I suspect the DoR's ball was the fictional Mecca it was because of the "eat, drink, for tomorrow the sun shines on La Haye Sainte" aspect.

Oh, I completely understand that, and in the hands of a good writer it pretty much always works. (And with the bad writers, I never make it to the 3/4 point in the book anyway, life being too short to read crappy writing.) But the sheer ubiquity of it cracks me up anyway. Just because common devices are common for good reason doesn't keep me from noticing they're there, checking the number of pages left, and thinking, "Yep, here we are, right on schedule," y'know?

Toying with the idea of finally writing a work of fiction, if only to have all my lies in one place.

Hey, connie - is all well with surgery stuff, I hope?

Surgery went well, Hubby was up and walking around at 10:00 last night. Doc did a little more than he planned because "if I didn't, I'd just be in there again next year to fix it." Plus he looked a little further up the spine and didn't see anything that should cause problems in the near future.

The accountants of my insurance company deserve to be staked out in the west desert, but the doctors deserve statues and incense and devoted acolytes performing ecstatic rituals at their feet.

Interesting anecdotes re: doctors. Hubby's regular cardiologist's team of assistants are all tiny, perky girls who all wear different color scrubs. I don't know if they're color-coded to job or what. By tiny, I mean very slender and some of them are shorter than I am, which is 5' 2". Dr. Hwang, the electrocardiologist, has a shrine to Buddha in the outer observation room of his surgical suite (I think it was Buddha, I wasn't paying attention to amenities), and his team is all stalwart young men, and their clothing was rather mix and match scrubs.

Boy, I'm tired.

Connie, I'm glad it went well. I hope you're taking care of yourself, too. I know between dh's surgery, and your move, you've got to be stretched to the limit. I'm so glad you have the concert to look forward to, this weekend.

So relieved to hear it went well, Connie.

That's cool, Gus--are you thinking novel, short story, any genre in particular?

Gus, heh - i like the "lies in one place". But be warned, the stuff is addictive.

connie, colour-coded scrubs? We ate at the Palo Alto diner last night - mediocre food, retro setting - and all the wait staff wear teeshirts that say "I'm in the Waiter Protection Program." It occured to me that they ought to give just the male waiters teeshirts that have a picture of a bottle of O.P.I nail polish on it, with the best polish name in the world on the back. The colour's called "I'm not really a waittress."

So, anyway, St. Martin's is buying "Cruel Sister." It'll be nice to see the cheque, will write the remaining 80% of the book and have it for them by 15 November. Half the advance on signing, other half on ms delivery. I'm not starting until I finished WMGGW. Screw it. They kept me dangling for six months, and if I'm going to give them the best book I can give them, it waits until I finish the one I'm halfway done with now, and that isn't "Cruel Sister".

An agent read two sample pieces and contacted me this morning. She asked for: An outline, the rest of the completed essays, contact list of people interviewed, bio.

I still can't quite breathe.

It appears I'm contractually obligated to include the Duchess of Richmond's ball at the 3/4 point of my story.

Is that the ball in "Vanity Fair"? (Yeah, I've only seen the movie.)

Deb, boo to the way they did it, but yay to them buying the book.

Yay Deb for a date, even if the process sucked!

Yay Allyson!!