Some end of year things

Agoraphobia: Not going so well. Still waiting for next course of therapy. I haven’t been making the effort I should to get over it. Despite this, it’s not quite as severe as it once was. However, I really should be making more effort.

The Good Fairies of New York: Re-issue doing well in USA. Well-reviewed, being reprinted, film rights sold. It will reach Britain in March.

Lonely Werewolf Girl: Crawling nearer to readiness. It will be published some time in 2007. Simon Fraser has drawn a brilliant cover.

Thraxas: I have a rough draft of a new Thraxas novel finished. This needs a lot more work, but I’m not doing this work just now because of the extreme slowness of negotiations between my agent and Baen. Why this has taken so long, I don’t know.

Lying on couch watching TV: I’m doing well at this. Have many new cable channels. Unfortunately most of my favourite programmes ended. I’m currently awaiting new series of Veronica Mars, The OC, The Sopranos, Curb your Enthusiasm and probably a few others. I notice The Simpsons just isn’t that good any more.

Football: Some frustrating times for Arsenal. Many poor performances this season. Some signs of recent revival however.

Buffy - Band Candy

I was watching TV yesterday afternoon and came across Band Candy on Sky. I was unable to resist watching it again, even though I've seen it often. Band Candy, written by Jane Espenson, is one of my favourite Buffy episodes. It's so funny, it's a such a good story and there's so much going on.

Buffy catches Giles kissing her mother!

Buffy is worrying about her SATs, she's been secretly visiting the newly-returned Angel, and she's in trouble with her mother and Giles. Xander and Willow are playing footsie under the desk, though Xander and Willow are meant to be in relationships with Cordelia and Oz. The Mayor - one of the greatest Buffy villains - has hatched an evil plan which is being carried out by Mr Trick, another excellent bad guy.

Principal Snyder wants to be one of the gang

They arrange for Principal Snyder to give his pupils chocolate to sell. Ostensibly this is to raise money for the school band, but in reality it causes all the adults in town to start acting like teenagers. This leads to great scenes of craziness in the Bronze, where previously responsible citizens get up on stage to sing Louie Louie. Principal Snyder acts like a kid and wants to be one of the gang.

Buffy's Watcher Giles goes off the rails, reverts to his bad old youthful ways, talks of getting a band together, and hooks up with Buffy's mum. They rob a shop and then have sex on the bonnet of a police car! It's all great. (It was some time till Buffy found out that Giles and her mum actually did have sex, and that was in another good episode, featuring a suicidal Jonathan.)

Yes, Band Candy was a brilliant episode. I didn't regret watching it again. In fact, I felt quite inspired to get on with writing. I've often found Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be very inspiring.

Xander and Willow are playing footsie

Giles and Joyce move on to the police car

Publishing my blog / Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me

I spent the day tidying up the copy of Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me I have on my computer. I'm sending this electronic version to my agent. Encouraged by the success of the re-printed Good Fairies, there are some publishers who want to see it, but neither myself nor my agent has any spare copies left.

I'd be pleased if we found another publisher for Suzy, Led Zeppelin and Me. I thought it was a good book, and I don't think that about all my books, by any means. In fact, I hate some of them. But I like Suzy Led Zeppelin. It would have sold more copies if the publisher hadn't gone out of business. Ho Hum.

I'm now publishing my blog in two places, on myspace and on blogger.com. I thought about this for ages, wondering if it was a good idea or not, before realising, that with billions of bloggers in the world, no one actually cares where I publish my blog. But I am good at agonising for ages over things no one else will care about.

Have painful burn on finger, the result of clumsy attempt to pick up lamp and somehow managing to jam my finger against the hot light bulb. This was remarkably painful, and remained sore for a long time. It was for instance, more painful that jamming my forearm against the hot grill pan, something I've done on numerous occasions. I am quite used to clumsy household accidents, being quite clumsy. I’m so prone to household accidents it's probably a miracle I've survived this long.

Writing about Sex

I just wrote a story for Skin Two, the world's best known fetish/BDSM magazine. The story will be printed in the next issue, number 57, to be published in January.

Skin Two has a lot of glamorous fetish photography, but I also noticed, while perusing the last issue, that it doesn't shy away from the hard-core sex element of fetish. So I didn't want my story to shy away from that either, though I also wanted it to remain light and amusing. I think it worked quite well. Anyway, you can read it in January if you want.

So I expect a lot of people who look like this will soon be beating a path to my door, which is fine with me.

At the weekend I had a nice time at a book launch for Coven of One by Kate Bousfield. The event was organised by Debi Alper.

There's been a small gap in the availability of the import of The Good Fairies of New York in Britain, as the book sold out in the USA. However, it's being reprinted, and should be available again any time now. (Official release date in Britain is March. Hmm. That seems like a long time away.)

What else have I been doing? Well, watching football. Arsenal beat Spurs and then had a good draw with Chelsea, so I'm no longer feeling so depressed about football. But we have a tough match away to Wigan on Wednesday.

And watching TV. I watched Woody Allen's Manhattan, which I haven't seen for a while. I'd forgotten what a great film it is. I'm a fan of Woody Allen. Hannah and Her Sisters is another favourite, and Deconstructing Harry.

And I managed the scary process of buying a new battery - from China - for my iBook, and installing it without destroying my laptop. A small triumph, as I am very incompetent at all technical matters. I love my iBook, but it's becoming out of date now. I'd like a new Macbook, but can't afford it.

Blogging

I've been writing this blog on my myspace page for a few months, and now I'm putting it here as well.