My cats use my laptop to scratch at their jowls. I'm pretty sure they're leaving scent marks that will cause any strange cat to attack my laptop with ferocity. Maybe I should see if I can get some built in anti-cat repellent installed.

I'm pretty sure they're leaving scent marks that will cause any strange cat to attack my laptop with ferocity.

Sail, are you bringing your laptop to Denver? If so, we'll be able to test your theory.

Possible good times.

And then to Belmont.

Ooh, scientific experiments! Maybe I can get the goverment to fund my vacation? Hee.

The Other Side drabble

Inside, it’s like a tunnel. Dark, just as musty and grimy as the Lincoln. A tunnel is not someplace you want to stay. It’s supposed to be a through-point, a way to cut through the water, the mountain, the immoveable obstacle.

Until you get stuck. Until idling in the dark begins to feel like the only possible thing to do. Until breathing in the damp and feeling the skin of soot on your clothes is almost comforting.

There’s supposed to be light on the other side. Knowing that isn’t the same as believing it. Sometimes the tunnel is the obstacle.

Anyone want to help brainstorm?

I have a character who, at seventeen, is studying ballet. Seriously enough that she's studying in NYC, planning to audition for the corps, etc.

I need some kind of a knee-destroying accident that's interesting and believable. Something that would allow her to walk again, but not to dance. Right knee, since she's a right-handed person, and possibly requiring surgery, etc.

Any thoughts? I don't want to do a car accident, but I could. And it doesn't have to be terribly involved, in the telling of it, since this is background information -- when the story opens, she's already trying to picture what she's going to do now that she can't dance anymore.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that she could slip onstage and land funny, blowing out the cartilege. I think I've read of dancers ending their careers that way.

A fall during ice skating?

she could slip onstage and land funny, blowing out the cartilege

Good idea!

A fall during ice skating?

Also good, because then she could have a bit of guilt, rational or not -- an "I shouldn't have been doing that, duh," kind of thing.

I got notes back on my market analysis. My agent says I need to be a liitle bit (lot) more clear on the Buffy/Angel/Firefly market, and how many people would be wanting to buy it from those fandoms.

I'm not sure if that's really true, so it's hard for me to sell it. In my head, I just figured it to be more of a Sarah Vowell-esque slice o' life thing, since it's not particularly about those television shows.

I think maybe I am having a mental roadblock. It's hard to wrap my head around who would buy it, who *my* demographic is.

I think almost all the stories can be applied to any net community/fandom.