Very good news, Deb! Spend some of that $132 on something fun.

I just bought two big fat juicy steaks with it, and fresh asparagus.

I have reason to think the next royalty cheque - sometime in April or May - will be for just around $700. That's a nicer number.

But honestly, I'm just pleased as hell, and hopeful this is a yes on the path of getting them to buy the next three.

hopeful this is a yes on the path of getting them to buy the next three

That's the ticket indeed. Fingers crossed for you. Did I tell you I asked the librarian at our local branch to order Famous Flower? And I'm putting a plug for it (and the series as a whole) on my web site, under Books I Love. (That sounds pompous, doesn't it -- I'm not sure anyone but my mom and my husband will actually visit the web site, but if someone else does...!)

Whoa.

I was so excited by the royalty cheque, I never looked at the rest of my mail. There's a note from Hannah Storm at the Early Show in there - I'd sent her both books as a thank-you.

Hey! Congrats on the royalties -- that's wonderful.

Amy, you rock (I was off cooking and laundrying). ANd Sumi, thanks!

The BBC just gave out their Best Folk Awards for 2005. Best Folk Recording went to Martin Carthy, best song? Famous Flower of Serving Men.

I want a UK deal, damn it. WHAT a tie-in.

Ooh, yes -- a special gift set with a book and a cd.

Although, what I want is a cd with your favorite versions of the songs you've used or will use as book titles.

Hooray for Deb! I totally approve of your bouncing.

what I want is a cd with your favorite versions of the songs you've used or will use as book titles.

Ooh, me too.

Oh, and Deb can take Chevy with her, if she swears to hide the body very carefully. God, hate him. Don't know how Belzer stands him except people aren't too picky about their friends at that 70's level of pharmacological expertise.
A Little Glance

(Indulge vanity gal for a moment, please...I'm embarrassed. This is so All About Me) Today I decided to see myself through the eyes of somebody who loved me.As usual, that sort of meant borrowing someone else’s gaze, but not quite as much as that first shock of the morning, when flush from dreams of a different sort of life, I face my addled appearance and think “Whoa, the bitch is back,” and that I’m stuck with myself for yet another day. I really try to avoid doing that. It would be a lot easier if I could just convert and sit shiva for my life, but Mom says that’s a lot of trouble to go to to avoid mirrors. Yes, even if that one is huge. I knew that workman didn’t like me...aw, he probably thought “Chicks and their primping” and that’s as far as it ever got.

Today is the day I stop hating his guts for that.Being the Michelangelo of the shower head on the other hand...

My eyes are the easy part, though they look a little like they’ve been caught on the Eve Ensler tip...looking at, um, something that’s not my face. Nice crippled girls look in a full-length mirror with a therapist so they can have a “realistic” view of where contents got damaged during shipping...where they’re straight where everybody’s crooked and crooked where everybody’s straight. Not to find something to like. I’m the only one in my family with eyes this exact color.(If I believed in hell, I could go there for this, but I remember a few times where they got me some attention, too...too bad I don’t really know how to work the wattage.)