I got my contributor's copy of Forgotten Worlds today, enclosed with a lovely check for my story "Behind the Rules". Now if only my name hadn't been listed under the title of the story as "Stephanie Burges" instead of "Burgis", I'd be even happier...but hey. I'll be depositing the check in our bank balance tomorrow, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Not only is this another crunch month (I'm still getting reduced paychecks to make up for my sick time earlier this year), but it's finally time for me to confront my university library fines with a deep breath. I would put it off until our financial situation gets better, except that all of my now-checked-out books are coming due, I can't renew any of them until I've paid of my fines...and as any self-respecting grad student knows, there is no way I'm about to return any of my books voluntarily!

(Don't worry, if anyone else needs/wants these books, they can request them and get them within a week. But in the meantime, in case I ever need them...oh, okay, I know it's sick and wrong. But I need my books! What if I needed to check a detail in the score in Gluck's Iphigenie auf Tauride for my thesis and I couldn't? What if--in a much more likely scenario--I suddenly had a yen to read Jane Austen's letters again and they were gone? How would I cope? I may have to lie down at just the thought of it.)

Hello, my name is Stephanie and I am a bookaholic...

I was very proud of myself this weekend, actually, because I managed to give away some of my books for charity-funding sale at the local village fete. Now, these are books that I don't like. I've read each of them once and never want to again. And yet, I released them with great pangs and a worry that I Might Regret it Later.

I felt very virtuous and self-righteous as I set them down at the book stall. Needless to say, I rewarded myself by buying several new books.

And also needless to say, I won't be returning my library books any time soon. I can only grow better in very, very small psychic increments at a time.