Mm, I just finished a first revision of last week's short story, "Bone Mother," and I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'll run it through a crit group, as usual, before sending it out. Odd that my last two stories have been dark fantasy/horror-ish--NOT my standard fare, really. Maybe it's just that it's October, and Halloween is creeping up on me!

It rained all morning, but then at one o'clock the sky turned robin's-egg blue and all the clouds disappeared. Nika and I dove outside to take advantage of the beautiful weather, and headed down into the forest. I expected the paths to be really muddy, but actually the layer of leaves above the mud, stretching out in every direction, was so thick and vast that it completely protected my boots. The leaves were slick with rainwater, orange and gold and red, and absolutely beautiful. Standing in the centre of a path, surrounded and supported by leaves in every direction, felt like standing in the middle of a strange orange sea.

It made me want to be a kid again, playing in the leaves.