Bella has been having some leg problems recently, so she tires out easily. Even a stuffed bunny has more stamina. See:

So… it’s snowing in Seattle which is unusual. And Bella, so far as we know, has never seen snow before since she’s only three and I don’t recall that we’ve had snow in the city in about that many years. So I walked her up to the off-leash dog park this morning and she was the only dog there. Good thing she found a stick to play with, yeah?

See more photos of the Writer’s Dog in the snow at my blog!

“The Hollow Hounds” is done and sent. A day of rest, then on to the revisions of SEAWITCH.

I have now paid for my memberships to WorldCon in Chicago and World Fantasy Convention in Toronto this year. I’m still working on the Comic Con stuff and I’ll be leading some SF/F workshops at PNWA in July as well as the one-day workshop for the Clarion West Extension in March… Whoo! Oh yeah and there are a couple of books coming out. Y’know: two or three….

Mom is out of the hospital and back at home, doing very well. We all expect she’ll be back to her pre-norovirus self by the end of the week.

Meanwhile I’m busy on the short story (“The Hollow Hounds”) for the steampunk fairytale anthology CLOCKWORK FABLES and it’s coming along nicely but will be rather longer than I’d hoped…. Due Jan 15.

Got my editorial notes on SEAWITCH from Anne Sowards and will be jumping into those as soon as Hallow Hounds is done. Due Feb 1-7 (as early as I can.)

I’ve also done my professional registration for San Diego Comic Con. So I only need to wait for badge registration to open and I’ll be able to go this year!

And I just signed up for my Conversational Portuguese language class–boning up for Greywalker #9 research! Busy, busy!

(You can comment on this at the blog, if you like)

I want to say thank you for the amazing and positive response to yesterday’s blog post. It wasn’t meant to be a whine so much as a chance to let the crap out and send it on its way elsewhere. Last night we attended a party at the home of some wonderful friends and threw the list of “stuff that sucked out loud” on the bonfire. Now it is gone and I’m ready to get into the new year.

Yup, I woke with a hangover (just a mild one in spite of lots of champagne) and then I had waffles and coffee with my husband, walked the dog and am now contemplating playing computer games all day before starting the next writing project tomorrow or Tuesday–a Steampunk fairytale for an anthology (CLOCKWORK FABLES to be released by Penguin later this year)! So, while 2011 may have been a year of “sucktacular fuckery,” I intend to make 2012 a noisy kick-ass party of a year (cuz it’s a Dragon Year and as we know, dragons know how to par-tay!)

This is incredibly long so if you don’t want to read it I’ll understand….

Well, 2011 is going out with an apologetic giggle and a pratfall–which is much better than the a lot of the year has been. Ah… my year… let me tell you of it….

Read the whole long post on the blog.

All done! The SEAWITCH manuscript is complete (96,676 words including prologue and epilogue), spell-checked, and sent to my editor, her assistant, and my agent. Of course, they’re out of town, but I did my end.

Now I’m FREE! (to start work on the Steampunk Fables short story that’s due Jan 15 that is….)

And before anyone asks, SEAWITCH is slated for release the first week of August 2012. Yay!

Hit 95,000 words just a few minutes ago… The body of SEAWITCH is done. Now I just need the Epilogue, Prologue, and spell check and it’s gone!

My ass has gone square, sore, and flat from sitting on this hard damn chair. But I’m going to endure a few K longer….

I have just been refreshing my memory about the Battle of Trenton December 26th 1776–you know the famous “Washington Crossing the Delaware” thing? It’s a freaking miracle they made it…. Read the rest of my thoughts about getting through it on the blog.