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After surviving a particularly brutal bout of food poisoning earlier this week where I lost 3 and a 1/2 pounds in 12 hours (mercy) I was in need of something to lift my spirits. A late night email from my editor at Pocket did the trick nicely. A Darkness Forged In Fire and The Light of Burning Shadows have been licensed for translation by the Czech publishing house Fantom Print.

In other news, I need to stock up on ginger ale, chicken soup, crackers, and ice cream.

Update – I’m back from the grocery store where I picked up some fresh fruit, almonds, raisins, and chicken soup. I feel healthier already.

The Best of 2009 lists are proliferating at the moment and I’d like to thank the bloggers/readers and websites that named my works. It’s a very nice feeling. Sort of warm and fuzzy with a touch of silk and a hint of hard liquor, er, better stop there.

Soooo, my tux is back from the cleaners, when will the limo be picking me up?

Big thanks to the following for making my day:

http://www.fantasyliterature.com/awards/fanlit-favorites-2009/

http://books-forlife.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-year-in-review.html

http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/favorites-of-2009/

http://lydiasharp.blogspot.com/2009/12/best-of-2009.html

I managed to set fire to my lunch, again. Those that follow my blog may recall this http://chris-r-evans.livejournal.com/43080.html

Happily, no oven mitts were incinerated this time, only spaghetti. I had the water on boil and as I always do took the spaghetti strands and snapped them in half over the pot. A few errant strands managed to fall under the pot and catch fire (did I mention I have a gas stove?) In retrospect, I suppose the first thing I should have done was turn the burner off. Instead, I raced around looking for a pair of needle nose pliers with which to delicately pluck the burning spaghetti from the flame while simultaneously stirring the spaghetti that made it into the water. Not sure what to call it, but I think I might have invented a new way to serve spaghetti, that is if you like blackened, crunchy bits mixed in. I thought the sauce might mask the charred flavor.

It doesn’t.

Hard to believe I’m still single…

When I write I imagine my heroes looking like this, albeit with a sword or musket casually resting on their broad shoulders…and not looking quite so dorky.

It’s simple, it’s straight forward, and it will be the hardest thing I’ve ever attempted. My resolution? Be honest with myself. About everything. Sounds easy enough when I write it, but the ramifications loom before me like thunder clouds. This is going to hurt. The thing of it is, I know I won’t succeed, not completely, and I’m ok with that. We need a certain degree of self-deception and rationalization in order to survive in this world, but that rationalizing begets more until it’s easy to view black as white and up as down.

I had a hell of a 2009, and through its many vagaries what was left to bring forward into 2010 was my realization that if I can’t be honest with myself then everything that follows will be skewed, refracting my life through a succession of prisms until I won’t be able to recognize myself in the mirror. Ok, that’s a bit melodramatic, but you get the point.

So here’s to 2010 being the most frightening and rewarding year yet.