"Stand down from silent running, Chip."

We now return you to your regularly scheduled annathepiper, already in progress.

Submission #2

"We'd better not have to do this over and over again," Millicent protests to me, scowling vigorously under her fedora's brim. "I'm an old woman! I don't have the energy to be traipsing back and forth between Washington and New York six or seven times this year!"

Elessir snorts. "You haven't had to go anywhere yet," he points out, leaning laconically against the stairway railing while I'm bustling about fetching everything everyone needs before I send them out again. "You don't show up until Chapter 5."

"Neither do you," I tell the Unseelie crisply, shooing him out of the way. He's blocking the stairs, so Jake and Carson can't come down to the door. Carson lets out a meaningful cough as he tromps down from upstairs, and he bops his meaty fist off the top of Elessir's pompadour as he passes.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"For being annoying," Carson rumbles. He looks rumpled as always; Jake, by contrast, is impeccable. But he shoots Elessir an eloquent 'I'm on to you' glance as pointed as his partner's words.

Elessir pouts. Beautifully. He's one of the Sidhe; even his sulky expressions are gorgeous. "I get absolutely no appreciation," he grouses, stalking off into the living room exactly like an affronted cat.

"All of you, break it up," I order everyone. To Elessir, I add, "And you, cool it. Play my guitar if you need to distract yourself. And if you give Millie reason to shoot you before I'm able to send out the rest of the manuscript, I swear to gods I will NOT write Book Two." Millicent lights up and hoists her shotgun a little higher in her gnarled hands. Elessir sticks his tongue out at her. I shoot both of them a determined Harrison-Ford-esque Finger, and then take another look around. "Where are Christopher and Kendis?"

Heavy running footsteps herald the arrival of my Newfoundlander leading man about two seconds before he bolts up from the basement. "We're comin'! We're comin'!" he bellows. Kendis is right behind him, hastily adjusting her biking outfit that's her wardrobe for the first three chapters with one hand, and hanging onto her cat with the other. Both of them look suspiciously disheveled. Christopher and Kendis, that is. Not the cat.

"Don't leave without us!" Kendis pipes, and then she shoots us all a radiant smile. "Told you we'd be ready!"

I eye them both severely, trying to hide a smile. "You are going to be able to pretend you haven't ever laid eyes on one another long enough to act out the first three chapters for the next editor, right?"

"No problem," Christopher firmly asserts. He's not quite convincing, though, given that he's snuck an arm around Kendis and is grinning like a schoolboy with a crush.

"We're good," Kendis promises, even though her yellow eyes are shining in that tell-tale 'I'm ridiculously in love with this man' sort of way. "Where're we headed, again?"

"Luna," I tell them. I survey them all, the four major members of the cast lined up to appear in the first three chapters. "So it's back to New York. Pick up the hospital NPCs on the way, okay? And, everybody--go get 'em, okay? So the audience reception for the first show wasn't so good; season ain't over yet."

"We'll get this story sold for you yet," Kendis promises me. She sounds more confident than I do. But hey, she's the Plucky Main Character. It's her job to sound confident.

I grin, and I shoo them all out the door. "Go give 'em hell," I say, and I wave at the lot of them as they set out for another trip right back to New York.

Some of what's been happening lately

( -0: OW! %*()@%!?!@ )

( +1: And the manuscript goes back out again... )

( +2: Banking stuff... )

( -3: Why we have to worry about banking stuff... )

( +4: But in happier news, Sari Party! )