I'm late in recognizing my yulewriters here (New Years and my birthday intervened)... and yes, I did say yulewriters. I must be the luckiest person in Yuletide: I got not one story but four.

deepad wrote my official pinch-hit, One Thousand and One and Counting. Read it, please. It is amazingly beautiful. She wrote it in answer to an Arabian Nights ( Read more... )

I'm leaving town for Christmas today, and I'll be spending Christmas weekend at a farm with more hereford calves than computing power. If it takes me a day or two to respond to your story, please understand; I'm waiting with great curiosity ( Read more... )

(The first line of the first public post made each month of this year.)The 12 days of feasting are nearly over. When I packed up the apartment, the alarm clock my uncle gave me began going off at 9 a.m. It's maple brunch season - anyone up for mini muffins and maple butter? Frank Zappa - is his name familiar? Hey guys. I'm just back from three ( Read more... )

Draft 4 of the novel. 23 chapters. Neatly stacked up at my elbow. I've been a little high on it all week, knowing I was close, and now I don't know what to say.

It has a plot and everything.

Thank you ( Read more... )

... and in less outdoor news: added missing center to chapter 11 and turned stray episode of last draft into first third of chapter 20.

If I had a tale that I could tell you,
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile.
And if I had a wish that I could wish for you,
I'd make a wish for sunshine all the while.Only, as it took three years of grad school ( Read more... )

This morning saw the third official expotition of my off-beat office's hiking club. It's my second hike; I was out of town for their one-day charge up the highest peak in the county. Today, we picked a slightly less intense scramble up a slope across the valley ( Read more... )

My last stand-alone magazine hit the streets on Thursday, and I got to walk around the Shaker Village and jam with an interpreter in the kitchen about the 29 kinds of apples they grew. Days like this, I really like my job ( Read more... )

I have curtains, and I have curtain hooks and curtain rings. I took the curtains to the hardware store and asked what to get; they're metal for heavy fabric. The curtain rod came with the house and is already in place ( Read more... )