Various and Sundry...

I got the cover art for Chimeraworld #3 (which can be purchased in January of 2006 at www.lulu.com/chimericanabooks) and an ad banner which I will put up here when I have more time. Looking forward to the book coming out!

Got to play live poker last week. I think I did pretty well considering how nervous I was. It was kind of cliche- in the back room of a bar with a range of interesting characters: gangstas, wannabe playas, white trash, college online poker addicts. Mostly, it seemed like working class joes, but there were a sprinkling of 'respectable' middle classers there too. I stuck around for about two hours. I won some pots, which I thought about all weekend. Lost when I was short-stacked and forced to go all-in with pocket sixes. The guy I lost to got a straight on the river! It was hard to tell how I did, but out of ten full tables at the start, at least three were empty when I busted out.

Anyhoo, I'm hooked. The spouse doesn't like it, but we've come to an agreement. I'll weigh in every Friday morning and, if I lose weight, I get to play. If I get down to my ideal weight, I get to go to Atlantic City and play in a cash game.

Unfortunately, the writing continues to suffer. I only have two stories I feel motivated about at this time, so maybe I'm just burned out and wouldn't be doing much with it either way. At any rate, I have a deadline coming up in December which will force me to do some writing, and one of the stories I'm really excited about gets critiqued in a few weeks. Of course, if no one likes it...