Tuesday Musings

First things first. Spiral X is currently having a $.99 sale. It's only going to last for a limited time, so take advantage of it. Right now I think anyone reading this blog already has a copy, but this is the time when you need to pimp it out to your friends. That Amazon sales ranking won't raise itself!

I didn't post last week because I was on vacation. That ended yesterday when I dragged myself of bed at five in the morning so I could go into work. Back to the day job. Yay.

I finished reading the collection of short stories set in the Dresden Files universe, entitled Side Jobs. Dresden has, for me, filled the void that Anita Blake left when Hamilton decided to venture into the porn industry. The stories filled in small bits and pieces of the overall puzzle that is Dresden and his cohorts. It was a worthy read and good filler until Ghost Story comes out next year. Dresden Files is Urban Fantasy at its finest, dealing within the modern world as well as that of Faerie and otherwise. The characters are strong, everyone has a part to play, and the stories are fast paced and chock full of action. Anyone who has not or is not reading this series, you should start now. There's twelve books and the short story collection. Something else which appeals to me is that there seems to be a definite end coming. A moment where the events which take place from novel to novel will either cease or simply not be worth mentioning anymore. I can live with that. Eddings once said that people always talked to him about writing more stories featuring Belgarion and his troupe of companions, to which he always replied along the lines of, "If thirteen books were good enough for Homer, they're good enough for me."

Christmas was pretty awesome. We took a trip to see my Aunt and Uncle, who live south of Austin, and it was nice to get away from home for a while. My cousin and her fiancée live on the property, along with their little boy, so it was nice for the kids to have someone to play with. He's only about two-and-a-half, slightly less than a year younger than my daughter, so there were some "twoish" moments to deal with, especially after the wrapping paper came off all their gifts. But for the most part everything went well, my children got to meet some seldom-seen relatives, play with their cousin for a bit, and generally enjoy time away from the city. My son didn't want to leave, but in the end we all had to pack up and head back home. It was nice to get away but it was just as nice to get back.

Work on the short story continued yesterday. It's sitting at close to seven thousand words at the moment, and is likely to venture into novella territory before too long. I'm hoping to get it done before I get back to school next week, but we'll see. I'm currently fighting a sinus infection which has moved into my lungs. It takes several hours for me to get going when I'm feeling well, so right now I resemble little more than a zombie. At least until I've had some meds and some coffee.