Figured out the problem with the Epic fantasy infidelity story. Third-person limited was too distancing, and doesn't allow for all that good unreliable narrator stuff. So I switched to first-person, which required some fairly heavy revision in the bits already written, but now the story feels on track again. Whoo! Wrote a little bit of it on my lunch break today.

There's a good piece about Night Shade Books at Publishers Weekly. Even if it does inexplicably fail to mention me and the book of mine they just published! (Hart & Boot & Other Stories. Go buy it!) Turns out Booklist said good things about my collection, too:

Full of a keen sense of usual fantasy -- strange creatures and legends -- and the fantastic in ordinary life, Pratt's stories are a lot of fun. "Hart & Boot" is a western in which Pearl Hart determines to make her fortune as an outlaw with the help of the mysterious Boot, who appeared to her out of nowhere. "Terrible Ones" seasons the last days of the Eumenides with a modern performance of Medea. "The Tyrant in Love" is so bored with causing pain that he tries love and makes rather a mess of it. The girl "In a Glass Casket" is there because her father doesn't want her ever to leave him. "Living with the Harpy" is on one level about the benefits of having a myth for a housemate but also considers giving up the merely fantastic for something even riskier. Pratt's notes reveal the motives behind each story; for example, he aimed "The Tyrant in Love" at a woman he hoped to seduce (not his best idea, he says -- the seduction, that is). --Regina Schroeder

I swear, you mention one little attempted seduction in your author's notes... besides, I meant using that particular story as a means of seduction was a lousy idea, since it is, shall we say, not very romantic, ultimately. The attempted seduction itself was a fine idea, though it didn't really work out...

Heather wasn't feeling well this evening, so she napped on the couch, which meant watching TV and video games would've been rude. That lack of company combined with a lack of visual stimulation led me to, shock horror, get some of my freelance work done early. So I only have a tiny bit to do on my day off. Which means I can devote the majority of the day to finishing the abovementioned epic fantasy story, lord willing and the river don't rise.

Tomorrow I must rise at an ungodly hour to 1) take Heather to the dentist and 2) give my boss a ride to the airport. On the bright side, going to work a little early means I can leave a little early. On the less-bright side, it'll probably still be full dark when I roll out of bed. Bleah.

The weekend was fun. Saturday we walked down to the lake, bought some goodies at the Farmer's Market, wandered home, enjoyed the weather a bit, and spend the evening babysitting my nephew. (Which mostly consisted of him "playing" Kingdom Hearts, by which I mean, he held the controller during the many, many, many cut scenes and occasionally bashed apart crates and barrels, while I did the actual playing.)

Sunday we went over to Jack London Square and saw Black Snake Moan (pretty enjoyable) and then ambled around by the water, went to the bookstore, etc. It's the touristy part of Oakland, where we seldom go (and one aggressive panhandler kept insisting we were tourists, even though we told him, no, we're from Oakland, go seek easier prey elsewhere, dude). But that interaction aside, it was a lovely afternoon. The weather is like summertime out here lately. Hope it lasts.