Cliff and I went to the Type O Negative show at the Hollywood Paladium last night. The opening bands, Deadlights, Full Devil Jacket and Coal Chamber weren't really worth mentioning, other than the fact that Coal Chamber's bass player is a very, very cute woman named Rayna. Type O was the headliner, and the best act, frankly, as all the black-clad goth girls can attest -- I suspect most of them were there because they had a crush on Peter Steel, the lead singer, and one of the largest men in rock today (with the possible exception of Henry Rollins).

Through no fault of our own, we inevitably ended up on the edge of the mosh pit, defending innocent concert-goers from the skinheads and hopped-up combat dancers. We got to push people back into the pit who fell or leaped out, and had a pretty decent time of it, though these unwanted duties prevented me from staring lustfully at Rayna of Coal Chamber.

Mind you, Type O doesn't strike me as a real major "mosh" band since most of their stuff is very slow tempo, minor key stuff about girlfriends dying (Everyone I Love is Dead), being betrayed (I Know You're Fucking Someone Else), being addicted to drugs (White Slavery), the inadequacy of modern religion (Christian Woman), having sex with two women at once (My Girlfriend's Girlfriend) and racial genocide (We're Going to Kill All the White People) -- most with tongue firmly in cheek, btw. The cute, sad-eyed goth girls in the audience seemed particularly fond of Christian Woman, and several were dancing quite alluringly nearby, until the riot boyz decided to start moshing again, which messed everything up... The two petite women in shiny latex and spikes were especially entertaining, as was the Korean gal in platform shoes and vinyl shorts and the impossibly tall blonde woman in six-inch spike heels and a skin-tight leather evening gown... After all of these women, watching a bunch of bullet-heads slam-dancing didn't do anything for me.

Well, it was all look-but-don't-touch since most of the women had boyfriends -- the Korean gal was there, for example, with a guy who was a dead ringer for Cypher in The Matrix. Come to think of it, MOST of the guys were dead ringers for Cypher in The Matrix... It appears to be a pretty popular, if montonous look. I was glad to be one of the few aging-hippy Big Lebowski types (in fact I had a couple of White Russians in the Dude's honor) at the show... The long hair is hot, yes, but at least I don't look like every other chrome-domed, goatee-sporting, shade-wearing, black-leather clad wannabe in the audience ;)

In other news, the Amazing MaraCam is off-line temporarily, since the stupid Intel cam that I'm using appears to crash the system at an interval ranging from five minutes to five hours... In my quest to find out why, I discovered that I'd picked up a couple more viruses (funlove.4099 and vbs.network) over the past week or two (since my last virus scan), and I'll be damned if I know how. I've been using Napster a lot, but I don't think that viruses can hitch in on .mp3's... Anyone know anything about this? I'm puzzled.

Anyway, I've just been through a complete Windows reinstall and thorough virus scan, and I'll try putting the cam back on line tomorrow. Colleen is, I think, disappointed that I had to turn it off :)

[12:32 am -- I know that it's technically April 21, but I'm writing it now anyway:]

WHAT A FUCKED UP DAY... More computer woes... My CD ROM drive malfunctioned just as I was doing my Windows reinstall, and ended up damaging some network protocol files. Norton anti-virus then decided that I had viruses, which was the source of the virus warnings above.  I ended up doing two more reinstalls, and then discovering that since the issue was with my stupid CD ROM drive, I ended up going out to Fry's and buying a brand spanking new CD ROM drive. I slapped in the drive and then suddenly everything went well, but I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get back onto my network, or onto the Internet through my cable modem. After a couple of hours of fighting over this and kicking myself in the head, I found out that I'd accidentally hooked my NICs up backwards and once I fixed them I was right back on line... Now, of course, Cliff's computer is once more yacking and won't go back on the network, his net protocols are corrupt, it won't load his .vxd files, etc., etc., etc. It's almost 1a.m. and I think his computer may be hosed...

Well, now that was a switch, wasn't it? Well, I'll get back to work on the problem tomorrow... I'm going to go eat a candy bar and go to bed... Grrrr...]

