So yesterday I ventured out of the house--and not to get my teeth poked at! I met a friend for lunch, which was lovely, and stuffed myself with a crabcake sandwich and sweet potato fries, which sounds incredibly heavy and WAS, but also delicious. We poked into a knitting shop and I vowed to pick up my needles again because it's been almost a year since I've so much as purled and I'm hoping knitting is like the proverbial bike riding and I won't fall off when I try to start again.

And then I saw cows. The restaurant backs up to a pasture and there were honest-to-God COWS. I don't know if it's a Texas thing or just a weird me-thing, but I do love a nice cow. If you've never watched them, they're divinely relaxed. They just stand there, perfectly content with their lot in life. If I were to list the things I miss in having moved to Viriginia, seeing cows with any regularity would be in the top five. Believe me, I understand this is fully mental. But our neighborhood in Texas was bound on every side by pastures and I couldn't so much as drive to the grocery store without seeing something bovine. Of course, here in Virginia I actually know where to find a field full of ZEBRA, so the Old Dominion has its consolations.

It's been a challenging week, chickens, but you know the drill--revisions, moan, anxiety, whine, rewriting, sob. Lather, rinse, repeat. But I am making an effort to actually achieve better balance with this book than I usually do. When the massive project of replacing all the windows cropped up, I had the odd moment of stark raving panic, then said, "Fine," and let them come with their hammers and drills and saws instead of putting them off until spring. I have had lunches outside of the house with actual people, and today I have a massage scheduled to try to shift some of the knots that have settled like rocks into my muscles. I've also treated myself to novels, novels that have nothing whatsoever to do with my work, for the first time in AGES. I've read all but one of Joshilyn Jackson's books--divine, by the way. And I started on C. W. Gortner's historical novels. I just read The Last Queen, a fascinating take on Spain's mad Queen Juana. I've loaded about twenty samples of other tempting things onto my Fire, and it feels absolutely decadent to just soak in fiction like a word bath.*Sigh*

And I've also had some LOVELY news! Several months back the graciously fabulous actress Felicia Day tweeted about my books. She's quite fond of Julia Grey and has posted reviews on her blog. Well, she's recently started a video book chat with her pals Kiala, Bonnie, and Veronica called Vaginal Fantasy. And no, it's not for sensitive and thoughtful lady porn. It's for woman-centered fiction, often paranormal or fantasy or historical. Once a month they're making a selection and chatting it up in a four-way video podcast and, this is where I went SQUEEE, Silent in the Grave is their February pick! Here's the Goodreads announcement and the Facebook link. All the details of the live chat are there, so do drop by and check it out!

Don't forget the Poisoned Pen event on Febrary 16 if you happen to be in the Phoenix area--details on the Tours page, peeps!

Sort of. It's difficult to explain, chickens, but I've got sort of a half-life going on right now. At any given time I'm bodily present, but the mind is SO not. Some refer to it as "book brain", and that's as good a term as any. For me it means the point at which the creative takes OVER. I immerse myself fully when I'm working to the extent that I don't hear much of what goes on around me. (My father seemed surprised that I had the same Duke Ellington song on repeat while I work until I explained that after the first time or two it plays, I literally do not hear it.) The state is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi referred to as "flow", when the conscious is so entirely submerged in what you're engaged in that outside stimulus doesn't really intrude. Hours can pass in that state, and that's what has been happening to me. Twice last week I looked up to find it was mid-afternoon and I'd completely forgotten to eat lunch. (And if you've ever met me, you'd know that does NOT happen to me. I can wilt into the carpet if I don't eat every four hours or so.)

The great thing about book brain is that the creativity is FULLY engaged. Your mind is sharper and clearer, all the synapses are firing, and you're making connections you might not otherwise make. The downside is that it DOESN'T KNOW WHEN TO SHUT OFF. I am a champion sleeper, but the last several nights I've noticed that when I turn out the light, I will often get zapped with a metaphor I suddenly want to include in the book. (Back on goes the light so I can scribble in my bedside notebook. There's no such thing as leaving that stuff until morning. Trust me, it will be LONG gone, leaving not so much as a skid mark behind.)

The other downside to book brain is that it often leaves you severely witless for any other function. Just today I spent thirty seconds staring at my yahoo inbox trying to find the delete button. You know, the button that is in PRECISELY the same spot it has been for years now. The one that very clearly actually says DELETE. Yep, couldn't find it.

