Tremors!

I'm a little annoyed because the other night I managed to sleep through an earthquake, and only managed to wake up when it set off all the fire alarms in my building - and even then, once I realised that the sound eminated from my hallway and not my alarm clock, I went back to sleep. So I didn't have a cool "I survived the quake" story when I went to work the next day.

I have been working on Inter Vivos to try to move the story along (I felt like they've been having dinner for months now). I'm trying to figure out when and how to introduce an important character, and he's already tardy for dinner. I don't want it to be a big 'ta-da' moment, so may have him sneak in some time after they've all retired for cigars and brandy.

I've just ordered a load of books from amazon in the name of sci-fi/fantasy research, as recommended by the agent I spoke to a couple of weeks ago and by Damien. I included a couple by Neil Gaiman too, as I've just finished Stardust and really enjoyed it. I think it will take me a little time to read them all though, as I've still got books to read from Christmas (and Valentines Day), and Good Omens is next on my list.

In other news, on BBC4 last night was a programme which I think was the first in a series, entitled The Worlds of Fantasy. This week's episode was about the child hero/heroine in fantasy fiction, although I was a little disappointed that it seemed to be focused on children's fiction, and that the programme consisted almost entirely of the views of celebrities and other authors, rather than containing any academic criticism. Perhaps I expected a little too much from the Beeb. Anyhow, I shall watch again next week as they're doing a programme about the 'epic imagination', so maybe that will be better. Plus it slots in nicely between So You Think You Can Dance and the results show on Living TV!

No particular reason for the picture above, except I think she's pretty cool! We have a poster of her having tea with her cats in my office.