The big news so far is the addition of a Webcam page, at which you can see me pounding away on the keyboard., or alternatively an empty living room I've also gotten a few interesting candid shots of Cliff and Colleen, and since Colleen feels that clothes are a highly optional aspect of her existence, some have been, well, at least PG-13 rated. I can't guarantee anything more like that, but who knows...

I'm using a prototype USB cam that I got gratis from a friend of mine, and I've been plagued by periodic lockups. I don't know whether it's hardware, software, capture rate, format, or any of the settings, but I'm busy torture testing the bastard to see if I can fix it. I really want to leave this thing up, though I'm likely to turn it off if anything too embarassing is taking place (unless, of course, someone specifically asks me to leave it on... ;). Check it out and let me know what you think.

I've gotten Armada started, but I can't give you a completion date. I'm hoping it will be the penultimate chapter of the current saga, and that we can get to the big finish quickly. As always, I'll keep you updated.

That's it for now. Stay cool... :)

I finished Zombie last night and will be tweaking it before putting it on-line. I sent an advance copy to Ken Chisholm and he was quite complimentary... I'd like to think that this one has a little bit of emotional/reflective quality to the sex, even though it's all hot and nasty and all that stuff. I also hope people will be more positively inclined toward Livia after this.

Yowza, the gal in this flick is cute... Looks south Asian -- thick black hair, nice lips, big eyes... Damn... I asked Darklady if she could arrange a meeting, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet... ;)

(And in case you're wondering, yes, my wandering libido seems to have found its way home... I'm happy for that anyway. At least it helps me write more convincing sex scenes.)

I have an INTERVIEW next week... It's with eToys, the on-line toy retailer, which is cool, but it would mean I'd end up doing exactly what I was doing in Portland, and the fact is that I came down here (among other things) specifically to stay OUT of the cubicle farm. I want to write and enjoy some time away from all the horrors I was forced to witness back in Portland. Going back to a desk job, even for a company as cool as eToys just seems self-defeating.

Then again, maybe they'll offer me lots of money, or I can persuade them to let me work part-time, flex hours, freelance, or at home... I'll keep you posted. Advice and commentary are welcome as usual :)

My next decision is what to work on, whether I want to start another novel or what... Don't worry, Wulf's next adventure, Armada will be on the front burner, as well; I'm just not sure where to go with my several ideas.

I may put the Alex site on hiatus for now, since my creation of the site coincided with the total collapse of my personal life, and for a number of reasons I want to put it behind me for a while. I still love Alex and the whole concept of the stories, but I may have to rethink a lot of it now that my partner and collaborator on the stories has decided she doesn't want me around anymore. I thought of the partnership in the stories as reflecting the partnership that I felt in my own life, and now that that is over, the whole thing just feels flat and empty to me. I may redevelop Alex as a solo adventurer, or create a new female partner for him.

I need to get ahold of Hard Shell Word Factory to see if they received my manuscript, and whether they intend to get back to me on it. I sent it out a couple of weeks ago and haven't yet received an acknowledgement that it's even there.

I hope they didn't get a macrovirus... Several of my work samples were infected, and got sent out by accident before I caught it. I think it was all the stuff that I did at egghead, frankly... I never trusted the antivirus security out there, and it looks as if the articles, samples, etc., that I created when I was at work there all had macroviruses attached to them. Odd and frustrating.

You know, on a quick personal note, regarding watching Darklady's porn rebroadcasts... I always preferred to look at a woman's face while she's having sex, instead of the various other locations that porn directors insist on focusing on. There's something absolutely incomparable about the face of a woman who's truly enjoying herself... Or even one who's doing a good job of faking it :) As for guys, they all seem to look as if they're operating a piece of heavy equipment or breaking pavement with a pickaxe... Mind you, I know a lot of women who like that, in that it indicates that the guy is working hard on their behalf, but it's never really done anything for me... Ah, the perils of heterosexuality...

Enough for now... I'm rambling on too much. Gotta go finish ArchSage's stuff (as well as a couple of other pieces), and decide what to write over the next few weeks. Wish me luck y'all... Life appears to be improving...