And I'm content to sit and stare into space and let others bring me food whenever it's convenient because it's easier than trying to figure out what to fix myself. (This doesn't extend to grooming. I'm a Texas girl. The day I forget my mascara is the day the EARTH WILL END.)

Of course, it just occurs to me that in describing this, I've made it sound like one of the lower magnitude disorders on the DSM-IV. God, for all I know, it IS. The only saving grace here is that I knew when it would come and I know how long it will last. I was able to plan for it and the inevitable hermit-crab behavior that accompanies it. I don't know about other writers, but I have a deep aversion to going out during book brain episodes. This isn't always possible to avoid, and it's certainly not healthy. So this time I've alternated weeks where the only person I've seen outside the family is my dentist with weeks where I'm actually being sociable. And seeing my dentist. (Seriously--four visits in the last month. Another one today. Next one in four weeks. The only reason I haven't had a complete meltdown about all this dental work is that it's going REALLY well.)

So that's book brain, my darlings, and it leaves me little time or energy for anything else at all. I'm barely keeping up with my social media and my email is dealt with on a triage-only basis and I can't even figure out how to end this post so I'm just going to stop here.

I've stated before--loudly and in public forums--that I love mine. And it's not just artistic hyperbole. My agent is good people. She does the things for me that need to get done in my career that I lack either the skill or desire to do myself. She wades in and fights the good fight and won't hesitate to bloody her sword for a cause. But she also knows to pick her battles, and she has my back. These are essential things, and I chose her like I chose my husband--based on my gut. Both decisions served me well, and both have lasted YEARS. (My agent and I have been together for more than a decade now.)

She has taught me as much as I want to know about the business, and to her everlasting credit, she doesn't freak out about the stuff I don't care to learn. (If you aren't careful you can spend 1% of your time writing and 99% screwing around with stuff that doesn't really matter.) She is also the person who correctly identified my problem getting published, and--more crucially--TOLD ME HOW TO FIX IT. She holds my hand, she cuts my checks, and she is THE person in the publishing world whose job is to have my back. Bottom line? She gets me, and that is a wonderful thing in this business. I am grateful every day that I found her and that she stuck with me through YEARS of rejections without losing faith or charging me for so much as a postage stamp.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that agents rock, at least mine does. And if you're curious about the ways of agents, Chuck Wendig's post is a superb place to start.

Work, work, work, revise, revise, revise. This is my mantra, chickens, and it's about all I'm doing these days. The process I'm using is still new enough to unnerve me, but I keep talking myself down and swearing that it will all be FINE, just SHUT UP ALREADY. (Sometimes you have to be firm with the voices in your head.) The actual mantra I keep using is "All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things shall be well", a quote from the mystic Julian of Norwich, an English anchorite. I came across it in a book by Alexandra Stoddard about twenty years ago, and it's served me well.

Anyway, dental work was partially concluded yesterday--at least the painful part. I feel as if someone Snookied me in the mouth today, but at least no more drinking hot tea through a straw and I'm clear to have red wine again! (Between switching to white wine and using a straw for my tea, it's been a strange month, not to mention gnawing off tiny bites of food with my back teeth instead of using my front teeth at all.) I do have to go back Monday for a new round of treatments, but nothing painful or invasive, and probably only three appointments at most. This tunnel? Yes, there's a light and I see it.

As a lovely treat, when I arrived home yesterday, numb and puffy and sore, I had a prezzie waiting in the mailbox. Eva Stachniak very sweetly sent me a copy of The Winter Palace! My manuscript copy of course got trashed as soon as I read it--I NEVER keep other people's manuscripts lying around. Anyway, I was thrilled to get a copy to keep, and even more delighted by her very gracious inscription.

Inscriptions are a weird thing. I exchanged books with Joshilyn Jackson recently, and I autographed them but didn't write anything else because I was afraid she might not enjoy them and I wanted her to be able to get rid of them easily. Then I got hers in the mail and the inscriptions were witty and personal and I felt like a toad. (And I LOVED her books, so I'm even happier that she personalized them.) Of course, then I find out she went out and bought the rest of the Julia Grey series so she'd have her own copies and felt even worse about not personalizing the ones I sent. Je suis un dork. I'm pretty sure that's correct French, no?

