Lifehack 60%, and random news.

The Lifehack revision passed the 60% mark. I remember Michelle saysing when she was pregnant... "When I have the baby, I'll be on maternity leave, and I'll be at home. You'll have a lot more time for writing then."

I don't think she believed that any more than I did. It's hard to type with lil Caitlin sucking on a finger. Maybe when she figures out her thumbs, things will accelerate. In the mean time, I gust have to exercise my patience. No biggie. When that's done, I'll print one revision copy, and pass if around to volunteers with a highlighter. Numerous people have stepped up to the plate, more than on the first draft. I think they READ the first draft, and-

• A) Realized I'm serious about this book thing, and
• B) Realized how bad it needs people to look it over.

While they do that, I'll be plugging away at Watching Yute. My wife would rather see me work on the children's book, or the nonfiction "Wasn't worth the parking space", but the first draft of Yute is already half done, and waiting patiently. My third sci fi in that world can wait until after all those. Some of the concepts for 'Echoes' are still fermenting anyway...

Want a taste of how Lifehack's going? (Even if the blog kinda fudges up the formatting a bit)

"It could have been a bomb." The zombie said. "You're pretty brave.. or dumb."

"It didn't seem to fit your M.O. to use a bomb." Alisia said, fingering a power switch inside. "So, what's your name?"

"Ha! Nice try. But I guess you have to call me something.. how about... uh.. what's Autar backwards...? Ratua? No, that sucks. Uh.... ooh, this is cool, how about Samhain?"

"Samhain?" Regan asked

"Hmm.. you're right. A bit dorky still, and fact is, he wasn't actually the Celtic god of the dead. Ooh! Egyptian! Anubis! No, no, that’s been done. Charon? I’m not into boats.” The zombie looked off into nowhere while he thought and rambled. “Namtar? Rudra? Dorky, no. Thanatos has been so done. Tartarus? Tartar sauce. No. Hm. Erebus! Yes! Call me Erebus! Son of Chaos, brother of Nyx!”

"What the hell ever! Why are you doing this?" Alisia asked.

"Did you know that Erebus has a volcano named after him? Some people used to think of Erebus and Hades as the same guy, but I think the-"

"Shut the fuck up." Alisia pressed the switch in the mobile server, and he fell limp. The scattering of writhing parts they had made stopped moving, and rest of the zombies in other areas of the mall fell to the ground.

The owner of my HQ bookstore, Heron's books, will probably split the cost with me to mass-mail promotional postcards for the book and her store. Should I do a signing for the 2nd edition? Most of my friends and family already have a copy of the first ed, and probably wouldn't be too interested in 're buying' the book... but with a little 'real advertising' it might be worth it...

In other news, today 'Radar' went back to South Korean for a month. She had teary farewell to a friend who won't be here next year. Le sigh... Ping head back to China for a month tomorrow. Michelle is super happy to be making to drives to the airport in a row, but c'est la vie. It's going to be a little quite around here for a while, for better or worse.

Also yesterday we saw our first potential renters for the suite when it becomes available in Sept. They seemed nice and responsible, so we said OK. They have a dog, too, which will hopefully mean they'll be understanding about our own feral beast. They're engaged, and it will be their first home out form their parents. It's a good suite for first timers... the utils are taken care of and all that, so it's simple to manage. Will these folks be the ones to break the track record the suite has? Out of 3 renters since we moved in, each has left roughly a year after they came, having bought a place.