Went to Zumba at 9:30 this morning for the ass-kicking. (I swear I'm burning at least 500 calories in that hour.)

Got 2115 words today on novel #1.   (Major rewrites suck.  At least I've finally figured out what I'm doing.)

Ate 6 Grasshopper cookies  (Damn you Keebler elves!)

Sent section of novel #2 to writing group for discussion on Wednesday.  (Love my group.)

And now.. it is nap time.  I don't expect nap time to last very long, as the baby has been asleep for 2 straight hours, (allowing for the writing time - yay!), and she's only good in 3 hours stretches most of the time.  But naps are healthy, and I have earned it.

So there.

So far, so good.

Last night I got a thousand words down on my second novel in progress.  I've about decided that I'm going to experiment with self e-publishing with this piece, because it's not the main genre I want to write in, so if it goes badly, then hopefully I won't screw up my chances at traditional publishing.

A lot of literary agents / editors / publishers are blogging about the changing publishing environment, and the possibility that someday soon, all books will be e-books.  I don't believe this will be the case, (though in fairness, I am about two steps from a Luddite and hate reading books electronically, so my opinion could be catastrophically wrong.)

I think e-books are here to stay, and that they will be extremely popular in the future.  However, they are a different enough format from traditional tree-flavor books that I don't think they are in a Highlander situation here.   When movies and television started up, people stated that it would be an end to reading.  Who would spend 3 hours reading a 300 page book on WWII when there was a snazzy movie with hot-bodied celebs to display pertinent information in a handy 150 minutes?  As it turns out, a lot of people.  The people who were prone to watching the movies instead of reading the book were, in a lot of cases, not the sort of people who were going to read the book anyways.

However, I think e-publishing in certain genres will be the way to go.  Young Adult of course, and the cheap romance / fantasy / sci-fi novels.  Those genres are full of people buying in bulk and volume, without expecting much in the way of emotional depth or re-readability.  (As an aside, I like all four of those categories, but I rarely buy any books in them, because I buy those books I would want to re-read.  Urges to read those categories are satisfied by my library card.)

I don't think mystery fiction will go that route as wholeheartedly, because mystery-lovers strike me as traditional readers.  They find something they like, and stick with it.  They're also typically looking for a little more from their books than a cheap thrill.  They want to be intellectually stimulated, and it's rare to see sloppily-written mystery fiction churned out with the same frequency as the other categories mentioned above.

We'll see, I suppose.  In the meantime, back to writing.  

Spider's back!

And this time, the poor bastard lost his lunch.  He had a full spiral web, about a foot across between the side mirror and the door.  I again, didn't check for a spider before getting in the van, but as I was pulling out of the driveway, I noticed he was asleep (all hunched together, legs tucked in, not moving) in the upper middle of the web, and there was a bug in the dead center, all wrapped up.

Well, he woke up pretty quickly once the van started moving, (though I didn't get above 20 mph, to give him a chance to duck back into the mirror.   It took him about three blocks to decide this wasn't going away, and he abandoned the web, and dove into the mirror.  Unfortunately most of the web, including the part with the fly in it, blew off. 

Poor guy.   I'll try to get a good picture of him to post.

I hit the 9:30 Zumba class at the gym and it was an excellent workout.  I was sweating from crown to toes.  I had sweat beading the entire length of my arms.  She does a "toning" regimen after the hour of Zumba for another 15-30 minutes, but I'd told the MIL / babysitter that it was an hour class, and I didn't want to worry her by being late.

Now it is time to paint.  I had a scroll request from the Baron & Baroness of the local SCA group for an extra special piece of court business, and I've been fiddle-farting about on it for the last month or so.  (Painting bits here and there.  There's not THAT much left to do, but none of the calligraphy is done, and the illumination still has a few hours to go.)  My normal style of illumination is to sit down for long 6-8 hour chunks at a time, but the New Addition in my life makes that impossible.  If I get two hours straight, it's a bloody miracle.  Especially if someone keeps dropping her Soothie, and waking up because of it.

Later this afternoon, I'm going to finish the pell I've been working on for two years.  (I have the post in the concrete bucket.  But I need to sink the bucket in the yard, and pad the pole with the pipe insulation and ducktape so I can practice whacking without blowing out my wrist and shoulder.
I've also realized that unless I want permanent standing water, I'd better drill some holes right at the concrete line so it will drain.