Sometimes in spite of all your best efforts, you just can't settle your monkey mind to work. Usually, these are the days that you have to whip into shape and make your minion. But my excuse today is that I have to go in for dental work later today--hopefully the LAST until April--and there will be Valium and many, many shots. Last visit took eight, three of them in precisely the same spot because IT WOULD NOT STAY NUMB. The side effect of this was a massive trout pout--seriously, I looked like I was auditioning for the cast of "Real Housewives of My House".

Anyway, I'm finding myself completely unable to hunker down and work, so I thought I'd do something moderately useful and blog about avoidance techniques.

1. Blog. See what I did there? Totally intentional.

2. Youtube. I watched literal videos, my favorites being MeatLoaf and A-ha. (As I tweeted, I am a child of the '80s. I can ponder Morten's existential crisis as a half-man, half-doodle for AGES.) I remember dancing to that song during my senior year. It was the very last dance of our back-to-school extravaganza and I was dancing on a table top with a guy I adored who was never more than a friend. That song always brings back very good memories, and I say this as a person who isn't overly-sentimental. (BTW, did y'all know that A-ha apparently stayed together until 2010 and that the lead singer--the previously referenced Morten--has aged QUITE well? We're talking Kobe beef type of good aging. True story.)

3. Sister Mary Pugnacious. My boxing nun hand puppet whom I gave what sounded like a suitably and aggressively Catholic name.

4. More Youtube. Now I'm just pulling up '80s music to listen to because I'm too lazy to switch my earbuds to my iPod or open iTunes.

5. Checking the 2012 college football schedules. Longhorns kick off September 1. Thought you'd like to know.

6. Looking up random words in Swahili. Bacon is "bekoni". Which makes perfect sense.

7. Scaring the dog with my chair dancing to '80s music.

8. Induling in weltschmertz because "Mystery Science Theatre 3000" is no more.

9. Being grateful to the Germans and "The Big Bang Theory" for introducing weltschmertz to my vocabulary.

10. Being glad I have readers who may or may not have stopped reading at #1.

But it might be useful, so here goes: when I'm writing, I try to immerse myself as much as possible in sensory experiences that tie into the book. For a Victorian book, tea and shortbread and violins do the trick, but this current book has taken me further afield. I've created my usual collage and I've mixed Black Velvet cocktails--champagne and Guinness, and I keep a replica of a lion's tooth on my desk for playing with while I'm waiting for the computer to warm up. I have Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-Do" on repeat and have listened to it literally hundreds of times since I started revising. (I always thought I disliked jazz. It turns out I don't really appreciate modern jazz, but the Harlem speakeasy stuff is FAB.)

I've also brought in a lot of scents. Fragrance can conjure a character better than almost any other sense, I've found. I bought a tea olive candle in New Orleans and burn it while I'm writing. (It reminds me of standing in a French Quarter courtyard under a tea olive tree that was just beginning to bloom.) I've taken a bundle of vetiver tied with a ribbon and tucked it into a bookcase to sniff from time to time. And, perhaps not too strangely, I've found myself gravitating toward perfumes that my character might have worn, nothing flowery or feminine, but gutsy, bold fragrances that are decidedly masculine.

And speaking of fragrances, if you find yourself struggling to add sensory details to writing, there are a few easy tricks to get yourself into the mood. First, poetry. For metaphor and rhythm, you can't do better than poetry. Poets do in 100 words what takes me 100,000. I always keep a few books of poetry close at hand, and I adore the Everyman editions, particularly the themed collections. Whether you want poems about sleep or death, dogs or love, there's a collection to suit most interests. I'm collecting them slowly and have been known to toss one into a glove compartment to make sure even the car is equipped with poetry. (I don't have to anymore, though. I just downloaded the IF app for my iPhone, and it was WELL worth the $2.99. Loads of gorgeous classic poems, many for children, some not, and read by Bill Nighy and Helena Bonham Carter.)

Besides poetry, you can also read eloquent cookbooks to write more sensually about food and drink. I read Nigella Lawson not because I'm all that interested in cooking but because I love her no-holds-barred appreciation for food. She comments on taste, color, texture, and does it with originality. (Who else would think of comparing the consistency of a pudding to the sensual wobble of the inner thigh of a courtesan?)

If you're looking to add aural or olfactory details, read reviews of music and perfume. They're written by people who engage deeply with those senses, and some of the language might surprise you and at least prod you to think differently.

