Many happy returns
Continuing my trend of only updating around major holidays (and yes, today counts, especially this year), happy Election Day!

I am still insanely busy. I have been finishing up a long term independent project for my day job, and between that and dealing with boring stuff related to the collapse of Western capitalism as we knew it, I haven't had a second to catch up on slush. However, as of this coming Monday I will be taking a few weeks off to concentrate full time on agenting... so if you have something under consideration with me, I hope you'll be patient just a little longer.

I have been having a fantastic day today. This morning my brother and I drove up through the gorgeous fall foliage to vote in our suburban hometown, and I got to cast my vote in my old elementary school gym, the same place I have gone to vote my entire adult life. Then we went and bought cupcakes at the bake sale, where a little boy was earnestly telling us our money was going to help the school; I had flashbacks to standing in that same hallway a few feet away from where I was standing today and doing the exact same thing when I was his age. My brother confessed that he always gets chills pulling the lever back in the voting machine.

Then I returned to Manhattan and went to the office, where I sent out a bunch of submissions for various clients and made some phone calls. Then it was off to Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's for a free ice cream cone and coffee, and now I am sitting on my friend's couch eating takeout from Veselka, responding to queries, and watching the returns.

One more thing worthy of note about today: MY KINDLE HAS ARRIVED! Yes, I finally gave in and bought a Kindle. My strong anti-DRM sentiments aside, several agent friends convinced me that it would change my life and I wouldn't be able to live without it, and I look forward to proving them right.

How are all of you? I am looking forward to seeing the results of this year's NaNoWriMo in my inbox in a few months (after any necessary polishing and revision, of course), and I really admire all those who are doing it. I once tried to do my own version of NaNo in which I committed to making one blog post every day for the entire month of November, but I bet you can all guess how well that worked out.

Finally, a picture behind the cut



Picture taken by my friend Paul, who also baked the pies (Obamapple on the left, cherry on right).

He adds: "By the time you get this message they will be on their way to local Obama office." I would be jealous--because come on, who wouldn't want to eat pie for Obama?--except I already ate a cupcake and an ice cream cone for Obama today and the night is still young. (I might have purchased some emergency organic Swiss dark chocolate earlier today just in case we need it later, since neither my friend nor I are drinking.) All I can say is, I hope everyone reading this is enjoying this historic evening as much as we are.

Okay, off to watch the Stewart/Colbert special now, and I plan to be back with some publishing-related posts later this month. Have a great night, everyone!

ETA: The CNN holograms are the best thing ever.