I REALLY prefer taking the train to driving when I have to do the commute thing. Today I played bridge with my old partner (for the first time in a couple of years). I took the train up to Richardson (north of Dallas). I took my Jornada and was able to get some writing done on the way up, the way back, and also a bit during a break in the bridge game (we had eight and a half tables so we were stood up when it was team 9's turn to play with us). Some writing works out to 5 pages--a lot less than my daily quota of 10, but enough to bring me past the critical page 200 level (all the way up to page 203). It felt like a lot more writing. It scrolled (on the Jornada's small screen) like a lot more than 5 pages. But it wasn't. As a card-carrying liberal, I force myself to confront reality rather than try to make it conform to my preconceptions. Only five pages. Still, it would have been zero if I'd driven. Plus I got a bit of reading in TIME'S CHILD and a bit of exercise as I bicycled between home and the train, and between the train and the bridge club.

Friday is library day, so Karen and I walked to the library once I got home from bridge (how did I do--not too great. A 45% game. Still, I had fun and wasn't too disappointed considering it was an open game and it was the first time we'd played in forever). I returned a mess of books and checked out a bunch. No clear view on profit and loss on that. Sorry for those of you who are keeping count. Then I came home and finished my judging for the Golden Pen contest. Remind me, you guys, never to sign up to judge a contest again. It's insane--and I've already signed up to judge the Golden Heart (you sort of have to if you're going to enter it). Anyway, that's off the plate, I've been in positive correspondence with a potential new author, I got an updated MS from Anthony Perham (the novel formerly known as When it's Time to Call it a Day), and there's a new tropical depression. We had a slow first half the hurricane season but things have been popping a bit lately.

I'd hoped to start my video career today but it didn't happen. I'll definitely do something over the weekend.

I'm reading taking a break from the enjoyable TIME'S CHILD by Rebecca Ore to read MAKING MONEY by Terry Pratchett. I'll get back to Ore soon.

I'm going to make DYNAMITING DADDY'S DREAM HOUSE by Robyn Anders the www.BooksForABuck.com book of the day. A mercenary home from the wars vows to protect his young daughter. When a sexy construction engineer dynamites his new house off the California cliffs, he's sure she's one thing he needs to protect his daughter from. But when his daughter takes a liking to the woman he can't stop thinking about, things get very complicated. Sassy, sexy and fun. Only $2.99. Available in HTML Adobe Acrobat PDF, Palm Reader and zipped Microsoft Reader (LIT) formats. (Mobipocket available on request--just buy it and ask). Learn more, read the excerpt, or buy the entire eNovel here: www.booksforabuck.com/rompages/rom_2003/dynamite_dream.html. Here's the cover (cover design by Jane Graves):

rob