Yes, chickens, I have turned the tables! I decided to pose questions to one of my favorite bookselling peeps and see what the view from the other side of the register is like. John is the publicity manager for Murder by the Book, my much-loved home bookstore in Texas. I first "met" John virtually when we connected over Twitter and he was working at Borders. Since then he's found a wonderful home at MBTB where his knowledge and skills are put to excellent use, sometimes as my platonic boyfriend and dinner date when I'm in Houston. HUGE thanks to John for taking the time to be my first guinea pig!

1. What brought you into bookselling?

I had worked in a bookstore/cafe on the cafe side and really loved
helping when they needed it on the book side, and loved it.  A few
years later when I needed a job I thought I would give Borders a try.
It seemed like the perfect fit.  I called them to check on my
application and they couldn't find it, but set up an interview anyway.
 I found my application at home an hour later.  I had forgotten to
drop it off, so I rushed up to the store and nonchalantly dropped it
off.  I started as a part time cashier and immediately loved it.

2. Do you ever try to lure readers out of their comfort zone and into
something scandalously different than what they would ordinarily read?

There are some customers that will take anything you recommend whether
it's what they read or not, but there are a lot of readers that have
very specific rules about what they will and won't read.  The trick is
to slowly lure them out of their comfort zone.  If you draw them out
too quickly they don't take your recommendations anymore! (I still
have one customer who refuses to listen to my recommendations because
I recommended something that she thought was too frilly for her.)

3. Some booksellers feel that e-readers are the devil incarnate;
others believe anything that promotes reading benefits everybody in
the business. Where do you stand on e-readers?

I love the experience of reading a paper book.  I like being able to
put my bookmark in the book and see the progress I'm making.  I'm sure
we all have our own little quirks and rituals while reading, and for
me reading is as much about the experience of sitting down to read a
book as it is about the content of the book.

Having said that, I think eReaders definitely have their place.  It's
definitely made getting  advanced reader copies of books easier as
publishers have started making a lot of them available as eBooks.  The
last few things I've downloaded have been 2 ARCs, 2 eNovellas, and one
mystery that's out of print by available as an eBook.

Given the choice, I'd take a paper book over an eBook every time, but
it's great to see that there are so many options out there.  And like
you said, anything that promotes reading benefits us all.  I
especially love that Google has partnered up with independent
bookstores to make it easier for us to jump into the eBook game as
well.

4. Which dead author do you mourn the most?

Don't laugh, but I'm seriously mourning the loss of Olivia Goldsmith
right now.  Her books were just scandalous and full of juicy gossip,
but at the same time had wonderful characters that you really cared
about.  Her take on pop culture was genius, and I would love to see
what she would right about current pop culture.  Sadly, she died
during routine plastic surgery.

5. Describe your favorite customer.

My favorite customer is the one that will take a chance on a book when
you say, "I know this might be a stretch but I think you're really
going to like this."  It doesn't even matter if they like it or not. I
also love customers that report back on what they've read and
recommend books to me.  Bookselling is so much more fun when you're
selling to someone that is engaged and excited about what they're
reading.

6. When the weather is gloomy and you are feeling blue, what do you
read for comfort?

Daphne Du Maurier is one of my favorite comfort reads, especially if
it's really gloomy.  She's written so many novels, so I just go grab
one that I haven't read before, or get one of her many short story
collection and read a few.  So many of her short stories read like
Twilight Zone episodes.

7. What would you be doing if you weren’t matchmaking readers with
glorious books?

I honestly have no idea!  When things started getting dicey at Borders
I started trying to thinking about other options and was stumped.
I've worked with books for almost 10 years now and can't imagine not
spending my day surrounded by books.  I'd like to think I would do
something like teach so I could still talk about books all day.

8. What is your craziest bookseller tale?

All my crazy stories seem to revolve around political books.  Working
at Borders during the 2004 presidential election was brutal.  We would
find Bush books turned over so people couldn't see what they were,
Kerry books thrown in the trash by customers, political biographies
reshelved in the fiction section, and all kinds of creative ways to
censor the reading habits of other customers.

I once had a customer buy a Glenn Beck book and get upset because we
weren't selling the book for $9.99 like Walmart was.  Walmart was sold
out of the book, and after he begrudgingly paid retail price for it he
carried it over his head screaming, "this is the number one book in
America" all the way from the cash register to the front door.  All
the booksellers spent the next few days randomly declaring other
titles as the number one book in America.

