This is, as always, pretty good news.

Humans should get along on a couple thousand a day, for example.

These dogs, it seems, can also modify their systems to begin to dram energy from those calories directly from the bloodstream rather than letting it go through the liver first. Pretty danged fascinating, eh?

Anyway, the story got me to thinking about what would happen if humans used genetic material from a dog, which then got me to remembering a story I had written some time back. It was sitting firmly in my trunk, but I dug it out and looked it over. It is a story that uses the idea of building humans with genetic code from a specific animal in order to make use of its genetic processes.

I’m not in the habit of doing this because most, if not all, stories I put in my trunk are put in there for some very good reasons. This one, though, I decided I liked. And quite honestly, I’m a better writer now than I was when I first wrote it. I could see lots of big issues. But I’ve spent the last two days cutting it up and doing it over again.

And, of course I’m pretty happy with it. It’s always good to have a new story to put in the post.

Still, I don’t think I’ll be trunk diving anytime in the near future. Too scary as a rule. [grin]

In this case, I quite enjoyed “Best Western“, a short story by Anne de Marcken (read by Laura Esterman). It’s the second story in this podcast. The first is good story–Rebecca Curtis’s “Twenty Grand” as read by Jane Curtain. But “Best Western,” in my opinion truly shines.

Weekends are the bestest.

And this weekend has been made just that much better now because I see that Picasso’s Cat & Other Stories is now available for pre-order at The Merry Blacksmith Press. You can order via Paypal, or contact the publisher at orders@merryblacksmith.com.

Being new to this marketing thing, I think this is where I’m supposed to say it makes a great gift, right? Or am I supposed to say it gets great gas mileage? How about “order now and get a free set of Ginsu knives!” (Actually, that last is a lie…I don’t think you get any knives, no matter when you order–bummer, I know).

Perhaps it’s better if I stick to writing the stories, eh?

The TOC lines up like this right now:

The Disappearance of Josie Andrew – Writers of the Future (1998)
Just Business – Analog (2003)
The Test of Time – Return of the Dinosaurs (1995)
Stealing the Sun – Analog (1999)
The Taranth Stone – Analog (2000)
Parchment in Glass – Analog (2002)
Barnstorming – The Leading Edge (2001)
G-bomb – Men Writing SF as Women (2003)
Echoes in a Shattering Silence – Artemis (2001)
A Matter of Pride – Analog (2000)
Learning the Language – Land/Space: An Anthology of Prairie Fiction (2003)
The Vacation – Future Wars (2003)
Out of the Blue – Writers of the Future (1999)
1 is True – Asimov’s SF (2006)
Picasso’s Cat – Nature (2006)

It’s been a heck of a lot of fun to work on putting this together. Hope a few folks enjoy reading it.

I’m finding Frank Sinatra music is easy to write to.

Yes, me. Frank Sinatra. Got a problem with that? I guess it’s all those 4-4 beats and jaunty melodies, but it just kind of keeps the fingers going–at least it did this morning. I write with music on, but the sound down low so that the lyrics don’t jumble my brain too much. Actually, I write to a lot of classical stuff, too. I assume it’s not too unusual to write with music on in the background, but I’m willing to bet that I’m in a pretty big minority with the Voice today.

Just my little Ron-fact of the moment.

Progress: Officially completed the pilot bit as far as the novel is concerned. I think I need to add a small transition scene to it if I want to make it into a true short story, which I may do tomorrow. But for now it feels good to be done with this portion of the work. It grew to a considerably bigger project than I had first envisioned.

The sub-plot story of my two pilots is rounding into shape, but the process of getting it back into the book is quite tedious. The story is told in the novel via a series of scenes separated by some distance. And I decided that it would be a good idea to keep the two in sync, so as I change things in the short story I go back into the novel and change it there, too, assuming it makes sense, anyway.

So the process is a bit of a bear to maintain.

Still, the act of looking at this bit as a stand alone short was worth it.

For those of you who mow the lawn with self-propelled push mowers, here’s a little learning I had last night…when the self-propeller dies, those things are a pain in the tush to use. Yes, I passed up a trip to the gym yesterday after work in order to take advantage of the weather and cut the grass. I was actually bemoaning the fact that I wouldn’t get a full workout in, but the fates apparently listened. An hour’s work pushing along a 9,000-ton piece of equipment can totally kick your butt.

I know, my life is tough.

Progress:

I’m coming to the end of this little dalliance of mine to clean up my pilot sub-story–at least I’m coming to the end of this pass at it, anyway. I’m liking how the characters are working, but my spider-sense is tingling and I’m thinking I’ll need a later pass at it to make the rest of its message resonate at the book’s scope. Bottom line at this point is that I’m feeling myself learn again–which is great. Attempting to pull this bit into a stand-alone short story was a great decision, regardless of whether it ends up fully working or not.