Writing is a strange profession. There are long dry spells when everything is in the mail and nothing is resolved or finished. And then there are gift days. Today, I got three gifts from afar….

A copy of Mallorn, the Journal of the Tolkien Society, with a story of mine in it. Now how cool is that? I love Tolkien, and the journal is great. I mean, if there’s a Heinlein society, and there is, why wouldn’t there be a Tolkien Society? Still, very cool. It’s also a fun and very short bit, as much a scene as a story, set in the universe of Mayan December (I stacked all my research books from that yesterday and I must have read a million words to prepare for that book and that world, which makes me think I need to set something else there, too).

Now, Mallorn came from England, and the stamp even says Royal Mail. Sometimes, it’s the little things, you know. I also got my copy of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2. This also has a story of mine – a science fiction story about a real girl and her virtual twin sister. Not to mention stories by some of my favorite sf authors – so I’m really looking forward to reading the silly thing. That came from England, too, and the books had to go through customs. The cover is grand, and the table of contents includes writers like Michael Moorock and Karl Schroeder and Neal Asher and Kay Kenyon. So that’s two things I’m tickled to have been included in.

And then, from closer to home, but still all the way across the country in New York, New York, I got a second set of advanced reading copies for my book, READING THE WIND, with actually pretty covers – or at least prettier than the plain yellow on the previous ones. Which tells me the Tor marketing folk are working on my behalf, which is always cool to know.

A pretty good day.