I still have the place to myself, which ain't so bad. Had some phone conversations with Colleen, my mom, and Dev... I'm looking forward to getting Dev down here, even if they just raised the prices at Disneyland :( Lots of cool icq and irc conversations with my friends, too -- thank providence for the Internet, and the ability to stay in touch with our friends no matter how distant they are. I'm also grateful for the new friends I've made since moving; you all know who you are :) Life before this looks ugly and faded to me, and hung with cobwebs. I still resent how Clio ended our marriage, I still feel anger at her and at others, but I'm also seeing my old self start to re-emerge, for which I am grateful. I just wish I'd been dissected with a scalpel and lots of anesthetic, instead of a swig of whiskey and a rusty chainsaw.

("I won't apologize for being brutally honest; I'm just telling you what you need to hear." Indeed. Fine sentiment, wouldn't you agree? Cruelty disguised as honesty, anger disguised as self-awareness...(No, Clio didn't say that; someone else did... I give Clio credit for at least trying to be civil) It still resonates with me, even after all this time, and serves as a warning to me never to be involved with someone who just won't talk to me until it's too late.)

My best friend Dale (he has no web page, I fear; he works for the Multnomah County Library, is a long-time gamer, and a very insightful person) has been my confidante and gaming buddy ever since we were both teenagers (longer ago than I care to admit), and now that I've left he's finally rediscovered roleplaying. We've been discussing the advantages and disadvantages of many systems, I've been hearing about his GURPS Black Ops campaign, which sounds like a blast, and we've been planning some on-line gaming with each other and our mutual bud Carl (one of the most fascinating individuals I know -- he's an engineer for the ACE, has traveled around the world, and has one of the coolest collections of antiquities I've seen). We rolled up D&D characters last night, chatted, and had a great time. Our first on-line game, with Dale as GM, will take place next Thursday. I'll probably write that up when it's done, for all you gamer geeks out there.

[As for certain individuals, who "don't want to hang out with gamers anymore" -- well, you're probably not even reading this, so don't worry about it... Gamers aren't inherently geeky, evil or antisocial; you just hang out with the wrong ones.]

I don't know why, but despite my isolation, I feel less alone than I have in a long time. I think that the central message of Zombie is what I wrote today, in a scene where Li and Livia are lying together in the sensual afterglow (aw, I'm not giving anything away... We all knew that it had to happen eventually):

Li looked at her and her eyes were filled with infinite kindness and sympathy.

"We can be unhappy for years, Lady," she said. "We can be miserable for ages, but one moment of happiness is all that it takes to set it all right. A thousand people can betray us, but one person who cares can erase a lifetime of pain."

Corny? Yes. Sentimental? Yes. But I don't think that invalidates the basic sentiment. It's a belief that I cling to, and a philsophy that I don't see myself abandoning, no matter how many things go wrong.

Stay cool. Life goes on. Love you all, but not in a "gay" way or anything... ;)

The big news is that my other acquaintance is none other than S.S. (Steve) Crompton, creator of the Demi the Demoness comic series (currently published by Carnal Comics, who don't seem to have a web page). He used to work for Flying Buffalo, creators of Tunnels and Trolls (unsurprisingly, one of AD&D's early competitors). He also worked on a certain fantasy gaming supplement series called "Lejentia," one of the first game products to actually deal with adult subject matter, in both text and illustration. Regrettably out of print, it formed some inspiration for me, and (big secret revelation coming up here), one of Crompton's characters served as the basis for our own beloved Narisha. Needless to say, I think collaboration between the two of us was fated to happen sooner or later.

Last year, Edd Vick of Mu Press asked if I wanted to contribute to a Demi crossover featuring some furry mecha characters that I created some years ago, hot female warriors known as the Nightrunners. I wrote the script, sent it out, and this last weekend, the book finally made its debut. I have about eight pages of the total book, which I share with such luminaries as Diana Vick, Ed Garcia, Terrie Smith, Jefferson Swycaffer, Steve Martin and Doug Winger (those of you not into comics may not recognize the names, but that's pretty distinguished company). My own piece was illustrated by my collaborator Tom Milliorn and inked by S.S. Crompton, and came out very well. Our other collaborator was apparently a regional oil wrestling champ named Deja Sin (could this be a stage name??), who evidently has penned her own comics in the past, though I wasn't familiar with her before seeing the book...

