What I do with this space is still up in the air (because I could mirror things over here, but I'm not sure why since almost everyone who reads/read here is on LJ already).

If you have some deep abiding antipathy to LiveJournal, now would be the time to speak :-)

--It was above freezing today! From noon until, like...now. Awesome!

--Blue and Billie and I went tracking. Blue is an awesome little tracking maniac. I believe it's because of the lime-green harness. If I ever remember to take my camera, I will post pictures.

--I want to get at least two stories in the mail this month. Apparently no one will buy them if you don't actually finish them and send them out.

--Books I've read recently or am currently reading:

• The Horizontal World by Debra Marquart
• The Lion's Grave by Jon Lee Anderson
• Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O'Brien
• This is a Bust by Ed Lin

--As always I'm sure there is something I'm forgetting...

As you can see, my life is a constant whirlwind

He barely notices Beth in the bar, thin as a stick, clothes—oh, Jesus, her clothes—too-small cotton blouse with faded calico flowers, brown knit pants that slop over thick-soled black shoes. She has straw-colored hair pulled back flat with metal barrettes, a faded plain face that doesn't show well alongside the other girls she's with.

[I had other updates of interest I was going to post with this, but now have forgotten what they were. So...hmmm, possibly they weren't all that interesting.]

..and some more pictures if you follow this link.

Blue is growing like a weed. Last week I tried on his new tracking harness (it is an awesome lime green, BTW) and it was way too big for him, even cinched up as small as it would go. This week it fits. He is pretty much house-broken (though not completely--as he proved today). He is the worst counter-surfer I have ever seen. He runs upstairs two or three times a day just to see if he can reach the stuff on the back of the bathroom sink yet. He can't reach the kitchen counter surfaces yet, but when that day comes--and it's coming soon--life will get exponentially more interesting. He has started tracking, is almost finished with puppy class, and is simultaneously very very smart and very very stupid.

I am making progress on the novel and despite its current suckiness, I've convinced myself that I can fix it all later. How this will happen is possibly in the realm of 'and then a miracle occurred.'

'How to Hide Your Heart' should be appearing at Strange Horizons sometime soon (I'll post when I know the exact date). It has shotguns and hand grenades. Also kissing.

Tonight for supper I had chicken taco soup. Also beer. This is the second time I've made the soup and I have to say it is pretty high on the list of easiest things to make ever. Mostly it involves opening a lot of cans (which I have to say I'm pretty darn good at).

I'm sure there are other things of interest I could add (like how awesome the caucuses were and how it finally got above freezing for more than a day this week and how I'm reading a very interesting--to me--book on story structure) but--hey--maybe later).

Novel: ...

[Also, there are no puppies in this post. But soon! Because I have a whole bunch of new pictures to upload and we have started tracking and Blue has learned many new things and he his HUGE! and...hmmm, apparently this is a post about puppies after all.]

It's really, really cold here today, though we didn't get the snow that they'd predicted. I have no great plans for the holidays so spent yesterday and today catching up on things, working on final revisions to a couple of short stories, and trying to get the novel into some kind of shape so I can just write away on it in the new year.

ETA: Oh yeah, more new pictures if you want to see them.

So, the puppy is still full of awesome:

He's actually bigger than that now, but I'm too lazy to pull the newest pictures off the camera (which would involve getting off the couch) so you can't see them until at least tomorrow.

For the first time in a billion trillion years, I have baked Christmas cookies, because it turns out if you're not in any kind of hurry at all, you can bake cookies and keep track of what a really fast puppy is doing more or less at the same time (whereas, say, sitting on the couch and reading a book is more or less out of the question). So far, I've made candy canes and bird's nests and chocolate cutouts (which are apparently my mother's secrit recipe because I couldn't find it anywhere on the Internets). I'd planned on making sugar cookie cutouts, but I ran out of butter--maybe this weekend.

Totally unrelated to anything above (and because I told Chance I would blog it), this is every e-book conversation I have ever observed:

PersonA: OMG! OMG! E-BOOKS!!!!!

Person B: Wait! Here are some actual facts and figures about actual e-books including their effect on other kinds of books

Person A: OMG! OMG! E-BOOKS!!!!!

Spent Friday making puppy visits, yesterday at a dog show, and today we went for a walk in the park.

Otherwise, I have been pondering novel developments and think I'm starting to get a handle on who my main character is, what she wants, and what she's going to have to do to get there. I hope this will translate soon into words on the page (although, let me tell you it ain't easy typing with a puppy in your lap).

Checkout kid: Hey your total's a palindrome!

Me: I think I should get a discount.

Checkout Kid: if I were in charge you'd get a 75% discount!

Grocery Bagging Kid: But if you actually did that, people would come to the store and buy palindromic amounts of groceries and you'd have to give them all 75% discounts!

Checkout Kid: Nah, figuring the taxes would totally mess them up.

They're a bit better than yesterday's.

He was sort of a wild man in the house, which I put down to being tired and all new stuff and just general puppy wildness. But he's asleep in his crate right next to me right now so here's hoping he continues to alternate between wild and asleep, which I can handle (I think).

Anyway, I don't have any really good pictures, because he was way too fast for me, but I'll share what I've got:

Here is what pretty much all the rest of the pictures look like:

There are a few more pictures (a very few!) here

I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow

Billie and I were catalog #6 and drew track #1. It was bright and cool (30s) and sunny with very little wind. BIllie started really well. We (mostly me) had a lot of trouble on the first corner and second leg, but BIllie was awesome and kept working until I stopped being an idiot and went with her. And the last half of the track we really worked well as a team and Billie tracked down the last leg to the glove like she was on rails.

To anyone who doesn't track or hasn't seen tracking, I'm not sure I can describe how totally awesome this was. But it was. Totally Awesome.

In other dog news, I'm going to pick up the new puppy a week from today. His name is Blue (yes, I know it doesn't start with 'J'--but his registered name does). He is so so cute. I'm really looking forward to getting him. I will post pictures once he's finally here. The breeder says he is quiet, self-confident and independent, but when he's ready to go to sleep he comes over and lays down by her, which sounds excellent. I've agreed to show him in conformation (well, really, to persuade other people to show him in conformation) and we'll definitely be doing tracking, as well as obedience, rally and agility. And maybe someday therapy dog work as well, though Billie has the lying on the couch and letting people pet her franchise pretty well sown up.

In not-dog news, I got my January, 2008 issue of Asimov's a couple of days ago with my story, 'The Whale's Lover' in it. This one has rocket ships and distant planets and alien lifeforms. So I am sure it will make everyone everywhere totally happy about the future of SF and my place in it.

And in writing progress news, I am (sadly, slowly) working on 'Ghosts of Fear' and revising 'Cowboys in Space' and 'What Makes a River.'

--Went to a dog show in Wisconsin where Billie earned her Rally Advanced title and many amazing prizes.

--Went to a tracking test in Illinois where Billie did not get a tracking title because her owner (me) did not trust her dog

--Went to Indiana and saw puppies (yay, puppies!). They were the cutest puppies ever in the history of the world. I should be getting one in about three weeks.

--Read some books

--Did some writing

--Went to western NY to visit family. Saw two of my brothers, my mother, an aunt and uncle and possibly other people I've forgotten.

This is why I will always love the internets. And being a writer.

Finished my novel page for today. Realized that I am easily distracted by the internets and really important questions that I don't really need to know the answer to right this very minute.

Although I now know that the state animal of South Dakota is the coyote, the state musical instrument is the fiddle, and the state dessert is kuchen.