Bleah. I got about 2 hours and woke up. Oh well. In any case, all my orders have started showing up, and I kinda feel sorry for the mailman, who is gonna have a TON of books to get to me this coming week. My brother FINALLY got me a thin-and-pathetic list, but it'll help me with him and Sam- she wants a tea strainer for loose tea, so I'm gonna get her that, and a teapot, and a selection of loose teas. Hah! For Maggie I'll get the one thing he listed for her, and bug the hell out of him til he gives me more so I can keep the gifts even- they're sisters after all.

With those three dealt with, I have four left. One is a stop tomorrow and quick, and the other three... Yeesh. I've no idea really. I'll figure it out though. I hope.

As I think I mentioned before, the Xmas party is going to be on the 7th of January. I'm currently thinking some sub sandwiches from Cousins as the food- prolly a beef, italian combo and turkey for the selection. I may bother someone to bring soup, and I may also make chili to round things out. Of course the usual snackage will be available, and firecatmn has offered cookies. Who am I to refuse? ;)

In other matters, I've seriously started on the editing process of the novel. Simply put, this is gonna be a pain, and I'm going to have to do some pride-swallowing (like sword-swallowing, but it hurts more), to get things right. I have a final target of 100,000 words or more, and I'm currently at 67,400. A ways to go, I know. Especially since there's one entire chapter that has to be rewritten.

I've already got about 3 or 4 new paragraphs for the first chapter, so woot there. Later today I have gaming, and as far as I know its the Desert World AD&D game- Of course, given that what I got done for the writeups was for the Western game, and even THAT isn't done. It'll be a fun night either way.

A book that Scotty loaned me- 'The Art of War For Writers' by James Scott Bell. VERY good and quite useful for a beginning writer like me. I've gone through it once, and I'm most of the way through a second reading. I plan to go through it at least one more time before I return it, and I think I need to get a copy for myself as well. Some of the exercises gave me an idea for a scene which I wrote out, but I'll be damned if I know what I'm gonna do with it.

The novel-prep continues, but I've been pretty stalled since I got sick. Basically, I think I need a brainstorming session to bounce ideas with someone to get enough to start. I wanna know what's going on before I start this time so I can pace things right!

Lastly, I'm likely to get the Desert World writeup done in the next few days, worst case Saturday morning when I'm working overtime. That's about all that's going on now, other than me slowly recovering from being sick.

Here's the latest run of the Desert World 'dungeon hack' that the Sunday Group is playing in. Enjoy!

( Desert World 04- Progress Mysterious )

Okay, I fiddled a LOT with the story of Nerash's escape from his tribe. I added perspective from another character, some information on the who's any why's of the event, and did a little cleanup on the story in general. So, second draft I guess. I'd appreciate feedback!

( Nerash- Fourth Year Fated (Mk. II) )