I'm Afraid of . . . Americans.

'I get bored of talking.'

Well, I returned from the Sticks this morning to find that the computers back at work are up and running . . . sort of. We still can't use half of the printers, and things appeared to have vanished during the virus removal process, but I can actually get some work done now. As long as I don't have to spend anymore time colouring in I'll be happy.

The weekend away was good. We had five of us out for a curry in Plymfff on the Friday night. The pubs afterwards were a little quiet for our liking; my mates spent the rest of the evening lamenting the 'lack of decent women' down on the Brabican.

Elydian managed to convince us to go down to Hope Cove on the Saturday for the infamous Hope Cove Weekend. Should have known better -- past experience has taught us HCW is typically boring -- but we went anyway. Walked around a couple of times, bought a treasure hunt sheet (which we didn't fill in cos we couldn't get any of the clues), and then went home. What I can remember of Saturday night was better, despite (or because of?) us not getting into Fusion Squared and one of my mates getting into some agro with one of my neighbours. I don't know which one of us it was, but I have my suspicions.

Later . . .

I'm Afraid of . . . Britney Spears.

So what else is there to report? Just finished From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. Despite my fears it wasn't as bad as I had been led to believe. I was a little worried to begin with, but it got quite good towards the end. SPOILERS > > > When, towards the end, Sandy starts telling Ned that he won't get any answers from this story, that the story doesn't have any end, I got really worried, thinking that SK might be warning us that Buick 8 doesn't have an end. As it turns out the ending was quite good. I liked the way tied Ned's frustration at the story to the ending of our story. < < < END SPOILERS. Not his best, no, but far better than Dreamcatcher.

I also started -- and almost finished -- Hybrid by Shaun Hutson. More horror. I'll tell you what I think later in the week.

The Well got rejected again yesterday. Damn. Still, I did get an I 'invite you to submit again at any time' from the editor, which is kind of encouraging. Might have to try and find somewhere to send it when I get a moment.

No word back on He Missed the Sea. Finally

New Chapters -- 1;
New Stories -- 0;
Words -- 12000;
Stories in Circulation -- 1 (He Missed the Sea);
Rejections -- 5;
Acceptances -- 0.

Later . . .