Finished work on a new story. I'll be taking it down the editting road this week and plan to send it out to market next week.

September has turned out to be quite an expensive month for us. We had a wedding in the family and several birthday celebrations, which meant money spent on gifts and wedding accoutrements. Added to this, I splurged and visited a luxurious hair stylist. It was sinfully expensive, but well worth the visit as I bought a shampoo that seems to have solved my eternal struggle with stressed hair and dandruff. Look, Ma! Clean scalp!

Thankfully, we're still in the blue. Our tax return came in and I could heave a huge sigh of relief. Still, I do intend to keep a watchful eye on the budget this October.

Total extra expenses for the month of September(beyond our planned budget): three hundred euros. I'm spelling it out because it seems less sinful when spelled out than when written in numbers. lol.

October is coming up fast. My youngest brother will be visiting us for a few days (alas only five days) and we're planning a day trip to Amsterdam and quick trips to Haarlem and Gouda. I'm creating a fresh new budget for October and for the pasalubongs he'll be taking back with him. I do have bags full of baby clothes. Funny how the Dutchies seem not to want secondhand stuff from me...they love giving it to me (and I love receiving it, because toddler stuff is almost never on sale) but if I ask who wants something hand-me-down, no one raises their right hand.

On the exercise side: I've been walking everyday for the past couple of weeks, and I can feel my tummy shrinking. Today, I turned on the telly at 9 a.m. and did stretches and warm-ups with this program called "Nederland in Beweging" (translated: Netherlands in Action or better yet: Netherlanders Move It).

Alternate Girl: Working on a new segment for the Alternate Girl hay(na)ku. I love how characters just seem to jump out of walls and bridges confronting me with their story within this story.

I am also working on my first ever review for The Fix. My thanks to Marshall Payne for recommending me and encouraging me to join the review team. Marshall's a great guy who writes stuff that will twist your head off in a good way. I like how his work incorporates a sense of humor that I feel is essential in the sf&f genre.

In my own observation of the genre field, I've sometimes sensed a certain hostility towards what's seen as literary work, while on the other hand, there's also a strong desire to be viewed as literarily solid. It seems to be a desire to belong while still remaining outside of. I wonder how come certain works of speculative nature will be shut out by the literary powers-that-be whereas other work will be considered revolutionary and cutting edge.

Having said that, I'll be the first to admit that I'd like to be resistant to labelling. I mean, while I enjoy writing speculative fiction, I think I wouldn't be where I was as a writer of fiction if not for the influence poetry and journalism had on me. Whether we like it or not, I think poetry, arts, music and story writing are all relatives of each other and I like to see how great writers will engage in all of these disciplines because engaging all these will stretch you. I suppose what I'm saying here is that it's a good thing to go beyond traditional form, to make a break with traditional storytelling, to experiment and jump off a cliff even if it means no one will like what you're doing or that what you're doing is the least commercially viable product.

Being truthful and true to your art and to your story and to what the muse demands is more important than commercial viability in my books.

Anyway, I'm reading this new publication from The British Fantasy Society. I have this to say, I like how these Brits pick out their fiction :)