Been back from A-kon for a few days, and have been fighting 'Con crud' pretty much since the moment I got in the door. Sneezing and coughing all day long would be bad enough, but down here in Houston we're in the middle of the worst drought in a century. I would say that it's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, but the truth is that if you took an egg outside, it would hard-boil in the shell before you could crack it open. So in the middle of this, what happens? A water pipe in my yard breaks because the soil, clay-based, has contracted too much for the pipe. Trees and grass are dying all over town, and the street in front of my house is under an inch of water.
First draft of the 'The Necromancer of Kitty-kitty' is done, and I'm going back to finishing Roja and doing a re-write on Dirty. While I was up in Dallas, I told Necromancer to a couple of the girls working Claudia's booth, and there were gasps and giggles, so hopefully it's a good one.
At dinner tonight I came up with one of the little tidbits that so often give my wife reason to wonder why she actually married me. I imagined someone going out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, and as they walk out the door, presumably in view of other patrons, casually pulling out a half-dozen dog collars of various types and waving to the staff as they say, "Okay, see you guys next week."
By the way, if I never write another word as long as I live, it's all my daughter Madyson's fault. She happened to mention this game that she plays on the computer, spider solitaire. Having never even heard of it, I looked under my games file, and foolishly opened it up, just to see how it was played. Now I'm hooked.