Well, it turns out that the book sold very well at the con, helped along by our promoting it (Steve made me a badge, listing me as "creator," prompting some to ask whether I'd created Demi, which I wish I had, but I admitted to my true role in the book). Steve took me out to dinner, we hung out, I introduced him to Manawolf and Chythar, and several other folks, and we had a blast. I think we've got Steve convinced to do another crossover book soon; I suggested actually seeing if we could do a crossover to the Wulf universe, so we MAY get to see our various heroes and heroines in print one of these days (that's not necessarily a done deal; I'd have to script it and get Steve to go along, but he said it was a distinct possibility). I think that's great, especially given that this site's favorite demoness was originally based upon Steve's artwork!

I bought some comics, some badges, and some Demi trading cards; probably spent too much money, but I'll make up for it. I figured that patronizing my own publisher can only be a good thing.

Anyway, Mu Press and Steve said it was fine for me to scan in a page of Demi art featuring my characters and post it here (along with information on buying the silly thing, of course). I need to make sure it's okay with Tom, the artist (no reason to think it won't be... I have to drop him a line and thank him for the awesome art anyway), so I hope to have it up here in the near future.

Oh, yeah... The .pdf file of Stormking is finished, but I still need to tweak a few minor errors like misaligned dropcaps, missed headers, bad page breaks, etc. I'll post that next week, too, hopefully along with the final version of Mark of the Zombie. Stay tuned, as always. Your humble author has more fun in store for ya.

I'm ALMOST done with Zombie, but I've reached an interesting impasse... I have a couple of sex scenes to write (Narisha/Tanu and Narisha/Li/that Albino Elf guy... whoo-hoo), but right now I'm feeling a distinct lack of interest in such things (hey, given my recent experiences, can anyone blame me?). Well, I guess I'll just HAVE to knuckle down and write the boinking sequences.... If anyone thinks they turn out flat (or, in this case, flaccid), now you know why. I'm giving myself one more week to get it finalized, then I can get back to Wulf's saga again.

I am sitting here with my fingers, toes, and everything else crossed as I have fired off some samples to an outfit called argusnet, for an on-line editor position. The gal who's doing the selection says that they will be making a very fast decision, so I guess I won't have to wait too long.

I just downloaded Netscape 6, and if my experience is any indication, wait until a later build. It won't run some applets, it has a tendency to jam on download, and it crashes unexpectedly. I am a big Netscape supporter (hell, I used to do tech support for versions 2 and 3!), but this current "preview" build doesn't seem to do the job. It looks neat and once it's perfected I'm sure it'll once more become my browser of choice.

Oh, yes... The other good news... Your humble author is going to be attending the E3 Trade Show this May! For those who don't know (and don't feel like following the link), E3 is the biggest electronic game/entertainment/education show in the world, and is (*gasp*) trade only, i.e. not open to the public (the snooty so-and-sos). It looks as if I'll be reporting on the show for Gamewire, which I am assured is soon to be back on line and paying me real $$$. You will be able to see my intrepid reports on-line, so keep watching this space.

Finally, an apology to everyone who's written since 3/20... I was using hotmail to get POP messages from brainkick.com, but for some reason it stopped getting them at about that time. Consequently, I have about 30 unanswered messages which I am currently getting around to answering. Damned hotmail. Well, I THINK things are fixed now, so feel free to keep writing.

I also did some more writing on Zombie; I'm writing the parallel Livia/Narisha plot now, and I'm up to the point where they do it with a really obnoxious, sexist pig of an albino elf who likes to abuse women, then turn the tables on him and force him to talk. There's obviously some n/c stuff there, something which I've always been very careful of, but in this case it's used on an obnoxious pig who deserves it... We'll see how that turns out, and whether everyone thinks it's appropriate.

Also -- and this is pretty significant -- I sent out a novel that I wrote a few years ago, titled The Queen's Lancers, to an on-line publishing outfit, the Hard Shell Word Factory. I did a fair amount of research into on-line publishers a few months ago, and I found this one to be the best-known and most professional of the bunch. I'll keep you informed as to how that goes.

