My review of the live radio serial, Snow Bank, is up at SFFAudio .

You can hear the short story I recorded for Tobias S. Buckell online at Telltale Weekly. Tobias has collected a series of audio shorts with various readers. Go check it out.

I came down with the beginnings of a headcold on Monday and it went full bore today. This is what I get for working with kids. It’s been a year and a half since I got sick and now twice in two weeks. The common factor both times? I got sick the day after I worked with kids. I guess my defenses are lower now since I don’t tour to schools anymore.

Ooo! So exciting. I got to look at the galley for my short story Portrait of Ari. It looks like it will run on January 30, 2006. I’ll post the link when it is live.

The Cinnamon Bear was a holiday radio show in 1937 that began in Portland, OR. The Cinnamon Bear went on to become a costume character at Lipman-Wolfe and other department stores around the country during the holiday season.

The Portland Spirit has revived this Portland tradition with a cruise. So, dressed as Raggedy Andy, I spent two hours surrounded by children and their families. I did my standard bussing of tables but I also did magic tricks. It’s a little embarrassing, but I actually enjoyed it. I’m exhausted, but making a handkerchief disappear and pulling it out of kids’ ears was fun. But did I mention the exhaustion part? It was like doing a two hour stage show without ever being allowed to go off stage. Exhilerating and punishing at the same time.

Next week we are doing two of them, back-to-back. I’m terrified.

Rob and I went down to visit our friends David and Eve this evening for one of our traditional pizza and movie nights. The offering this evening was Girl with a Pearl Earring, which I had missed when it was in the theater.

I loved it. Not only is it beautifully filmed, the story is told almost completely without words. It’s the closest you’ll get to a silent film these days. Sure, there’s dialogue, but most of the story is told with looks or action.

In Physical Therapy we’ve moved to strengthening exercises, which is good because it means that my shoulder is stablizing but it is kicking my hiney. Mostly we’re doing theraband exercises and weights but today I was introduced to the Bodyblade.

It looks like some bizarre martial arts weapon suited to ninjas. To use it, you have to shake it back and forth so that the ends wiggle. Apparently this requires a stable shoulder. I felt so inept while I was trying to get this thing to go. But if I keep working, then maybe someday I’ll get to be a ninja.

Rob and I are hunkering down and enjoying some quiet time. We’re making dinner for ourselves this evening.

Rob is picking wine, but I don’t know what it is.

Don’t get me wrong. The dragons were great, but the movie as a whole just dragged on and on. I won’t write more, because I don’t want to present spoilers, but it was not one of my favorites.

Wow. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. I went back to the school I taught at a couple of weeks ago for a follow-up visit. The plan was to watch snippets of the kids’ shows and give them feedback. In the space of two hours I saw 30+ playlets. My eyes were crossing by the end of it.

Good heavens.

They did a really nice job building their puppets, but I kept giving the same notes over and over. “Stay tall, I can only see the head of your puppet.” “Look at the character who is talking.” “Don’t walk sideways. Focus on where the puppet is going.” “Memorize your script and watch your puppet because right now, your puppet is dead.”

Still it was exciting to see. I wish the school wasn’t so far away because I would love to go back to see final shows.

My review of Granny: a Ghost story of the North Carolina Mountains is up at sffaudio.com.

Ah, today has been lovely. Rob and I slept in, which is always a good way to start the day. Then Wayne came by and took us out to brunch at Beaterville.

I did a little housecleaning and worked on the puppets, because I finally have my sewing machine back. Thank heavens. It had a broken bobbin casing, but works beautifully now.

The most fun, thus far, came when Susan Marie Groppi of Strange Horizons sent me the edits for Portrait of Ari. That was such a relief to see because I agreed with every one of her edits. Only one presented any problems and that was simply because I didn’t know how to fix it. Tom, my main character, is an art major and tends to think of things in terms of art, even his girlfriend, Ari. So at one point I wrote, “Looking toward the ceiling, Ari raised her arms as if she were Michelangelo’s Notre Dame Pieta.”

Susan said, “On the Pieta–I admit to not knowing much about art on my own, but I did some web searching, and can’t find any relevant Notre Dame Pieta. The best I’ve come up with is that there’s a reproduction of the Vatican Pieta at the Notre Dame des Nieges cemetary, but that Pieta is Mary holding the body of Christ, and I can’t see anything in that sculpture that would be evoked by Ari raising her arms upward. Help?”

Which means that the piece of art I referenced isn’t doing its job and I need to come up with another one. The reason that is a problem is that I’m uncertain which ones are pieces people are familiar with and which ones are ones that I know because I was an art major. Here’s the drawing I referenced, if you are curious.

The line now reads, “Looking toward the ceiling, Ari raised her arms as if she were one of Goya’s martyrs.” Honestly, I don’t know if that is a clearer reference or not. I’ll let you know what Susan says.

And now for the last lovely thing. As an anniversary present, Rob and I have treated ourselves to a massage. At the moment, Rob is downstairs receiving a massage from Kris and I will go down when he is finished for my turn. Then it’s straight to bed.

See, that is a lovely day.

Rob and I are going to dinner at Tabla tonight to celebrate the only time I will ever get him to dance.

There’s an op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled, Zuckerman Juiced which makes me chuckle.

Today I started with Physical therapy. In good news, we’ve switched from focusing on stabalizing the shoulder, to strengthening it. I was a little sore after therapy, but I think it’s all good.

After that, worked on finishing the stitching on those Kids on the Block puppets. My sewing machine jammed about three weeks ago, but I haven’t been able to take it to the repair shop because it was heavier than my 10 pound weight restriction.

So Rob and I went down to drop it off today. As fate would have it, the moment the guy at the store touched it, whatever had jammed it up came free. So we packed it up and came back home, where it failed to work. I worked on the puppets until about 10:00 pm and then switched to the novel. I’m now at 22, 374 words and Chapter 11.

If anyone wants to read this thing, by the way, just drop me a line and I’ll send chapters over to you.