Reading: SATURN by Ben Bova
Music: Herbie Mann, Birdcage
TV/Movie: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Link o' the Day: SMOFs in Southern California Fire Areas

Coincidence dictates me finally getting another journal entry up. Yes, I've been as busy as ever... playing catch up with freelance work and trying to get a couple of stories finished and some other stories back out onto the market... and getting things in my new digs set up as well. But last night I was talking to Pretty Maggie and she noted that I've been way lax in writing a new journal entry, and then this morning I discover a new subscriber.

Well! If'n that don't mean I need to get cracking on a new journal entry, then I don't know rain from wind from sunshine.

I got my copy of the Jane Kean book back, and it looks fabbo. I did a short chapbook for two Jerry Sohl stories, finished a book on the old radio/TV quiz show INFORMATION, PLEASE, and just finished a 100-pager on Private Investigators in the Comics. Next up is a book on Pulp Westerns, and a book on Joel Rapp. The latest SFWA Bulletin has started to arrive at subscribers' homes. Busy, busy! Just tonight I finished some changes to the PI book, a postcard for a book on actor John Salmi I'll be doing down the road, and a cover for a book on voice-actor Paul Frees.

I have three or four stories in the works, all competing. I've heard that one story of mine made it through the first round of slush for an anthology I'm hoping to get into. I'll know the final decision 'round January. Still, by my reckoning, I'm way behind in the writing department, and I really have no hope in going for the November novel challenge. I may have to make it a December challenge.

I'm pleased to report that Pretty Maggie and I have heat, hot water, electricity, and a working stove. We're more than halfway through repainting the pantry, and have eyes on wallpapering the kitchen before xmas. All in all, we're very happy with our new place. I've even started to get some shelves set up so we can unpack some boxes. Her mother came to visit last weekend, and it was a very pleasant visit despite some rain here and there. The weather was cooperative enough to allow some apple-picking before the season totally ended.

And Nemo the cat... well, he's a cat, ain't he? It's not really his fault. He was born that way.

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Today's link goes to a site of interest to those with fannish friends in the Southern California area where all the fires are: SMOFs in Southern California Fire Areas. I know a few who have caught some of the worst. Some have been lucky. In any case, it's a work in progress maintained by Michael Siladi and Tony Cratz.