I am around... not every day. And I do mean to get going again.

My wife's mother died last fall, and all of 2008 after that was pretty much dominated by that. She (my wife) is good now, pretty much recovered by the end of the year, and I'm good, too. My mother-in-law was a really good person, not anyone famous or rich or any such thing, just a simple woman in a little town, but when it was time for the funeral the church was PACKED, and it's a great big church.

So that was sad... but it's passed now, and thanks for all the condolences.

I also used to run every other day before that happened, but it really knocked me off my schedule and I haven't gotten back to it.

I'm glad that Marcie And the Amazons was over before that happened, because it would be stuck in limbo now, otherwise.

In any case, things are great right now. I've gotten out of the habit of writing every day, and mean to get back to it. I've said a couple of times that I will finish Short Chapters before I do anything else, but that might be a mistake. That story is kind of a pain in the ass, because each chapter has some kind of sequencing problem to work out... I mean that I know what has to happen, but sometimes getting Juliette into the right place at the right time is a little hard to figure out.

The next Marcie story is all worked out, as I said several times, but I just got what I think is a funny inspiration that I want to put in, a new character, but I will have to push things around to make her fit and -- above all -- make her contribute to working out the problem, which is how to get Maisie back from California. Maisie's father doesn't want to let her go, and won't let her go until someone we know forces his hand.

So, I think I will give up my idea of finishing things in order and just get to work again. I miss being part of the flow here.

Time for me to get cracking.