California dreamin' on such a winter's day

Words Written: damned if I know
Writing Stats: see below
Exercise: dancing to Alice Cooper, walking briskly through airports

Sale! “From Bitter to Sweet,” a funky little artsy erotic piece I wrote years ago, has been accepted for the Got a Minute anthology. Ah, that feels good.

And, another interview! The lovely and talented Vera Nazarian interviewed me as part of her Author Stop Tour series. (Check out the other interviews, too—she’s lined up an impressive set of excellent writers!)

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We’re in the Phoenix airport, soon to fly to LA, have dinner at The Encounter (that funky restaurant in the middle of LAX, that looks like one of John Christopher’s Tripods or something) with Tani before heading home. We’ve been visiting the fabulous Helen, which included going to the annual Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding benefit show. Six hours of music and comedy! The highlight (for us, anyway) was Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades together again. They’ve got a CD of 60s and 70s covers coming out next year, so three of their four songs were from that, including “California Dreamin’” for which they had an all-star backup chorus (Stephen Stills, Don Felder, etc.). Wow. Those boys have the most amazing harmonies…

Anyway, we managed to get into second row pit seats for their performance, and we wandered up to stand against the stage for Alice Cooper’s performance (with his original band, save the deceased member) and the finale. When that ended, Tommy came along the edge of the stage shaking attendees hands. When he got to us, his face lit up in recognition and appreciation at our presence. “Hi girls!” he said. Hee. Girls. So we chatted with him for a few moments, and I got him to pose with Santa for a great picture (Helen took the actual photo, above). Because nothing puts you in the holiday spirit like watching Santa rock out.

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Home now. The Encounter is a truly trippy restaurant. 60’s space theme—I kept expecting to see The Jetsons. I took a bunch of pictures with the camera on my phone, so if I ever figure out how to download pictures from my phone… The food was pricey, but excellent—I had duck, and will spend the next week eating no fat to compensate.

A busy-ish week ahead. Most of the presents are bought, wrapped, and mailed, but a few are still pending in each category. We need to get our various ducks in their rows (and if they don't stay there, we will eat them) before we leave for the holidays in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. That means finishing a story, editing two stories, reading all work submissions to date, dealing with various Styxfest stuff, and finishing all the shopping and wrapping, along with chiropractic appointments, exercise, a visit from the cleaning lady, and gods know what else. So I should probably stop rambling here and get to some of it!

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Currently Reading: Paloma, Kristine Kathryn Rusch; Wings to the Kingdom, Cherie Priest
Lately Listened To: 6 hours of music and comedy at the Alice Cooper Christmas Pudding benefit
Recently Watched: One With Everything: Styx and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra DVD