Unexpectedly, after only 1,357 words, I stumbled upon the end of Chapter Seven yesterday. It's a wonder I didn't break my damned fool neck. Today, we'll read through the whole chapter, and I'll make revisions. I also have to make some final revisions to "Night" today. But, back to Daughter of Hounds, I can at last see the light at the end of the large intestine. As Chapter Seven concluded, the pieces fell into place (as the cliché goes). I know now what Emmie has to do. I know what Soldier has to do. I know what's up with the Bailiff (mostly). I know, probably, what's to come of the Daughter of the Four of Pentacles. I even know who the strange black-skinned woman in the desert is. And, strangest of all, I think the ending will be much less grim than I'd come to expect. When I started this book, I promised my agent a "happy ending." This promise was made very tongue-in-cheek, but I did hope to write something that wasn't as utterly bleak as Murder of Angels. Yet, as the book unfolded, total doom just seemed inevitable. All these people were doomed, and what could I do about it? How else could it go? But now I see a small bit of hope, a silver lining, and I hope no one's going to think I'm losing my nerve or going soft or anything. I'm only following where the story leads me.

I'm not sure, but I don't think I've ever written a whole chapter in only seven days (and one of those days was almost a total loss). I might have done something like that when I was writing Low Red Moon. I can't recall. So, yeah. Chapter Seven is done, two days "ahead of schedule." I'll try to begin Chapter Eight no later than Tuesday.

I have been chided for not having linked to this story sooner. It appears there may be a planet beyond Pluto. Of course, the question of whether or not it's the tenth planet hinges on whether or not Pluto's a planet at all. I've always thought there was far too much of semantics and much too little science in the task of deciding what is and isn't a planet. We tend, rather arbitrarily to think of planets as those primary objects orbiting stars, but it seems to me that "moons" are also planetary, especially large moon systems like those of Jupiter and Saturn. They just happen to orbit other planets while they orbit the sun. Anyway, I agree with oneirophrenia on this one — Yuggoth would make a perfect name for this new denizen of the outer solar system.

Click here for the latest chapter of Boschen and Nesuko. Nesuko has a line in this chapter that I adored: "The universe isn't made of safe feelings, pain, or even sadism. It's made of...meat and bone, rocks and water." Ahmet.

Er...let's see. Kid Night, right? Yeah. We started with Tomo-o Haraguchi's marvelously bizarre Kibakichi (2003). Think High Plains Drifter meets The Seven Samurai meets Nightbreed, and that's a start. We followed it with the lamentably dull Cold and Dark (2005). And then, gardas and nixars, then something most strange and unforeseen happened. I did a something I swore I'd never, ever do. I played a Final Fantasy game. To be precise, I played Final Fantasy X-2. And...I liked it. I know I'm going against stereotype here, so bear with me. It was just so marvelously frelling surreal...and pretty...and cute...and giggly. If there is a girlier game in all the multiverse than this, I dare you to find it. I may grow weary of the novelty after another night or three, but there is an undeniable charm in the sheer goofiness of this game, what with dancing people to death and the scantily clad whore children and all the giggling...gods, the giggling. And the eye drops. I still don't understand the eye drops. Perhaps I never shall.

The monster doodle sculpture auction was a hit. I will offer a second one soon. But not immediately. My thanks to the winner of #1. No one else can ever have the first, but you, dear thing. Meanwhile, check out the other auctions. Whoever uses "Buy it Now" in the next two days gets a free Nyarlathotep CD (Our Thoughts Make Spirals in Their World). And I apologise for still not having gotten The Dry Salvages and The Worm in My Mind's Eye up yet. Hopefully, we'll do it today.