More resumes and stuff tomorrow, as well as more writing. We'll see how the on-line publishing thing goes; maybe I'll write more if this works out, but Wulf will remain as always.

I've been calling and e-mailing Dev lately; she seems to be doing better and is very happy to hear from me. I wanted to try out our dialpad.com long distance tonite, but she never logged on :( We'll keep trying though.

I spoke to my bud Colleen tonight; she wants to know if anyone saw her pictures and what you thought of them. Drop me a line and let me know.

See you all soonly. Stay cool.

March 23, 2000
Well, I'm now basking in the luxury of a cable modem, and high speed access to the Internet. Along with cable TV, it's our only real luxury here in our furniture-less apartment... Mind you, we're having a pretty decent time overall. I'm actually back to writing (Li Shu's portion of Zombie is finished, and I'm plugging away on Livia and Narisha's... I'll write the "mindless boinking" sub-story on Narisha once I've posted the main work.

I've finished the .pdf file of Stormking. It has a few glitches (misaligned drop-caps, quotes around ship names instead of italics, etc.), but I'm going to go ahead and post it once I've given it one more editorial going-over. Everyone be sure and let me know what you think of it, if you find any major errors, suggestions for corrections, etc.

Now that I'm in a relatively quiet space (except for the disco downstairs, of course), I'm also getting to work on those "legit" projects that I dropped in the wake of the divorce. I have two screenplay ideas, a couple of novels and various other projects. My main challenge now is to be able to work on them without getting distracted -- despite its lack of scenery, LA is probably one of the easiest cities to get distracted in, what with the beach, the women, Hollywood, the studios, amusement parks, nearby landmarks, etc., etc.

One of those distractions, by the way, is the Drew Carey Show, whose taping we will be attending on April 5. Even as I'm trying to concentrate on writing, so we are also trying to take in as much local color as possible... It's a delicate balancing act, believe me.

After the last newsletter, I've gotten a flood of icq requests, all of which I've accepted, so feel free to chat if you see me on-line.

I figure that I should have Zombie posted within a couple of weeks (fingers crossed), and I'll get into Armada and my other projects after that. Keep in touch, folks. I think we're on our feet, more or less :\

March 14, 2000
The unprecedented has occurred, namely that I'm cramming two months worth of entries onto one page. This is, of course, because I have been incognito for the past two weeks. We have finally acquired an apartment in Burbank, which is pretty decent -- we were without power and gas for the first two nights, which was kind of like having a long-term power failure. Now, we're waiting for the cable and a/c, since the front room gets fiendishly hot during the day. The bedrooms, on the other hand, are pretty nice -- cool and quiet, except for when people down the street start screaming in foreign languages, or until the manager's daughter turns on her stereo and starts playing the disco hits of the '70s at peak volume. She's stopped doing that since this weekend; hopefully it's only temporary and we won't have to get into any conflicts over it.

Okay, I'm impressed. LA is big, sprawling and, for the most part, damnably ugly. There's very little natural scenic beauty in the region and only a little more man-made scenery. The city is like an old overgrown field left to its own devices for a half century or so. There are also MILLIONS of damned donut shops. The damned things are EVERYWHERE. No one, to my knowledge, has ever commented on the fact that the LA area appears to have the highest donut shop per capita rate in both the free and the unfree world.

The computers and the network are back on line, I have Internet service, courtesy of thesimpsons.com, as it's free and all I have to put up with is a crappy little advertising bar across the top of the screen, which I blithely ignore. You can continue to e-mail me at brainkick.com, and I'll be sending out a new newsletter in another day or so.

As for my creative life, I'm only just now starting to think about it. I have a couple of screenplay ideas, a couple of novels, some Wulf stuff, and, just to get started, I'll finish of Zombie, plus a bonus for patient and loyal readers which I'm tentatively calling Narisha's Night. It's a shorter work, dealing with an incident in Zombie which I think would bog down the plot if I put it in the story. In Shark Harbor, you see, Narisha ends up betting several of the town hookers that she can out-"whatever" them in a single evening. It's what the adult film industry calls a "wall-to-wall", i.e., sex with little concern for plot (of course, we all know and love the characters involved, so it won't be quite so impersonal).

