Yesterday we went up to Greg Bear's house for a party. Greg is one of the nicest people I have ever met, and he has an incredibly beautiful house that he was willing to let a whole bunch of strangers tromp through. The weather was stunningly gorgeous, so several of us went swimming in the lake. Eric went out in one of the kayaks, and then got his fishing pole out of his truck and went fishing. I don't know if he caught anything, but he sure looked relaxed.

Gardner was there too, so everyone got to meet him. He and Susan got into a discussion about putting objects up noses (don't ask... I have no idea how it got started), and so Gardner proceeded to put a Gladiola up his nose. Well, then Susan put two up her nose. We have pictures, which we intend to save for when Susan wins a Hugo.

Then Greg gave us a tour of the house, including his Library. (Yes, it gets a capital L) But the greatest part of the whole day was when Greg gathered us all downstairs and proceeded to talk to us about his vision of science fiction and writing. Robert has a tape recording of it, which I want to listen to again, because it was just an incredible speech. He's very optimistic about the future of science fiction and publishing in general, and he's optimistic about the direction SF is going, and the role it plays in our society. He gave us a great deal of food for thought. But the two things he said that stuck with me were, "Write what you love, and write about what scares you." Not "scare" as in horror, per se, but "scare" as in "dare to criticize the world around you."

On the way home we were all saying, "Wow."

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There has been a request for the titles of the stories that I've been working on, so that future fans can look back on this journal and say "Hey! That's when she wrote that story that swept the awards!" (Yeah, right)

Therefore:

#1 "Willing River"
#2 "Proxy"
#3 "Swimming in Perigee"
#4 "Road Rage"
#5 "Nullspace"
#6 "The Tides of Sky and Light of Moon" (note: this one may change later)

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And now I am about to start on my seventh story. My plan is to get three more stories done while I'm here, and leave here with nine stories that have been critiqued. Certainly a strong start on building a career, I think.