Is this my last vacation day I see before me, looking as if it were alive? I had a productive week off, even if there was a long morning at the hospital with Pukesy McWheezealot. The kid is doing much much better lately, though, even if just right at this moment he's vigorously opposing the idea of an afternoon nap, no matter how obviously he needs it...

My children's novel The Nex is all revised and off to my agent. Reading it all in one go, after a few weeks of not even thinking about it, I think I have some degree of objectivity.... and I believe it's one of the best things I've ever written. I hope my agent, some editors, and a whole lot of readers (in that order) agree!

Pat Rothfuss (author of the wonderful Name of the Wind) is doing a book giveaway fundraiser for Heifer International, so I contributed a copy of Hart & Boot & Other Stories. I have a special soft spot for Heifer International, having spent a weekend at their ranch in Arkansas back in June of '02, visiting my ex-girlfriend feyrieprincess, who was volunteering there (she was even my ex- at the time I visited her there, but we'd remained good friends, and it was a fun trip). It's a great charity, and I'm glad Pat gave me the opportunity to help them out.

Steven Klotz is running a giveaway for a signed ARC of Spell Games, so get over there and take a shot at reading the novel a few months early. (And while I'm talking Marla, there's a review of Dead Reign over at SF Site.)

John Klima wrote a sweet appreciation of Flytrap at Tor.com. If you were a Flytrap subscriber, I encourage you to take your 'zine love over to John's fine publication Electric Velocipede, one of our consistent favorites.

I was interviewed at the Dragon Page, so give it a listen, if you dare. This is the interview I did while literally chasing my son around the house, so it may not be hugely coherent, but I hope you'll be entertained.

I know I said I was going to try to write more substantive entries that relied less on linky linky linkiness, but the links and bookmarks and open tabs just keep accumulating, and the only way to kill them is to put them here!