"Tiefer, tiefer, irgendwo in der Tiefe gibt es ein Licht."

Sadly, not quite enough sleep last night. I was in bed by 2:45 ayem, it was well after 3 o'clock before I found sleep, and then I awoke just before 10 ayem, so....maybe 6.5 hours? I can't get by on that, sadly.

Yesterday, I did 1,145 words on "The Z Word" and finished the story (a total of 4,702 words, written over five days). Jesus fuck, but this is a strange one. I may never listen to ABBA again. At least, not without thinking of zombies. I am entirely unable to judge this story, aside from its obvious weirdness. Spooky (humglum) likes it a lot, and so does Sonya (sovay), and they're usually better judges than am I. I feel as though, every month, I look at the new issue of Sirenia Digest and think, No, this is just too weird, or too perverse, or too...something. I was sure, for example, that "Derma Sutra (1891)" would be somehow too intense for readers. And it seems to have been, judging from email and comments here (the only way I have to gauge these things), among the most popular of Sirenia stories. Anyway, yeah, a zombie love story built around ABBA lyrics, with an inexplicable smattering of Kate Bush near the end. I'm thinking the digest may not go out until Sunday, because Vince needs time to get the illustration done, and he's also working on his illustrations for A is for Alien. By the way, we have a cover:



Please have a look at the current eBay auctions, and bid if you are so able. Also, please consider the new Daughter of Hounds mass-market paperback. Thanks.

Anything else to yesterday? I began reading Michael Freeman's Victorians and the Prehistoric: Tracks to a Lost World (thank you, David). Spooky brokered a deal for the sale of the Palaeozoic Museum in New Babbage (SL), to someone who wants to keep the Museum up and running, which is cool. We watched Hal Hartley's intriguing, but terribly uneven, sf film The Girl from Monday (2005). I'm a fan of Hartley's, but this time, I fear he missed the mark. An attempt at a Vonnegut-like satire of American consumer culture, but it gets lost in lousy cinematography, clunky acting, and production values that just weren't up the the task. Later, I got in some work on the background for the Howard's End rp in Second Life (we're up to 27 players now, I think), mostly working out the background of the Roanoke Society, and helping a couple of people with their characters. It's not too early to send me thoughts on your character, by the way, and I strongly urge you to check into your SL account at least every two or three days, so the notices don't pile up on you too badly.

And speaking of Second Life, sometimes the disparity between the way I live mine and the way that Spooky lives hers is rather stunning. Last night, for example, while I was a vampire cowering in the catacombs beneath a church, trying to learn to feed with a fucking syringe because every time I do it the usual way I vomit up all the blood (thank you Ascilla, Lina, and Morgdah), she was hanging out with a candy-colored fairy wolf, just shooting the breeze and eating cupcakes. I get an NC-17 rating, she gets a G. I have this unnerving feeling that she's actually having more fun than me...

( Blue wolves and albino girls with mohawks )