9. Which author do you push the most on your customers? Why? (See what I did there, sneaking in an extra question?)

Obviously Deanna Raybourn's books because they're just as fabulous as
she is!  Aside from those, one of my favorite authors to handsell is
Arturo Perez Reverte.  He's probably better known for his Captain
Alatriste series, but he also writes fantastic standalone mysteries.
All of his books are beautifully written, well-researched, and cover a
wide range of topics from art, architecture, literature, fencing, and
drug smuggling.

10. Tell me a secret about you that nobody knows.

I couldn't tie my own shoes until I was in 3rd grade.  I know that's
not very scandalous, but it is a little sad.


John lives in Houston, TX where he is Publicity Manager for Murder By
The Book.  He spent 7 years at Borders prior to joining the MBTB team.
John enjoys trips to Las Vegas, seeing musicals, and spending his
days off at the park.

So this weekend I got scads of things accomplished, including watching three football games--only one of which turned out the way I hoped. The good news is, this means I can care almost nothing at all about what happens from this point forward. (Football season is exhausting, no?)

I made curtains for my study and one bathroom and they turned out just as I wanted--something of a miracle considering the fact that I used massive amounts of fusible bonding and prayer to make them. But I've found pom-pom trim can improve almost anything, so it's all good.

I've also made great inroads on the revisions, and FINALLY this book is coming together. Some books you have a handle on from minute one. From the very first hint of a germ of a speck of an idea, you have it. Others you have to push grimly through until they decide to reveal themselves, and believe me, this was one of those. It played coy until I sat down to revise and there, without fanfare or trumpets or choirs of angels, it quietly sat down and said, "Here I am. Were you looking for me?" UM, YES, YES, I WAS. I've been chasing this book for ten months, so to have it coming together now is so profoundly awesome that I am hyperventilating with gratitude and if I thought about it, I'd have to go fetal under my desk. If you're interested in the actual process bits of it, I'm working every day to keep the momentum going. I print out what I've done and sometime later that day I read over it, marking what needs to be smoothed out when I sit down the next morning. Those changes get put in first, then I move on to the fresh material. By doing this, I'm technically doing two revisions at once, one to refine the plot, the second to tighten the language.

Onto appearance news, if you happen to be in the greater Phoenix area, or just feel like traveling to the desert, I will be at the Poisoned Pen on February 16 at 7pm! They graciously rescheduled me after I had to cancel my November appointment due to an emergency, and I am so appreciative. I will get to sign with Lauren Willig--always a hoot!--and there will be chocolates and champagne! Come join us--and if you can't but would like a signed book, just call ahead and the fab peeps at the Poisoned Pen will make sure you get a copy signed while I'm there. Can't wait!

O, happy day! The painters actually finished inside two days early. In the words of Caroline Bingley, I am all astonishment! It's still a little odd--I have to tape up sheets inside to keep from being face to face with a painter from six inches away as he works on the outside of the house and I scribble away on my computer, but that is a SMALL price to pay for getting to actually work at my desk. What powerful mogambo you have, chickens!

So, today was one of those terrifying days when you have to sit down and face the dragon. It blew fiery breath at my feet and singed my shoes, but I lived to tell the tale. What that means in practical terms is that revisions are scary and there is no remedy but sitting down and writing. And I don't say that just because I'm having a bit of a moan and want someone to pat me on the head and offer me chocolate consolations. I say it because I know a lot of aspiring writers pop by here, and I want you to know that this is normal. It happens to most of us, as nearly as I can make out, and it doesn't really go away--not if you are challenging yourself. If you are coasting along, I imagine these fears are the merest whisper, but if you are really pushing yourself to go places you haven't the faintest notion of how to get to, make friends with anxiety now, darlings, because she's not going anywhere. And that's fine, so long as you recognize it for what it is and use its powers for good. Whatever you do, do NOT let it paralyze you. We are mammals, my treasures, and sometimes our primal response is to sit very quietly until the scary thing with teeth and claws creeps away. But here's the trouble with that--fear will always sniff you out. It will find your hiding place if you just sit still and wait for it. So what's the solution?

Run like hell. Run far, run fast, and run through your words. If you're busy writing, you can't be busy grinding your guts to powder over what you're doing. You might be scared before, you might be scared after. You will not be scared during. We're not that smart. Our brains will focus on the task at hand, we will enter the state of flow, and fear has no place there.

