I hab a code. I can't breeve through my node.

Ahem. Last night -- after a great day, and a good workout at the gym, even! -- my head got all stuffed up, and I could only breathe out of one nostril. Now both nostrils are pretty much sealed off, except when I take sweet sweet drugs to clear them. I don't feel too bad otherwise, though. Guess I'll live.

I'm rollicking along in the Bridge novel. Did about 5,000 words yesterday (my day off, so it's not that impressive, since I didn't do anything else but eat a cheeseburger, wash dishes, and read some comic books). Tonight I wrote another 2,000. I'm maybe 15,000 words from the end now, I think, which means a slow-and-steady pace for the next couple of weeks (or, alternately, a couple of binge days) will see me through to the end. I think I know every scene between now and the end of the book. I have to take some time out to write a few book reviews, and I have to type in several thousand handwritten words on the novel, but, hell, it'll all get done. Me and deadlines generally get along.

I got paid for my upcoming Asimov's story ("Impossible Dreams") yesterday, so financial things are suddenly less dire, and we can actually afford to print Flytrap 5 without going into debt! Whoo!

I've been working for a few weeks with artist Richard Marchand, who's doing the cover for my upcoming Night Shade Books collection Hart & Boot & Other Stories. He showed me some great ideas, and I made some suggestions, and we finally settled on a cover that I'm delighted with, and find really striking. It features John Boot (Pearl Hart's partner in crime -- and, in my story, her tulpa), in a long coat, with a shotgun, and some nice effects in the illustration to tip off that it's a fantasy. He was fun to work with, willing to try different things, and fast, too. I'll put up the cover sometime closer to the book's publication (which is, oh, about a year away). You can see some of Richard's art here.