I've been working most of the weekend, though I have precious little to show for it. Only an net additional 3K words, but the first 15 chapters are now solidly in place, make sense, flow, all that jazz. This morning, I realized I needed to delete all of yesterday's work, over 1000 words gone to the gutter. I hate doing it, but I went off the rails yesterday, and thank goodness I woke up this morning and realized it before I continued the thread any further. Happily, a new solution presented itself, so I grabbed that thread and wove it in, and voilá, we have liftoff.

I'm heading out to Cali this week to sit down with CC and talk about the book, where it is now, how all our planning and plotting has come together, and what happens next. Communication is absolutely vital to a collaboration, and while we've been talking constantly, a little face to face never hurt anything. Plus, there is a Christmas party to attend! A holiday treat for us both, for sure.

Speaking of face to faces, I had coffee with my über cool buddy Meg Gardiner yesterday. (Best grab her latest, THE SHADOW TRACER, ASAP)  Talk about a treat. There's nothing better than being able to sit down in person with your friends. So many of my buds I only get to see at conferences, so I was tickled we were able to hook up. And tomorrow there's a writer's brunch here in town, so it's more in person action with like-minded folk.

And you know what? It's a very good thing. Being isolated behind a computer screen all the time is terribly unhealthy. Facebook and Twitter will never be enough of a substitute for seeing the light gleam in another writer's eyes as they tell you a story.

Cheers, mates!