And believe me, I know about fear. Ever since I got published, I have experienced fear at a gut level, and I speak literally here, not metaphorically. I have had anxiety so bad that when I went to sit at my desk and start a book or a massive revision, I've gotten up, been sick, and gone right back to work. That's fear, darlings. But guess what? That bitch doesn't get to win. I DO. So that's why every time I've been driven from my desk, I've gone right back and kept working. Fear is just smoke and mirrors. So blow away the smoke and shatter the mirrors and KEEP GOING. Because if you're a writer, you don't have a choice.

If you'd like a great tool to help, this link was posted on a writers' group loop I belong to--it's a writing blog called Writers in the Storm and the topic is putting your brain to work for you. It's superb.

It's my last peaceful day this week--painter is supposed to come tomorrow!--and I'm powering through, getting masses of sundry things done while I can. (And if you are at all in possession of mystical powers, throw me a bone here, I beg of you, and perform some mighty mogambo to get my part of the house painted and finished by Friday afternoon so I can be DONE. Seriously--I would probably sob with gratitude if I could put the renovation stuff to bed and have nothing but a few piddly details left to sort. SOB, I tell you.)

But in the midst of the crazy, there is some lovely. First, and this is tiny, miniscule, and absurd, but I can't tell you how it cheered me--I had a wee library fine. Completely wee--twenty cents--and it wasn't even mine. Someone, rhymes with "maughter", borrowed my card and kept a book for two extra days. No worries, and she ponied up a quarter to see me in the clear. I discovered it the last time I was in the library and my purse was in the car. I offered to go fetch it, but librarian very kindly said not to bother and checked out my new books for me. So today I went, quarter in hand, ready to pay--and it had been cleared.

Now, this is a very small kindness, but goodness ME. It absolutely tickled me that librarian cleared out my fine. We had joked about how it MUST have been someone else's overdue book because I am diligent about turning everything in on time and was deeply mortified to have a fine at all. (Yes, I am a completely nerdly library-pleaser. I own it.) I don't know if she was just in a good mood or if it was because I make a habit of always turning things in on time or if she was practicing random acts of kindness, but it made me smile. It's like when you're trying to get into a crowded lane and someone unexpectedly waves you in. It's just civilized and makes things so much nicer, no? And it makes me want to slow down a bit and try to be a little kinder in my day to day interactions.

Another bit of loveliness is that dear Eva Stachniak is releasing her divine novel, The Winter Palace, in the US TODAY! It's a novel of the court of Catherine the Great, and truly wonderful. I was fortunate enough to read it in advance, and was thrilled to give it a glowing blurb because Eva is superbly talented. Somehow she manages to create an enigmatic heroine that I felt I hardly knew but cared about deeply. If you think about it, that's an extremely, HEROICALLY difficult task for a writer. Her Barbara is mysterious and complex, and I was often surprised by her, but nothing she did ever felt out of character, and that mysterious quality was profoundly engaging. Sorry, I'll stop gushing now. But it's fab--go buy it. (And if you get a chance, tweet something lovely at Eva, she is genuinely one of the humblest, loveliest folks.)

If you aren't entering the montly contests here in my little corner of the interwebs, DO check out this month's. It's the VERY LAST TIME I am giving away a signed first edition HARDCOVER of Silent in the Grave because it's my very last one! Aside from the one I'm keeping for myself, obvs. Usual contest rules apply. In subsequent months, I'm going to be giving away copies of the Australian editions, and let me tell you now, they are FABULOUS. The Australian editions are huge oversize trade paperbacks with gorgeous covers and according to the covers, sell for absurdly high prices. (Honestly, God bless any Aussie who buys books because they must mortgage their houses to do it. I have no idea why books are so costly there, but I've heard from friends who moved to Oz that it's one of the biggest expenditure, comparatively speaking.) So, do keep an eye on the first of each month for the contest changes and enter to win!

And finally, a reader did something for me today that I am still shaking my head over because it was so incredibly generous. Last week Alecia mentioned in the comments that she had seen a documentary in Australia that might help with my research. Unfortunately, video copyright laws being what they are, I couldn't view it in the US and was gnashing my teeth because she was absolutely correct--it looked DIVINE. And dear Alecia WROTE A TRANSCRIPT of the documentary for me. It's pages, chickens, PAGES AND PAGES of work solely to help me out without being asked. I am truly boggled and finding that words like "thanks" and "gratitude" are grossly inadequate in the face of such generosity. So, huge shout-out to Alecia for her loveliness!