POM Wonderful. POM Wonderful. POM Wonderful.

Is there a better product name in the history of the whole universe?

No. No, there is not.

Whew! Lots to say. First off, I want you all to know that I had "Ruby Tuesday" stuck in my head all yesterday. No idea why.

In preparation for my next piece of news, I should introduce the lovely ladies of my writing group: Jill, Amy, and Stephanie. They do a wonderful job of editing my stuff, and kick me in the ass when neccesary. Everybody say hello; they're Good People.

So, thanks in no small part to these three, my entry for the Novel Game won third place! Yay! I can't remember the last time I won something... No, wait, it's coming back - it was a Halloween coloring contest at Fred Meyer when I was eight. the ghost was wearing red Chuck Taylors.

The Endless Nights review has been turned in, which leaves me officially deadline-free. I'm not sure I can work under these conditions... I had to edit it from 700 words to 500, and I'm afraid it suffered a bit from that. I suspect I came off sounding like a drooling fangirl anyway, despite my best efforts to the contrary. I may post the extended version here at some point; I'll need to talk to Dad about whether I'm allowed to do that. I think The Oregonian may own it now. Damn the confusing copyright laws!

This morning I had cinnamon spice oatmeal. It's my favorite flavor from the variety pack, so I saved it until I'd finished all the others, like a good girl. The strange thing is, you get four packets of apples & cinnamon (yuck!), and four packets of maple & brown sugar (so-so), but only two of cinnamon spice (yummy!). It's clearly an oatmeal conspiracy.

All of the maple & brown sugar and apples & cinnamon packets had Amusing Dinosaur Facts on them. This morning, to my utter dismay, I discovered that cinnamon spice has no such thing! Only boring oatmeal Q&A:
Question: Is oatmeal different than other grains?
Answer: No. All grains are the same. The US grain council only gives them different names to confuse foreigners and the elderly.

I feel cheated.

The Hugo House Games weekend was this past weekend. I'll post a full report soon. It was two days of geek-ful delight.

In looking over the last several posts, I feel obliged to point out that Kathryn is, herself, pretty fantabulous as well. So there you go.

Also, we have brand-spankin'-new readers! Hello to Nic, Jesse, and Debbie-Who-Works-With-Nic! Hooray! Tell all your friends. Make me a worldwide blogging sensation.

The Endless Nights review currently exists as a page full of insightful yet unconnected sentances in my notebook. At some point this morning I will type them up, and hopefully they will follow one another with reasonable style and grace. Is this how real writers do things? Someday I'll have to find one and ask.

I ought to have gotten further on it last night, actually, but I find myself mysteriously unable to sit in front of my home computer for long. I think it has something to do with the lack of a comfy chair. And then, of course, I exercised my complete lack of self-control and went over to Ross and Julie's to watch the Season Premier of Angel.

Then I got home and read this. I have a link to the un-MST'd version as well, but I'm afraid reading it in its full glory, without interference, might end in permanent brain damage. You have been warned.

Angel was good. I think this season will go well; any season with Spike is A Very Good Thing. Which, unfortunately, means I'll have another TV addiction to nurture. I was hoping, after Buffy ended, that my evenings would be free again, but I guess not. I'm probably giving up Alias, though, so I suppose it evens out.

Wow, three posts in a single day... Guess whose mind is completely not on work today. Either that or these new year's resolution things are working overtime.

So, I just signed up for NaNoWriMo, and have already become addicted to the forums. The confirmation page I got when I signed up was a thing of beauty, and I'd like to share it with all of you:

Congratulations! You are officially registered as a writer in the fifth-annual National Novel Writing Month. Your name will now stand proudly alongside the other participants who have agreed to sacrifice friends, family and valuable TV time to the quest for supremely adequate book-length fiction. It's great to have you with us.

Along with the welcome email you just received, we are also sending you an invisible, indestructible dose of writerly whoop-ass. You feel that tingle in your hands? That's the force being beamed through our broadband connection.

This miasma of energy will stay with you throughout November, rendering you impervious to writer's block, self-criticism, and dishwashing duties for the entire month. This potent aura can be called upon whenever you need it. Some practical uses include:

Crafting lovable, nuanced characters who speak in brilliantly apt metaphors and embody the complex truths of our modern age.

Transforming half-baked story ideas into unexpectedly coherent plots.

Smiting enemies.

Opening hard-to-turn lids on jars.

So go for it. The writing world is yours for the taking.

Woohoo! I'm psyched!

The Bookfest site finally has a listing of all of this years presentations. Bookfest... A fest of books... How cool is that?

Plus, they have this cool little interactive planner dealie that keeps track of everything you want to see. I love that! Almost as addictive as internet quizzes.

L'shana Tovah! (It means happy new year. Well, okay, it doesn't mean that at all, literally. But that's how it's used, pretty much.) As regular readers of this blog (Casey, and possibly my dad) will know, that means that Rosh Hashanah has come and gone. So, my new year's resolution is to update this thing more often. I'd say every day, but we all know that won't happen, so let's start with something a little more reasonable, shall we? How about twice a week?

Last Friday I turned in my entry for the novel game. I'm actually pretty happy with it, and I'll try to finish it up some day when I find myself with spare time.

Now, on to the Endless Nights review! I gave myself a few days to be stunned by how amazingly cool it was. The shock is finally wearing off, so hopefully I'll have something intelligent to say by Monday, and not come off sounding like a drooling fangirl. (Durrr... Neil Gaiman is, like, a god... a goth-god...) But I have to say it here, since I doubt it will fit into the review: Endless Nights is really fuckin' cool!!!

Turned in my requests for PTO days for the rest of the year today. I'll be taking the last two weeks of November off to do NaNoWriMo. Then I'll take the last two weeks of December off to complain about how much I hate holidays. Kathryn might be out visiting then, with the fantabulous Amiel, and possibly also the fantabulous Kenny. So that will be good.

Sometime during the month of October I need to do some writing for The House of Clocks as well. That's need in the non-food and shelter sense; more of the "I gave some stranger a vague promise and I'll feel like an ass if I don't" sense. I realise that mentioning this in the same post as Endless nights qualifies me for drooling fangirl status no matter how intelligent my review is. Oh well, it was bound to come out sooner or later.

And Casey and I are hard at work on a top secret project that should be very very cool. Don't ask, I can't tell you. No, not even if you bribe me. Well, okay, maybe for really good bribes... what are you offering?

And that's about it. I think the clock has turned over while I wrote this, so happy October, everyone! Back to singing the insomnia song for me. It's probably better if you all turn off your speakers now.