Okay, now this feels like a celebration: I received the first check for Cat Scratch Fever! I think it may be my biggest single check for fiction writing yet (beating out West Coast Swinger's annual contest win, several years running).

My first check for a novel. Hot damn. I feel like a Real Writer.

This totally makes up for the fact that I also got a rejection from Best Lesbian Erotica 2006. The editor did say that my story made the semi-final round, though, and that if she does a second edition, she will call. Nice, that.