And... I'm officially out of stories. Just sold the last one I had, a metafictional fantasy called "Her Voice in a Bottle," to Bill Schafer at Subterranean. It looks likely that my short SF story "On a Blade of Grass" (which he bought last week) will go out to subscribers of the SubPress newsletter (so you'd best sign up -- just plug in an e-mail address, the signup is down in the right-hand sidebar), while "Her Voice in a Bottle" will be in the online magazine proper. All subject to change etc. It's been a joy selling stories to this market -- I submitted the story yesterday afternoon and got accepted less than 24 hours later. Life is good!

Clearly I need to write more short fiction, though. I'm still working on the Simulation story. It's going well, but I took the weekend off work (except for necessary freelancing) to go down to Santa Cruz. Heather and our boy were in Indiana seeing my mother-in-law this weekend, and in order to stave off crushing loneliness, I visited my friends Scott and Lynne.

Santa Cruz was great, though we were close enough to the wildfires to see smoke in the sky (so many bad fires already this year, and so early in the season, it's troubling) and bizarrely unseasonable weather (rain, in June, which was weird enough! But actual thunderstorms too! With lightning causing more fires, natch). Highlights include many many good meals, lots and lots of beer and wine, great conversation, and a party at a very cool house by the river, up a hill so steep we rode a tram to get to the top. (There were stairs to the top, but confronted with the choice of a zillion switchbacking stairs or a tram, the choice was clear.) I got home in early afternoon on Sunday, did a little work, and went to see The Incredible Hulk, which I enjoyed -- good smashing!

I picked up Heather and River at the airport a bit after 11, and what with waiting for bags and such we didn't get home until after midnight. Put the baby to bed and dove for bed myself, and managed to get almost a full five hours of sleep before the kid woke me up! But I didn't mind. The chance to play with him after missing him for days was worth a little sleep deprivation.