An incredibly good couple of days. Really. I just need a couple of hundred hours of sleep now.
I spent the weekend, as planned, with Pam, Maggie, and Chris R. Love them so much. They listened to me rant about Steampunk and helped me develop what I hope will take off as the newest sub-genre (with a hearty nod to Connie Willis, of course): PLAGUEPUNK*

We were also lucky enough to be invited along by Leslie (of Clarion West and NWMediaArts) to tag along on social time with Charles De Lint and Ellen Datlow. They were both really kind and easy to talk to. Charles giggled at my earnestness—and even a few of my jokes. I, of course, got him to sign my battered copy of Mulengro, because, well, OF COURSE.

More SFF spotting: Ted Chiang and Neile Graham.

Charles’ reading was really more of an entire-freaking-evening of entertainment. He read a wonderful novella, “Yellow Dog” (available only from Sub Press, I believe) and played guitar/harmonica and sang. I was waiting for a chorus line. It kicked ass.

I spent most of yesterday getting to know my first client at my new day job. She’s a wonderfully funny woman, very verbal, with a long litany of developmental disabilities. I’m excited to start working with her, although I can tell she’ll be quite a handful.

I then came home, zonked from the weekend and my day, so my Chris and I sat around and watched as many terrible horror movies as we could before passing out. I think we managed five. Two of the better ones were Hard Candy (which is more of an arty thriller than anything and not without its problems. Worth watching, though, just for the solid tweak of your expectations) and Devil’s Rejects (which I’ve managed to not see all this time, although I saw House of a 1000 Corpses in the theatre).

I’ve also begun a personal experiment, in conjunction with NaNoWriMo, and inspired by my good friend Shane Hoverston (who got it elsewhere, and so forth and on).  I am going to try and take 120 minutes every day and document what I get done, writing-wise, because keeping track of words is utterly useless in general for me (aside from NaNo, of which word trackage is the point). Thing is, some days, I wind up not writing many words, if any, but have spent time reading non-fiction or doing research or something…but then I wind up feeling like I have done NOTHING because I can’t empirically prove tangible results. If I take 120 minutes (not necessarily consecutive minutes), budget them into like, oh, 60 minutes writing/drafting  and 60 minutes writing/research, directed writing related activity—and physically keep track, I think I will get more done and feel like a better person. And! I decided that the days that I actually accomplish this (today was the first I got in the full time), I am tossing some small change or bill into a jar just for me for a prize (I’m still totally broke and shit, so we’re talking like 50 cents here). But it will add up, sometime. Eventually.

Of course, if (optimists in the audience will say when) I sell a new story, that would go into this magical pot of mystery prize awesomeness too.

*I have been reading up, actually, on the black plague and medieval technology. This was a far more progressively inventive time than most folks realize. I see vast untapped possibilities here. Watch for it. Plaguepunk will be the nextbigthingOMG1111111111, and you read about it here.