More as it develops, kids. I'm kind of warm now, waiting for the a/c to arrive, but that will be okay soon. I'll get the newsletter out soon with more exciting info, and we'll be back to adventuring with Wulf in no time. Yay...

February 27, 2000
Oh, jeez, what a trip. I'm currently typing in a nice pleasant hotel, preparatory to moving to a by-the-week fleabag on the bad side of Burbank. But never fear; I don't plan on staying there for long. Cliff is looking for employment (I'm okay for the moment as unemployment insurance is going to keep me above water for the foreseeable future), and I've got a list of decent apartments in the area. We've decided that we like the Burbank/Glendale area, at least the area near the hills, so if we can manage it, we'll probably stay. Cliff has friends here, as well, and they're helping us out. As for you folks from the LA area, I'll be contacting you as soon as we're settled.

The trip was surprisingly pleasant. We left late, having spent all of last Tuesday fitting the car with a tow hitch and finding a trailer. I'd planned to leave Tuesday afternoon, but by evening it was obvious that we weren't going to make it. A discussion with Clio revealed that us spending another night at the house was unacceptable to her, so we checked into a Portland hotel and spent the night. The next day we slept kind of late and did some last-minute errands, had lunch, and hung out with our friend Colleen, whom I'd promised to take a couple of pictures of, and right before we left, I actually managed to do so, and just cuz you folks have been so supportive, patient and loyal, I'll share a few with you (and she says it's okay, so here they are). Sorry they're so big... I don't have any image processing software on my laptop; I'll shrink 'em down later.

[NOTE: I have, for obvious reasons, removed my links to the pictures. Given the woman's conduct toward both me and Cliff, I don't really see any point in continuing to pretend that I have anything but antipathy toward her. Besides, I deleted all the images :) ]

There's a lot more to tell, and a lot more stuff going on; the great home search goes on, and Clio's flying down for business purposes tomorrow, and she'll be bringing some of the clothes, etc. that I left behind. I'll do a more detailed description of our journey later, but for now we're here, we're healthy, and we have a bunch of cool pix of the woman we left behind ;) Enjoy, y'all -- I'll be talking more soon.

February 18, 2000
This will be my last entry for a couple of weeks, but rest assured that I'm not going to disappear. Cliff and I are ready to leave this coming Tuesday; even though Cliff isn't even close to being packed... It'll be his ass on a platter if he doesn't get everything out on time, but as far as I'm concerned it's an issue between him and Clio and I'm not going to get into a fight over it.

I THINK everything I need is packed and ready to go. The main question is whether it will all fit in my microscopic Honda. I don't really want to spend any more money on trailers or cartop carriers, but I may need to. We shall see.

I think I also have all the toys I need to keep busy, as well -- plenty of writing and creative software, a new color TV with built-in VCR, dishes, silverware, my Palm clone, a Leatherman tool set, compass, binoculars (I'd have loved to spring $250 for a nightscope, but I had to restrain myself), binders, the new printer, my butched-up computer, scanner, my videos, printed screenplays, gaming materials, art supplies, possible job contacts etc., etc., etc. If we don't succeed it won't be for lack of trying or preparation.

I had to spring $90 for a new alternator for the car (it fortunately died BEFORE we left for LA), and have had a number of other unexpected expenses which have reduced my traveling money, but Cliff remains quite flush, and I'm collecting unemployment compensation, so the economic side looks pretty bright. I have some applications/resumes out for jobs, but I'm not counting on any of them. I will write from the road when I can (using my laptop), and will let you all know if anything truly exciting happens.

There's so much more I can go into -- the .pdf project, which I hope to have posted before I leave (waiting on permission from artists, and I'm having a problem figuring out how to combine two PageMaker files into a single .pdf document); future Wulf stories (I want to finish the current epic and get back to shorter works); the Alex St. John project (on hold, but will be back again soon); my "real" fiction projects; gaming, art, science, living the writer's lifestyle, figuring out what I did wong in my marriage and how I can avoid it in future, working out my resentment toward Clio and others, trying to become a better human being, etc., etc., etc. Rest assured I will discuss all of this at some point, and I value everyone's support and friendship through this difficult time.

