Current mood:	calm
Current music:	The Guess Who: Greatest Hits

November
It's been a while since I updated, but at least it's been an interesting time between journal entries. Through the month of October, I continued to experience internet connection problems. I'm talking major headaches (connection speeds of 8K bps, getting bumped offline, line busy, etc.). Finally, it got to the point where I couldn't log onto the statewide toll-free dialup number and could only check my email once or twice a day using a toll number. I tried calling the company to report the problem, but no one was answering the phone. Then their toll number stopped working, so I made the call for a new ISP through a different company with a better service. Got it. Things are working better than ever and I'm very satisfied. My heart goes out to the folks with the old company who paid for their internet service months in advance. Word has it that the office at the old company has been completely cleaned out. Office furniture gone. I guess that would explain why they weren't answering their phones.

I voted yesterday. I had a bad stomach ache, but I made it out to the polls. I vote every time there's an election, not so much in the belief that my vote really counts but because I have the freedom to vote. My dad fought in Normandy on D-Day, and he was fighting for that kind of freedom. My teenage son cast his vote for the first yesterday...and it made me proud as a mom and an American to see him do that. He knew the issues on both sides of the ballot as we've had many (and I do mean many) discussions in our household over each candidate and what they stand for, and it's been interesting because ours is a bi-partisan household in that my husband and I each supported opposing sides in the presidential race. No fighting or arguing went on as we respect one another's opinion, but it made for some interesting political discussions and fortunately our son listened to the issues we're concerned about. I don't know who he voted for (I respect him too much to ask), but I'm positive that he was very aware of why he was voting and the issues he was voting for. Cheers to all the young people who voted for the first time yesterday!

The ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) for Ghosts of Eden arrived last week from Five Star/Thorndike--and I'm sooooo impressed! The coverart is beautiful, the typesetting perfect. I've poured through the novel and haven't found any corrections to be made. I'm anxious and excited to see this book in hardcover come January 21st! My teenage daughter just finished reading an ARC (this kiddo reads everything she can get her hands on--and she insisted on reading it). She called Ghosts "amazing and deep." Coming from a 13-going-on-40 reader, that's quite a compliment, especially since the novel takes place in 1947 (an era she used to consider "kind'a boring"). Now I have a feeling she's going to be looking for more novels that took place in the 40s :-)

Halloween came and went. We sacrificed a pumpkin and carved a raven sitting on a skull into it in memory of Poe. Had six trick-or-treaters, and watched some old horror movies on the VCR. Also watched 'Witch Hunt' on The History Channel, an indepth look at the Salem witch trials. So sad it tore at my heart, but very well done on part of the researchers and film crew. If you haven't had the chance to watch it, keep an eye out for the next time it comes on. I can't recommend it enough.

On the writing front, the screenplay for Mr. Crisper is finished and is being shopped around. I'm hard at work on my Isle of the Dead novel, and as always a handful of shorts.

Back to work for this kid. Have a great day, everyone!

~T. M.