It was a lovely FogCon! It’s like my old home town con, though it didn’t start happening till I left the Bay Area. But it was marvelous to see so many writer-friends from around here. It went by too fast. Mark and I read from “Mad Gus Missteps,” our collaborative story from the beer anthology, […]

Greetings from lovely Yreka, California, where there was police action in the parking lot of our posh and elegant Motel 6 as we were pulling in. All seems quiet enough now, at least. Well that was a whirlwind couple of weeks visiting home. I got Our Lady of the Islands edited through scene 6 (of

Well! Lots going on around here. Where to start? With my new cover art, of course! (Although if you’re on Facebook, you might have seen it yesterday.) Mark finished the cover for Our Lady of the Islands, and it’s AMAZING. Here, look: I’m stoked. It’s so right, I…yeah. He got it. My task now is

Busy last few days! I got the outline of Our Lady worked out, in numbered scenes. 37 of them, to be precise–well, 37 and a half, to be even more precise. And I’ve started making the scenes happen. Scene 1 was an entirely new scene; scene 2 was a pare-down rewrite of existing material, as

More of the same today–head down, work on book. I got a lot of important stuff figured out…I should be able to start the actual rewrite soon. I mean the writing-scenes-in-the-book part of it, not the making-scribbles-on-the-outline part. Mark and I are always remarking about how we’re rushing pell-mell from one thing to the next,

One of the things that I’m so busy doing at the moment is a deep rewrite of Our Lady of the Islands. Since I drafted the novel four-plus years ago, I’ve learned a lot about writing, and…well, it’s going to be lots better when I’m done with it, let’s just say that. Each time I

We’re continuing to unpack and settle in, and to work very busily on all sorts of urgent projects, and of course the roses needed pruning, not to mention the rest of the yard; but I am also continuing to exercise, which is awesome; and I think maybe I’ve got the health care thing worked out

Gee, I sort of recognize this place. We got to Portland last night, and the unpacking/settling in has commenced. Also, the dealing with things that could only be dealt with here. Also-also, we weighed ourselves. The damage has been mighty. So we’ve started the South Beach Diet again, and I went for a swim today.

It is our last night on the island…so weird to be leaving!! Our room is a clutter of packing. But we also met a goat today. Because reasons. A chicken too, but she stood even less still for the camera. Anyway, this is just to say: busy times. Tomorrow we travel all the way to

Because reasons, it is now time to work on producing print copies of my collection Eastlick and Other Stories, published last October by Book View Cafe. Despite being swamped with a massive novel rewrite, a full inn of Valentine’s weekend guests, and packing up to leave the island the day after tomorrow. Since Book View