paulmelko's (Paul Melko's) first novel Singularity's Ring debuts today. Honestly? I haven't read it yet. But I have read his short fiction and parts of his novels in-progress, so I'm absolutely confident that I'm going to like Singularity's Ring a whole bunch, and perhaps you will too. Thing is, you won't know unless you buy it, so you know what you have to do.

Also, sandramcdonald's (Sandra McDonald's) novel The Outback Stars is now out in paperback. It's got cosmic grandeur, suspenseful action, workplace conflict, and romance, all on a big starship in space. It's really, really good, and if you read it now, you'll be ready for The Stars Down Under, Sandra's follow-up book, which comes out this May March.

***

Another reason why Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash is my favorite pro athlete: Steve Nash invests in pro women's soccer league. He's also the only athlete I know of who was outspoken against the war when the war was still popular. I also liked it when he apologized to the entire nation of Canada for NBA players being such wussy brawlers.

***

I just voted my ass off. If you can, I suggest you do the same. (I'm for Obama. I won't be broken-hearted if Clinton gets the nomination, but I think Obama's the better choice.)

I had a Borders gift certificate I planned to use on the second book in Naomi Novik's Temeraire series, but then I realized I don't currently own a copy of Welcome to the Monkey House, which seemed wrong, so I got that instead.

Yesterday I gave myself a break from the novel and instead fiddled with a piece of flash fiction that's turning out to be quite a hard fiddle to play, so that wasn't very satisfying either. I figured today I'd give myself another day away from the novel, you know, for distance and perspective and all that shit, but I think the day after a great author of personal importance to me dies, finding excuses to shirk writing seems just a little too wussy, even for a wussy shirker like me.

So, the novel and I are still going through a bit of a rocky stage together, but at least we're on speaking terms.