It was pretty much a perfect day.

The sun came out.  I got in an hour of rollerblading along the river including crossing two bridges without falling, had a lovely breakfast with Alma and Deck, a lovely lunch with Ken, and dropped by Jeff Soesbe's and Jay Lake's cheese party.   My reading was, as usual, well attended by empty seats.  Two of them were full, which is really about normal. 

Work happened:  at least twenty pages of the novel got gone over for awkward bits and dull detail dismissal between all the other events mentioned above.

Right before the opening ceremonies (which were actually funny and fun; better than most), they gave me and The Silver Ship and the Sea the Endeavor Award.  Very cool.  I didn't expect to win - I thought Ursula Le Guin or Kay Kenyon were more likely choices than me, and all of the books were strong.  Heck, some of the people I expected to lose to weren't finalists.   The Northwest breeds good writers. 

That's the second award for this book - before I even sold it, it won first place in a contest at a charming local workshop called "A Writer's Weekend."  I think my characters, Chelo and her younger brother Joseph, would be happy.  Chelo would blush, and Joseph would hoot a bit and strut.  Me, I'm not quite sure how to act, except grateful and happy.

Now I'm going to tuck myself in and sleep.