O kay. For the last few days, while dancing between deadlines and duties, I've also been getting more of the whole ThereGoesTheDay pages sorted. If you're reading this on the blog page itself (and that's the best way!) then you'll note the links at the top are mostly sorted and the pages more aligned. It's all coming together nicely... now to get to the Photography pages!) Which means I can mention that it's time for an unashamed plug for the latest issue of VERBATIM. Issue 13! And they said...

O kay, I'm not particularly squeamish, but the only word I can think of is 'Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!' Was just heading to bed on Tuesday night when I noticed something tucked right in under my left knee. Turned out it wasn't a bit of fluff but a bloody tick sucking at my royal blue blood - most likely the same kind as the long-grass variety that Jill and I found we'd brought back into the house the day before I left Iowa. In a 'what's worse?' thought, it was either gorging itself there in the nook of my knee for well over a week, or it wasn't and it rode home with my clothes etc and...

W hen I commented to my parents the other day that - barring blood relatives - I have more close ties in the States, than I do over here, my mum sagely noted that very few of the groups of friends I'd had over the years seemed to overlap with into each other much. It was a telling observation and though I'm not sure how I feel about that in hindsight, there's no denying that on close examination, it's quite true. I'm like a human Venn Diagram! After school my social group...

I woke up this morning... okay, fine, technically I got up at 12:00, midday on the dot... to find it a gloriously sunny Sunday. However I don't feel remotely guilty as it is a long weekend (bank holiday tomorrow in the UK and I think it's Memorial Day in the US?), there were no inhumanely pressing deadlines and it seems to have ultimately kicked away the last of the annoying jet-lag cobwebs. In fact, the only downside is to have half the day gone before I can thoroughly enjoy it. Just had a nice long shower, heard the tootlin' of an ice-cream van (can't remember HOW long it's been since one of...

I guess I can understand how Jill and others feel (starting work so early in the morning and having another job to go to later) because even though I've shaken off most of the jet-lag, I'm still at the point of getting very tired in the late afternoon and wishing I could collapse for an hour or so to feel right. The get up and go is got up and gone. It's caught me out a bit in both directions this time which means I'm either getitng old or time is an illusion (lunchtime doubly so). I'm betting on the latter. And deciding that I'm spending £90 a quarter on a service I don't really use at the...

Y awn! It always takes a few days to shake off the jet-lag and my sleep patterns are still buggered up. From deep sleep to wide-awake at the drop of a Zzzz. But hopefully by mid-week, I should be all realigned! As those of you who frequent Facebook (and let's face it, ALL the cool kids are doing it!) will know, there'll be a new Impact on the UK shelves in just over a week. #210. This is the cover we sorted out yesterday. Covers are always a bit interesting as the publisher, designer and myself...

Back in the UK. It's raining. Peh. As always I'm suffering from jet-lag, being both so tired I could drop and yet so awake I could spit. Which I won't because that would be rude. Iowa went pretty well. It was really nice to slow down the pace after LA and it's becoming a comfortably familiar place. During the last week of the trip I ventured down to that river/railway bridge several times and also decided to walk through the woods that line the Sioux River. It instantly felt like a place I...

It's Monday, which leaves me less than a week in Iowa for this trip (though I hope to be back again soon). I leave Friday, though not at the ridiculously early hours I ahd to be up in London and LA to catch flights! Home via Chicago and Heathrow Again, there is still much of a taking-it-easy pace, spent between finishing some bits and peices for Impact (now largely done), helping around the house (and outside, doing some mowing today! Whoohoo!), eating of the delicious cosmic brownies (not as illegal...

So, I've been ensconsed here in Iowa for about a week now and once again enjoying the slower pace and the lack of urgency that was the order of the day in LA during the great but tiring convention. The weather's been good here and despite a brief shower this morning, it's generallly been sunny and/or warm. Jilly is once again juggling her considerable workload (two jobs and a menagerie of animals to support) and I'm mucking in with the housework and indulging my inner domestic godness (and doing...

While I suppose I should have spent some time post-con doing the interviews I didn't have time for, it proved heard to nail people down (gotta buy a nail gun), so I decided to set more up for later and just chill out after the con.  Apart from writing some stuff for Impact and helping Kerry photograph some items she'll be ebaying (some nice geek stuff - I'll alert the masses when they're up), the rest was mainly 'me' time. We went to Gillian's on the Monday night where GH had a lovely table of Thai food to entice. Kerry warned me not to eat too quickly otherwise she's have to use the Alzheimer's...