The latest in a long line of desktop PCs, this one is Bloody Stupid Thing #4. We've had it for 3 years so so. It has been working well... until now, of course, when it has decided to ignore absolutely everything plugged into any of the USB ports. Bugger.

Time to fully back-up everything and reinstall the OS, I'm told. Double bugger. That's a hell of a lot of irreplaceable MP3s on my HD. And Mrs Chopper's massive picture files....

"Get a plug-in HD!"
...

An annual event chez moi, I'm currently "enjoying" the best - and worst - and weirdest - European cheesepop this year has to throw at us.
Highlights so far? Iceland did a credibly folky (All About Eve?) number, Germany had Dita Von Teese guesting, and Ukraine had a rampaging pole-dancing drummer girl along with overly-muscled glittery gladiators. France was scary. Mrs Chopper says Sweden was the absolute pits, and Croatia wasn't much better. Greece was greasy. Bosnia was po-faced...

remember months back i had this idea (argh...more ideas....) for a set of stories based in the main epic's world? perhaps not. anyway, the first of the four has finally been done. winds up just shy of 8000 words, so not that short after all. if all 4 of these things take as much effort to get down, it'll be slower going than GRRM's stuff...

now, i wonder if i can find a market for it?

meanwhile i went back and re-read chapter 6 of the Epic, along with the SFF writers'...

perhaps i've got too many projects on the go. here's the current list:

• The Winter Road: 6700 words, unfinished, nearly there, just needs stitching together.
• The Fashion: 1000 words, working backwards from the end.
• Cold Snap: 200 words, just off the starting blocks.
• Malessar's Curse: 50000 words, going nowhere fast.
• Wings of Steel: 1200 words, pulling teeth.

and those are just the ones i have to hand. perhaps, like debts, i should focus on them one at a time. but i seem incapable of working...

ooh look - the new issue of Pantechnicon is ready to read! and there's some bumper fiction in this one too!