Last year, I went absolutely nuts with all of the bridge classes I was teaching. Because I couldn't promise how long I'd still be in Texas, I opted out of all of them. I miss teaching (yeah, I love being in front of a bunch of students who think I'm so smart...) but I've enjoyed getting my time back. Directing bridge games isn't as much fun as teaching bridge. Pretty much you sit around smiling and getting people drinks of water--except when there are 'irregularities.' Then you've got to be the badguy, assess the penalties, and have everyone miffed at you. Oh, and then there's what happens when things really go wrong. In duplicate, the Mitchell Movement is the easy one. The Howell should be easy--every table has directions on where to go next, but every time I've directed a Howell of more than three tables, something has gone wrong.

So, you'd think I'd be smart enough to steer clear of directing more bridge games than the one I've already been doing, right? Uh, oops. I signed up to direct a new game on Saturday afternoon. Saturday!! What was I thinking? Clearly I'm insane.

I'm way behind on reviews and on getting back to authors on submissions. Tomorrow I'll try to catch up on reviews and contact at least a few authors who've submitted. I've been reading some good stuff by clearly talented authors--but for one reason or another, most of the projects just don't work. I always feel obligated to send detailed rejections in these cases, which means more work. Why did I think that becoming a publisher was a good idea? Clearly I'm insane.

I did get some writing done today--and am getting ever-closer to the end of the bunny book. I'd love to finish tomorrow, the last day of April. I secretly suspect this won't happen, especially if I spend all day writing reviews and contacting authors about submissions. Still, ever-hopeful.

I'm going to make TAMMY AND THE PRIVATE EYE the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. Tammy wants to be a detective--except she's so shy she can't even bring herself to ask her boss to let her try. She'd be stuck in the secretarial pool forever--except she's the spitting image to a movie star who needs protection. P.I. Pete Hunte needs a body double and the camera says the mousy typist can do the job. First, though, he'll have to give her a serious attitude implant. When he does, though, Tammy blossoms and Hunter wonders what he's created--and whether it's something he can deal with. Sexy and fun--only $1.00.(Available in HTML, Adobe Acrobat PDF, eReader, and Microsoft Reader formats). Here's the link: http://www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2003/tammy_eye.html

Here's the cover (cover design by Jane Graves):

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