One down... two (and hopefully many more) to go.

So I turned in the manuscript for Diary of an Urban Werewolf today (let's just call it that for now), and it feels great! I'm taking next week to catch up with all the people I haven't seen in six months; then it's on to book two.

Woo hoo!

On a completely unrelated note, there's been a lot of synchronicity in my life these last two days. We have a rather derelict pond in our front walkway area, and I contacted a local pond company to come by and give us a bid on resurfacing it. Well, the owner, Janet, swung by yesterday, looked at me, and said, "You finished Barbara's book."

I was stunned. Of course I said that yes I had, and how the heck did she know Barbara? Well, it turns out that she and Barbara Burnett Smith were in a writing group together with Marsha Moyer (another fabulous author). So we talked for a while -- Janet is finishing up a private eye book -- and now today, after finishing my edits and strolling into the bookstore to see the display of my mother-in-law's new book (more on that soon), who should I run into? Why, Marsha Moyer, who was talking with our local Barnes and Noble CRM, Jo Virgil. (Coincidentally, it was Jo's brother who took my most recent author photo -- I had no idea they were related at the time.)

Can you say two degrees of separation?

Austin may be a big town, but the writing community is positively miniscule. Which makes it fun; you never know who you'll run into!

So like I said, tomorrow I'm off to the movies. Next week I'll have coffee with all the people I haven't seen in several months. And then it's back to the keyboard... which I'm looking forward to tremendously. All this housecleaning has given me a ton of new ideas! (And not one of them has anything to do with a vacuum cleaner.)

Oh, and I got the first copies of Dead and Berried yesterday; Midnight Ink did a fabulous job, as always. I'll be setting up signings for that soon; my designer Thea will be updating the web site soon, so stay tuned, and I'll be back Monday!