and it was neat-o. Nobody tried to force romance into anybody else’s book, everybody gave advice to Mike about fatherhood, the salsa was excellent, as was all the rest of the food, and I think we all gained from the meeting.

I personally benefitted on a global level for The Cabin. Good thoughts about tone, tightness and characterization came my way. We had Liz, Kristi, Mike, Melinda, Kaye and me in attendance. Hopefully more will show up next time. We’ve decided on the 16th of August at 10 AM for our next meeting. I have promised to bring some zuchinni (spelling?) and some of my garden blender salsa.

So today while Annemarie, Emma (my lovely sister who is visiting) Benjamin (my newly minted lad) and I were out to lunch and such, the main kickstand on my scooter broke. That will complicate the parking of the wicked little beasty some, so that’s nice. :-$ (This is me gritting my teeth…)

On the writing front, I will be condensing the first three chapters of The Cabin into two in order to tighten it up some and get the first few scenes more powerful. I plan to have queries out by the end of the month. Also, I haven’t yet heard back from the editorial team at the company that bought The Mars Betrayal, so I will continue to focus my fiction efforts on The Cabin.

The people in my writing group are very impressive writers. I am in august company.

I need to get some work done now, so I will sign off.

By the way, tonight I and my sister will be going to see The Dark Knight. That should be fun.