Sad news on a beautiful morning -- Mike Jasper's sister lost her house (and, heartbreakingly, the family dog) in a fire yesterday. He's set up a button for donations, so if you can spare a little something, do go help.

It's been a busy week at work, trying to finish up the October issue of A Certain Magazine, but we got done yesterday, and now it's my day off! The desire to slack around all day is great, but I've been writing 5,000 words a week, and want to keep it up, which means working on my novel today. This week does begin the new four-days-a-week regime, so life gets better starting... now!

I'm reading Rudy Rucker's Mathematicians in Love now, and it's quite charming so far, if a little silly in places. I just read Delia Sherman's YA Changeling, which has a brilliant central premise and some other really cool ideas, but ultimately didn't engage me emotionally. I'm not certain it's the book's fault, though. Maybe I'm reading too much contemporary fantasy, or too many novels. I think I'm getting jaded. It may be time to switch to short stories for a while, and heaven knows I've got enough anthologies to keep me occupied. I still haven't read everything in Twenty Epics (though I just read Meghan McCarron's "The Rider" and thought it was fabulous). I just got my contributor copies of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, so I should read that. I've only just started dipping into the fiction in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and haven't even touched the latest Year's Best Science Fiction. I've got a contributor copy of Eidolon 1 that I should read. I'm still waiting for my contributor copy of Year's Best Fantasy 6, but I think I'll have plenty to keep me occupied until I get that. I think, except for novels I need to review, I'm going to switch over to short fiction for a while. See if shaking up my brain will help. I'll let you know if I read anything extra super wonderful.

Plans for today are relatively modest. Do some dishes. Take a walk down to the shops by the lake and get our car key copied. Write some pages on the Dream novel. That's all that's required. Should be good. Hope Thursday is treating all of you well.