Vampire people is a book about a world where the writers can be bigger stars than actors. A world where the most traditional of family weddings celebrates the marriage of two women who met one another on-line, attended by guests who mostly did too. A world where you meet a dear friend for the first time when she travels across the country to stay with you. Where celebrity pussy refers to finding a home for the a star's cat.

Penlind? Fate of Joss's cat? The nature of detective work in the internet? Portrayed identity versus trust & all that. "Normal" people are active in internet communities (not counting myself as normal...)

OK, I'm not helping now. But really, it's slice of life that most think is degenerate! All sorts of revealing things there. My dad just doesn't get it. So I don't try to explain in between his rantings on cell phones and blackberries, though I might this next trip. Mom...oh man. She'd get it, if she could figure out amazon.com. She'sjust happy I am happy.

Okey dokey! Manuscript and author questionnaire sent off to editor.

Now, I wait.

YAY, except for the waiting part.

I remember pulling out SMP's questionnaire for Haunted Ballads. A dozen typewritten pages, mostly of questions I purely had no answer for. I emailed my editor with a "WTF?" in language better suited to the grey eminence that is Ruth Cavin.

She wrote back ":::snort::: Oh, they sent you one of THOSE things. Feel free to bullshit."

Only time I ever saw her swear, until I told her about Mr. Post-It.

Those questionnaires are exactly the sort of things I can't take seriously. I just can't. I'm physically incapable of a straight answer. I try, really I do, and what comes out of the pen or keyboard is smart-ass.

This got me into my college, when I submitted the story of how I was a space alien who'd been an exotic dancer (because LOOK at me, I look exotic to aliens) in an interplanetary bar [cut for brevity] and woken up from my drugged stupor in an arroyo near Roswell.

And my CV on my company's website says I'm a Jesuit missionary and starship captain.

But otherwise, this impulse has just gotten me in trouble.

BWAH! Raq, you've seen my official bio, right? It starts off with "Deborah Grabien can claim a long personal acquaintance with the fleshpots -- and quiet little towns -- of Europe."

As Nic put it: "Mmmmmmmm....fleshpots...."

One of the nice things about being in the position of being asked to provide this stuff is that you do get to play with it.

My newest column is up at GotPoetry.com:

Wild Sex in the Working-Writer Class: Don’t worry, it happens to everyone.

Tep? New topic? Have we done "independence day"?

Amy, I was about to ask for a new topic. I think we did ID last year on the 4th, though.

But have we done "freedom" as a topic?