I will see you all on the other side. Peace.

February 9, 2000
It doesn't LOOK as if I've been packing for a week... I've made a fair amount of progress, though. I think that most of my stuff is packed, except for my clothes -- most of which need a good wash and a going-over before I leave. I'm squeezing in a tiny amount of writing in the interrim, but that's not my highest priority right now. I have all the software that I ordered, all the computer hardware is installed, my writing and reference books arrived, packed and ready to go, etc., etc. I also received my Visor, and it's turning into a very valuable tool. Of course, I've also thrown a few games onto the silly thing as well, so I've got the best of all worlds. :)

Of the stuff I got, a few items are toys, such as the AD&D Core Rules CDs, the Forgotten Realms Atlas (which includes a bunch of maps that I drew, which I am of course, seeing no money for...) and Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer software... I'm thinking of using it to develop some Thystra maps -- I've already drawn a map of The Wild for my aborted AD&D campaign; I will publish that as soon as I've settled down.

We're doing okay, I guess. I haven't seen much of Clio despite her assurance that she would spend half of each week from Sunday to Tuesday here, and at this point I've got too much on my mind to fight over it. Cliff and I have several friends virutally begging us not to move, to which we respond that this is a temporary move, intended to check out the writing/creative climate in SoCal, and to have some adventures for a year or so. I think at this point, given what a waste the last nine years has been, that I deserve some time to myself. So long, as I said, as Devon is taken care of, which I intend to do.

There will be more later, so keep an eye out. I don't think I'm getting Zombie done before I leave, but it's there, and the next couple of stories are on the drawing board. I have more art to post, which I will definitely do over the next few days. Keep in touch, y'all... Things are going to get interesting very soon.

February 2, 2000
Ho, boy, what a life. My cold is still hanging on by its fingernails; I hope it's gone in the next day or two. I filed my taxes on the Internet (getting back about $1500 this year... yay!), bought a BUNCH of stuff (too much, apparently... My account is back to $50 or so, and I won't be getting my severance check until next Tuesday. It's okay -- I've got most of what I need, and all I have to do is pay off a few bills before I leave.

In between writing a little (still on Zombie, so don't worry), creating that .pdf file (the pagemaker stuff is done, but now I have to figure out how to combine the various files into a single .pdf file without screwing up the page numbering), planning for future excitement, checking out job leads in LA, trying to figure out where we're going to stay, etc., I'm packing books and searching for boxes. I suspect I'll be doing a lot of packing and moving over the next two weeks.

Clio is seriously considering moving to Aloha (a suburb about 25 miles away) to be closer to her job. That would mean Dev changing schools AGAIN, which I'm not wild about, though she says she doesn't mind; she's been having some issues with kids at school lately, and another change might be good. Then again, it might not. I'm afraid that she's going to put all of this in her memoirs after she retires as a bestselling author, actress, artist or the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court :\ I'm feeling very guilty about pulling up stakes and leaving, but I keep telling myself that it's better for her to stay here with her friends, her room, her grandmother(s), brother, etc., and that she will be staying with me over the summer, which should be a huge amount of fun for everyone. I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed that what I do isn't only going to make things worse. My tax rebate is going to go mostly to buy savings bonds for her future college education, so I can at least take a little comfort in that...

On other fronts, I'm still cranking out the press releases, the dog is still gone (damn), I spent a bunch of money getting the car spruced up for the trip, I ordered my Visor PDA (one reason my bank account is so low), and I'm still sitting around wondering where the hell the 64MB of RAM I ordered is. Oh, yeah -- the guy who said he'd buy my copies of "Dragon" seems to be twinking out. He said he'd send me money and now isn't responding to e-mail. The local game shop won't take the magazines, so I may go back to eBay one more time. Pretty annoying, if you ask me... Well, in the worst of cases I can cram the magazines into the storage unit and try to sell them later...

All for now. I'm going to heat up some pizza, then do some more packing. Wish me luck, y'all.