevator was nice though, and the kids were pretty well cast.

Sunday morning I went up to Locus HQ to get interviewed. Bagels and coffee and conversation, and once I got over being nervous things flowed nicely. I think it went well! I talked about history, mythology, my obsession with death, why I was attracted to horror/self-identified as a horror writer early on, how early reading shaped my experience, language as magic/spell/incantation, how the places I've lived influenced my writing... we talked for about two hours. I don't know how much of it'll end up in the final interview (which should appear before the end of the year). It was a bit odd at first, being interviewed by my boss, but then it just settled into an extended version of the sorts of conversations I sometimes have with him anyway, only I got to talk a lot more, and all about me!

This week is a bit of a blur. Did some reading -- the new Terry Pratchett, devoured quickly soon after an advance copy arrived at work; good, and continues his trend toward darker and more socially/politically complex plotting; a new horror anthology (the name escapes me, but it's that "fiction from the edge" antho with stuff by Brite, Kiernan, Schow, etc.); almost done with the audiobook of Stiff, which is getting really interesting (human head transplants! human mummy confections/medicinal cannibalism!). I've played some WoW. Eaten some pizza. Haven't written much. Played a nice game of basketball with Heather on Tuesday. She's getting good (better than me, anyway). Stuffed and stamped and mailed out wedding invitations. At work, we finished up the August issue yesterday, which is always kind of a big busy thing. Now maybe I can catch up on writing, e-mail, etc.

I need to write about 1,500 words a day on my Bridge novel if I want to finish it in the next 6-8 weeks, with a few higher wordcount days thrown in to round it out (shouldn't be a problem, since I usually have one or two 8 or 10,000 word days on every book). I think that's doable. I'm totally loving this book, and every scene is more fun to write than the last. I sent my agent the first 60 pages and she says it's great, so that's comforting!