First, my story "Impossible Dreams" is up at Escape Pod, and the comments so far are positive enough to make me blush. I actually listened to the podcast -- normally hearing my own words is like having icepicks jabbed into my ears, but after some initial discomfort I got used to it -- and it's quite good! Go enjoy!

Yesterday was my day off, and I worked hard. Managed to do about 5,500 words of Dead Reign. I think it's coming along nicely. A mummy is introduced. A necromancer chats with Death. The big conflict that drives the book is set in motion. Marla acquires a valet, though she isn't sure what to do with him. The manuscript stands at a bit over 13,000 words now. Almost one-sixth of the way done! (Doesn't sound so daunting when I think of it that way. When I think "I need to write another 70,000 words or so," then it sounds daunting.) There are fancy dress balls, armed revolution, trips to the underworld, weddings and funerals, and other strange things coming up. Whee! I may even have some vague idea of how the book ends now. As usual, some offhand cool thing I threw in near the beginning looks likely to become crucial to the novel's resolution. My subconscious is way the hell smarter than the rest of me.

I feel very busy lately. But I should finish off the chapbook and Flytrap and take them to the printer this weekend. I have a panel at Borderlands this Saturday, at 3 p.m., with John Varley and Pat Murphy, to celebrate the release of the new Tiptree anthology. Not that I'm in it, or have anything to do with the book at all really, but hey, I like Tiptree and Tiptreeish things! Come out if you're local and watch me mumble incoherently. WisCon is approaching so quickly. Zoom! It'll be a blast. I can't wait. (Except I can wait, because I have a ton of stuff to do before then.) WisCon is wonderful, but I'm glad Heather and I are planning a more relaxed vacation, too, probably in early July. It'll be nice to kick back and turn off my brain for a little while. I only have to wait two months to do so...