Caitlín R. Kiernan

Yesterday, I did 1,203 words on "The Ape's Wife," which is coming along quite well. It would probably be coming along a bit faster, but there are constant "research pauses," as I can never seem to get all this stuff worked out ahead of time. For example: exactly what sort of biplane appears in the 1933 film? Answer, after much searching: the Curtiss "Helldiver" (Model 77) with a 700Hp Wright engine. Or, also for example: which street adjacent to the Empire State Building does Kong fall to? Answer: probably 5th Avenue. And on and on and on. I won't even get started about Sumatran flora. Not so much progress on the "Onion" screenplay last night, not enough for my liking. Only one good page, in part because I went back and rewrote the first three pages. So, this morning (by five minutes, it is still morning), the Zokoutu page meter looks like this:

4 / 115 (3.5%)

Spooky's work on the Murder of Angels galleys continues. She's just finished Chapter 5 ("Pillars of Fire," to page 159). Around here, it seems there is very little at the moment except work. I did squeeze in a National Geographic documentary last night, an examination of supervolcanoes and the role of Thera in the destruction of the Minoan civilization 3,500 years ago. Neat stuff. It now appears as though the eruption rates a 7, not a 6 (Krakatoa was a 6, Mount St. Helens only a 5), and that the pyroclastic flow may have swept across the sea to Crete, accompanied by a truly enormous tsunami.

My grateful thanks to Robin Bunch, aka bunny_angel, who will now be serving as my web designer/tech/troubleshooter. Thanks, also, to the others who inquired; I will try to write you all personal "thank you" notes soon. Your enthusiasm is appreciated.

We had quite a good walk yesterday evening, and in Freedom Park we encountered a wonderfully raucous anti-Bush/anti-war rally, complete with megaphones and an enormous "impeach Bush" banner. I wish I'd had the camera with me to record the occasion. We walked along Moreland north to Ponce, then turned east and followed the parks along Ponce de Leon. Maybe a mile and a half altogether. Go feet!

Inspired by docbrite, Spooky and I are going to start keeping a "yard list." That is, the bird species we've actually seen here within the confines of our tiny yard. We sat down this morning after breakfast and tallied up all we can presently recall, a rather impressive 18 taxa. Amazingly, I do not think we have ever seen a pigeon in this yard. Anyway, the list is behind the cut, for them what cares about things ornithological:

( Yard List, as of 5/3/07 )

Oh. And I have a brand-new Nymphadora Tonks icon, as there are now publicity shots from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix online. You may see them here. Tonks is almost enough to tempt me to commit a bout of Potter slash. Maybe Nymphadora/Hermione/Bellatrix Lestrange? It does have possibilities.

The platypus says to shut up about witch pr0n and start writing, and hesheit is in no mood this morning to be lightly disregarded.