I have no use for the UN, as a rule, but...

Not so long ago I suggested, with great seriousness, that all the lands of the Middle East be cleared, and three generations pass before anyone was allowed to live there again. Because, I swear, there's something in the sand and in the air that drives people insane.

Watching the news scrapes at my heart. I was only in Israel once, many years ago, but my memories of it are lovely, and loved. I see cities smoking over rubble and blood, and wonder if people I know, their children, their loved ones, were in the line of fire. And I'll never know.

May the cease fire hold long enough for at least a temporary sanity to take root, and thrive...

the things nobody tells you...

Dark Delicacies Bestseller List for Week of 8/6/06

Paperback Fiction
(1) Bound in Flesh - David Thomas Lord (Kensington)
(2) The Vampire Within - Drew Silver (Global Book)
(3) Horror: The Best of the Year 2006 - Betancourt/Wallace (Prime)
(4) Staying Dead - Laura Anne Gilman (Luna)
(5) Strange Intineries - Tim Powers (Tachyon)
(6) The Dream Thief - Helen A Rosburg (Medallion)
(7) Pandora Drive - Tim Waggoner (Leisure)
(8) The Cleansing - Shane Ryan Staley (Bloodletting)
(9) Some of Your Blood - Theodore Sturgeon (Millipede)
(10) Rabid Growth - James A. Moore (Leisure)

Although there is violence and certainly some emotional and physical darkness in the Retriever series, I never think of it as being horror, or even dark fantasy, particularly. I tend to describe it as "contemporary caper novels with magic" and if pushed will describe the magic as "scientific energies harnessed by unknown means." And yet, horror readers seem to want to claim it, too.

Hey, I'm happy to hang out with everyone. Pass the bottle and turn up the tunes, dude.

for those of us who haven't forgotten...

AP Wire: PHILADELPHIA - "How's this for a breath of fresh air? Barbaro is enjoying daily outings outside his intensive care stall to pick his own grass, enjoy the warm weather and stretch his recovering legs.

Barbaro stepped outside his ICU stall and started daily walks on a grassy area near the unit last week for the first time since having catastrophic injuries in the Preakness nearly three months ago. The Kentucky Derby winner, also recovering from a severe case of laminitis on his left hoof, continues to show signs he's on the road to recovery."


They go on to caution that he's not in the clear yet, but his prognosis is amazingly better than it was even mid-July, when the vets didn't think he was going to make it through the month.