River slept from 8 to 5 last night. This is because he is a perfect angel. Before I went to work we hung out for a couple of hours and read (he loves Charlie Parker Plays Be Bop, which Gavin and Kelly sent us). I miss him when I'm gone all day!

Mike Jasper, one of my oldest and dearest comrades in the writing game, is celebrating Wannoshay Day and the publication of his Wannoshay Cycle. Give him your love and your book-buying dollars.

Nice review of my story "The River Boy" at Things Mean a Lot.

This has been a nibbled-to-death-by-ducks month so far. One car stolen, and the car thieves drove through a toll without paying, so we got a ticket, and have to send the police report to get it resolved, but the police report isn't available yet. Dryer broken. Parking tickets. Other car needing repairs. (Rear shocks and struts and tires were shot. $700 later all is well...) Shower drain clogged. Nothing horrendous on its own merits, but stuff is just piling up and wearing on us. Plus, rain rain rain. Sigh. At least our baby is gorgeous, and my movie deal money is en route, which means I can completely pay off a credit card. (Except for the car repairs we just charged to it. Ah, well.)

Heather got me Black & White 2 for Xmas, and I finally installed it this weekend. I like it so much I may have to stop playing it until Grift Sense is finished. It basically ate my weekend (apart from the time I spent on Dead Reign copyedits). I really liked the original Black and White, and this one adds armies. Much easier to be an evil god when you've got an army. Training your creature is a lot easier, too, and towns don't need to be micromanaged as much as they were in the original, so basically all the annoying has been stripped right out and replaced with extra helpings of awesome.

I hit my quota for January on Grift Sense a few days back (the goal was to reach 40,000 words by month's end), so I'm taking my brief bit of breathing room to consider the book as a whole so far, and I already see places that need revision. I've got one villain who's really dragging his feet with showing up to harass my heroes, so I need to move his bits up, which necessitates some other rearranging. Overall I'm still happy with it though, and indeed, last night I delighted myself so much I read a scene to Heather fresh from the computer, and it made her laugh, too. So no complaints there.