The current project is to get Blood Engines in shape, and hand it off to my agent so she can get her agenting mojo on. Selling another book would be a good thing. I'm hoping to make strides on Blood Engines this weekend, and get it polished up before the honeymoon at the end of the month. I also need to work on story notes for Hart & Boot & Other Stories, but that's something I can do here and there in bits and pieces, and it's not terribly time-sensitive anyway. And then, in November and December, I hope to finish up The Light of a Better World. I can see the shape of the book before me, and I'm eager to get back to it, but I also want to get Blood Engines out of the way and off my mind.

Somewhere in there, I oughta write a couple stories. And I want to do some collabs, because those always get my mental motor running.

And it'll be nice to play a little World of Warcraft again.

Also, I need to work on my Rangergirl site. Hope to have it up and running a month before the book comes out. Should be doable. Can't decide if I'll try to acquire a special domain for it, or just spin it off my sff.net site. Something in me rebels at the idea of multiple websites... Anyway, I'll have a Rangergirl spin-off story Creative Commons licensed on the site, possibly some artwork, excerpts, links to interviews, reviews, etc.

Basically, winter is coming, and that means I put my head down and get work done. Mmm, winter. Hot tea, red wine, chili, rain. I like winter. I get sick of the rain after a few months, sure, but I find it easier to be productive in the dark months than I do in the bright. Don't know why.

Focusing on work, and being a homebody with my new bride, is a good plan. We're broke now, natch, because of the wedding, so we're going to be living frugally and quietly (except for the honeymoon, which is already mostly paid for). I like nesting. I hope to enter 2006 with two novels basically ready to sell... and then I get to figure out my next project, which is always fun. I've got lots of ideas.

There's a review of Rangergirl upcoming in the November Locus, which will be out in a few weeks. There's supposed to be a Kirkus review in a couple of weeks (the 10/15 issue, supposedly). [Update: I'm told there will be a review in next week's Publishers Weekly too. Eep.] One reviewer has commented on her blog that she liked the book, saying it was, "quite possibly, the best fantasy novel I've read all year -- better than Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt.". So that review, wherever it appears, will probably be positive! (This is what happens when you begin to obsessively google search for early reviews. This is not a good sign for my mental health as the novel nears publication.)