greygirlbeast | "Though it seems the past and the future look the same..."

Just a little dreamsick this ayem. It's been worse. I think this is actually going to be a shorter post, for a change. A shorter post with no photographs. Huzzah.

Yesterday was a spectacular writing day, certainly the best I've had thus far on The Red Tree. I did 2,201 words, in a mere two and a half hours, and almost reached the end of Chapter Three. I'm sure that I'll find it today.

A few things that I want to remind you of:

1) Don't forget that the KGB Fantastic Fiction Raffle has begun, in support of the readings at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Lots of awesome items, including a complete collection of back issues plus one-year subscription to Sirenia Digest (back issues delivered in CD-ROM), and also a copy of the revised 3rd edition of Tales of Pain and Wonder. Tickets are only a dollar each (!!!), and every ticket gives you a chance to win the item of your choice. The auction will end on July 28th at midnight.

2) Talking to Harlan and to Bill at subpress, it seems that I am only the third American author ever to be fortunate enough to have one of Jacek Yerka's paintings grace the cover of herhisits book. I think Theodore Sturgeon was first, then Uncle Harlan, and now me. And here is a link to the painting in question, so you may have a sneak peek at what A is for Alien will look like (painting No. 19, "Deep Water"). There's an update at subpress regarding the book and its accompanying chapbook here. I'm thinking that the chapbook title will be B is for Basal.

3) The mass-market paperback of Daughter of Hounds will be released on September 2, and you can now order it from Amazon for only $7.99 (or with Threshold for only $14.98). It is, obviously, very important that this edition does well, so I ask, even if you read the book in trade paperback, if you can afford to pick of the mmp, please do so. Thank you.

Not much to yesterday besides the writing. Chinese take-out for dinner. I checked out a Medieval Persian rp sim in Second Life and was fairly impressed. It's a marvelous build, one of the best I've seen, making wonderful use of only one sim. It's also allowed me to dust off and rework Shahrazad al-Anwar, my old Dune character. Now, she's a dark magus (a necromancer who's mute and has amnesia). Anyway, if you'd like to check it out, the sim is called Kingdom of Sand. Candy-colored werewolves not allowed. Oh, and I played a short and delightful scene as Elenore Darwin (the Time Lord "daughter" of Professor Nareth E. Nishi) with the street urchins in New Babage. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that Ellen Datlow (

ellen_datlow) has posted a fairly amusing (and Spooky says cute) photo of me from Readercon. You can even see my Sid Haig button.

The weather is still blessedly cool. Cloudy. Rain again last night.