Word count: 128189 | Since last entry: -600

One year ago today was my last day at McAfee.

In the last year I’ve traveled to Ashland OR, Seattle WA, Saratoga NY, Vancouver BC, Kennewick WA, Washington DC, Pasco WA, Seattle WA, Victoria BC, Seattle WA, Lincoln City OR, Palm Springs CA, Austin TX, Milwaukee WI, Madison WI, Taos NM (while Kate went to Guanajuato MX), Cleveland OH, Seattle WA, Laramie WY, Denver CO, Montreal QC, San Francisco CA, and Redmond WA. We’ve also seen a lot of live theatre and music and attended many cool events right here in Portland, such as Wordstock and Orycon, and planned and began executing a bathroom remodel. Whew!

Today, as it happens, we attended a talk by our financial adviser to a bunch of his clients, explaining the current economic mess and how we got into it. The situation is worrisome but there’s no need for panic. I don’t expect I’ll have to return to work, but the timing of this meltdown is annoying. We’ll be meeting with him individually next week.

Cut 600 words from the novel today, below quota but still respectable. I also got about halfway through a scene that needs major cuts, but decided not to begin deleting words from the file until I figure out what the scene as a whole really needs. (I’m marking up a paper copy, then performing the cuts in the file at the end of each day to determine the actual word count.) Tomorrow’s negative word count should be much better than today’s.

And Space Magic has received its first review, a comprehensive and generally positive review in The Fix. Money shot: “I hope that the volume does more to make this very worthwhile writer better known to the reading public.”