My first attempt at professional fiction writing in some time...finally done and submitted tonight.

Now I wait for the verdict...and move on to other stuff while I wait.

Here's hoping.

I had a good time of it there, between the volunteer duty and the events I watched as one of the crowd.

One of the highlights was meeting Mr. James Laxer. He's written two books, The Border and Empire: A Groundwork Guide. I've blogged briefly on the former title at least once about two years ago - has it been that long since I started this already? - as something I was actively reading, and I want to re-read it sooner than later now that I've got his "Sir John A." on the title page.

Even got a photo I was happy with.

And tomorrow, I've got another day-job, for a while at least. Still drawing Local Hero...and more on that later.

Some of you may have noticed Greg Rucka's gotten himself onto LJ at ruckawriter. Seems he's got another one of those novels of his featuring bodyguard Atticus Kodiak out in the shops as of this past week.

I've got pretty much the whole set, barring this latest installment. And seeing as I'm in one of those lean times where I can't yet afford all the books I want to buy, I still feel Greg's work is worthy of your support. It's right on the list next to that Bill Mauldin book I spotted at Perfect Books last weekend.

Just a thought.

A bunch of minor stuff this weekend...

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And here I sit, plotting a book sale or two of my own as I read this:

Canadian Press via CBC: Missouri bookstore owner burns books to decry decline of printed word

Something looks utterly wrong and insane to my eyes.

Some quick notes:

Been reading Honour Among Men, by Barbara Fradkin. It's the fifth novel in her Inspector Green series, it's set in and around the Ottawa-Gatineau area for the most part with a side trip to Nova Scotia for deep background and diary excerpts flashing back to the UN mission in the ex-Yugoslav states. I'm about half-done reading it, and it's a twisting read. More when I'm done.

Tax paperwork's done, and that's all I want to say about that subject.

I'm committing myself to the Toronto show in June. Details when I can share'em.

In between pages and panels being pencilled and inked, I've managed to make the following progress on my "want to read" list:

• The Shadow of Saganami is officially done. Heavy on the technobabble and political exposition, but then, that's part of the charm of the Honorverse novels, isn't it?


• Gail Bowen's The Last Good Day is about halfway done.

The other three I mentioned are still on hold as I mentioned in that earlier post. There's a couple of other non-fiction works I should probably mention, but they're both books on HTML coding.

More sooner than later...

I've got a bunch of books I want to either finish reading or get started on seriously reading shortly:

• The Border by James Laxer. Dealing with US/Canadian relations in the border communities in particular, both the long-term history and with some detailed focus on the post-9/11/2001 period.


• The Shadow of Saganami by David Weber. Part of the "Honorverse" collection of space opera novels set in the worlds of Honor Harrington, but not focused primarily on Honor herself. Weber's been finding more and more tangential characters and ideas set in those worlds that interest him in the last couple of years. Not a bad thing, I'm thinking.


• The Last Good Day by Gail Bowen. A Joanne Kilbourn mystery. These novels are largely set in various parts of Saskatchewan, where I spent a fair chunk of my youth. Hence at least part of the series' charm for me.


• Saskatchewan: A New History by Professor Bill Waiser. One of the things I happily credit Will Ferguson for is igniting a real interest in my own country's history. Between that general interest and the focus on my old home province here, I found myself faced with an irresistable combination.


• It's the Crude, Dude! (2nd Edition) by Linda McQuaig. You may or may not agree with her thinking or her conclusions on the whole WorldWide Oil Mess and US involvement in it, but I'd recommend at least borrowing it from your local library for a week or two to mull over the contents and conclusions.

With any luck, I can get through all of these in the next couple of months. I'm half-done with The Border and The Shadow of Saganami at this writing.

Yours,

Dwight