Love in Dark Settings

"I feel like sometimes my life is a fanfiction co-authored by Dusk Peterson and Mercedes Lackey."

--J. Albert Rusla.


It took two frickin' weeks to set up my new computer, so here's a quickie, before I go back into writing hibernation on Saturday:

( An illustrated summary of what I've been up to, with a thank-you note to jesse_the_k )

I'm off to spend time with Layle. I'll see you again in late December, when I'll be posting my holiday gift story, which I wrote last summer.

"If I put my work out there for e-readers and only fifty people choose to download it, that's fifty more people than would have read it if I had not gone this route. No one will ever read it if it doesn't leave my desk."

--Self-publisher Gordon Bonnet.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Writing plans for the next six weeks, and why I shouldn't be thinking about Doctor Who (but am) )

( Publishing schedule this year )

( What my life was like 17 months ago  )

( More to the point, how do I get any writing done *now*? )

( I feel stuck at the moment )

( When to stop doing story research )

( Memorialization of my mother )

"My audience is mostly women in their forties, fifties and sixties. So basically, there's no such thing as too much sex. I try to remember to put a bit of crime in the books to keep male readers entertained."

--Author Jon Loomis, responding to the question of how much sex is too much in a mystery novel.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Planning for story submissions )

( Doctor Who and me )

( Another stab against my Internet addiction )

( Doctor Who and my antibiotics )

"Information wants to be free. Authors want to be paid."

--Glenn Hauman, commenting in 1998 on the dilemma of how to market e-books.

How I reply to comments at this blog.


( Law Links's light at the end of the tunnel )

( Clearing up after the storm )

( Well, great. So now I have breathing problems. )

( Why I don't want to publish many e-books )

"Bad fortune, I think, is more use to a man than good fortune. Good fortune always seems to bring happiness, but deceives you with her smiles, whereas bad fortune is always truthful because by changing she shows her true fickleness. Good fortune deceives, but bad fortune enlightens. With her display of specious riches good fortune enslaves the minds of those who enjoy her, while bad fortune gives men release through the recognition of how fragile a thing happiness is. And so you can see Fortune in one way capricious, wayward and ever inconstant, and in another way sober, prepared and made wise by the experience of her own adversity. And lastly, by her flattery good fortune lures men away from the path of true good, but adverse fortune frequently draws men back to their true good like a shepherdess with her crook. Do you think it is of small account that this harsh and terrible misfortune has revealed those friends whose hearts are loyal to you? She has shown you the friends whose smiles were true smiles . . ."

--Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy (circa 520 A.D.) as translated by V. E. Watts.

I began posting here about my recent illnesses because I figured there might be others here who had gone through these illnesses too, so we could swap stories. As a result, I've been both surprised and touched by the really nice comments I've received, here and elsewhere, wishing me well in my quest for health. Thank you all for your kind thoughts.

The good news is that I'm well on my way back to good health, so I don't anticipate any major health crises in January.

( Background to my entries )

( More about my back )

( More about my jaw )

At any rate, I'm now sleeping reasonably well (with the aid of no less than nine pillows; that's how many it takes to prop my various appendages into the right position) and have no jaw or back pain the daytime except when I exercise, in which case my back flairs up. I'm a bit worried about that latter problem, because part of my creative process comes from plotting while I'm dancing, but maybe by the time I start my composing cycle again - on January 1 - my body will have healed enough that I can do some dancing.

And man, is "good health" on my list of things to be thankful for as the new year begins.

I live in the New Deal planned community of Greenbelt, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., in the split-level house I've lived in since age eleven. I share the top half of the house with my apprentice; the bottom half of the house is the dwelling place of Doug, a family member with whom I co-own the house, as well as our tenants.