A reminder, I'm reading at Borderlands Books in San Francisco tomorrow at 1 p.m. Don't make me read to an empty room, y'all. (In unrelated news, the owner of Borderlands plans to open a cafe right next to the store, possibly as early as May, which means I might have to start taking a lot more trips into the city).

Last night the curse of Xeno was lifted, and I wrote 2,500 words. The hooker-and-tattoo scene went better than I expected. It'll require some rewriting, of course, but I got the broad outlines down, and some nice details. (It's not really a sex scene, more of a leading-up-to-sex-scene, with ghostly complications...)

Otherwise didn't do much. Finished reading Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves, which is one of my favorite Wodehouses. Started reading Headstone City by Tom Piccirilli, probably to review, assuming I like it, which is a safe bet based on his previous books. We began watching season 2 of Battlestar Galactica and it's still good. Didn't go to the gym last night, but only because I spent all day in the basement of A Certain Magazine packing about 35 boxes full of books, and then carrying them up a flight of stairs, around the house, up a few more steps, and into the carport. That was enough of a workout, and I was wore slam out by day's end.

Listening to the audiobook of On Beauty by Zadie Smith, which is quite nice -- good details, crisp characterization. The tendency of the viewpoint to wander from character to character without warning is a bit annoying, only because it can be hard to follow. Worse are the occasional lapses into second-person, when a third-person viewpoint character suddenly becomes "you" for a few paragraphs, I guess in some attempt to create more intimacy? It doesn't work. This woman is pretty clearly a blazing talent, but she could stand to learn a little restraint or control in this one area. Not far enough into the book to comment on it as a whole yet, but I'm glad I downloaded it.