Mmm. Nice day. I slept in a little this morning (well, until 7:45, which feels like sleeping in nowadays), then checked my email and found a wonderful first-reader response to Kat! I was so motivated that I sat down straight after breakfast and did a mongo writing session, finishing up the last 1100 words of Chapter Five (which included one of the first big action scenes I've written in a long time - luckily, I was listening to some particularly exciting tracks on the Doctor Who soundtrack as I wrote!).

And I've found out that "Locked Doors" should be podcast on Pseudopod sometime in the next 2-3 weeks, which is just so cool. I can't wait. Now I want to write many, many more dark stories for Pseudopod submission! :)

Outside, our blue sky has returned for the first time in about a week. On my last down-the-block-and-back walk with Maya, we passed a family that included a tiny little girl, not even as tall as Maya yet - maybe two years old? I pulled Maya away because little kids are sometimes scared of her (she's incredibly loving and affectionate but sometimes too affectionate and prone-to-jumping for small children), but the mother & grandmother called us back, and the little girl herself came right after us! Turns out she has a big, bouncy chocolate labrador at home. She giggled with sheer delight when Maya licked her face, and she petted Maya with total enthusiasm and commitment. Maya wiggled with glee, rolled onto her back on the sidewalk so her tummy could be petted, thumped her tail madly against the ground, and when the family finally walked on, she did not understand why I refused to follow them! It put us both in a great mood.

Maura McHugh just posted about a resource I'd never seen before: the Feminist SF Wiki. Very cool, and one of the resources they've set up is a list of all the F/SF written by women that's eligible for the 2008 awards. Like Wikipedia, it's updated on a volunteer basis, and can (and should!) be updated by anyone, so hear ye women writers: add your stories to the list! (I added "Locked Doors" to the list of eligible stories but felt a little too self-conscious to actually create an author page for myself...that just seems really wrong! But is it? I can't tell! This is one of those moments when I can't tell what's tacky and what's just sensible. Hrmmm....)

Now I'm about to make lunch and then launch very happily into reading the latest draft of Patrick's wonderful kids' fantasy novel, The All-Father. Norse Gods, kick-ass technology, and adventure, hooray!