I was able to get back to work on the Trang layout today. I've been poking along at a rate of about three chapters a day, but today I managed to get five done (mainly by having fewer interruptions). That means 11 of 19 chapters are down, which gives me hope that this will be ready to be uploaded by the end of the weekend, despite some other busyness scheduled for later this week.

I spent the last two days at jury duty, which is a totally pointless activity if you have ever done any writing on law-enforcement issues, because they will never, ever seat you. I used the time to read about half of Publish This Book! which is a memoir about a guy trying to get that very book published. If you think that is incredibly clever, the author will heartily agree with you; if you think that sounds pretty weak, the author will pretend to agree with you as a means of deflecting criticism. Let's just say that I'm putting it aside for a while to read some sci-fi that I might include on my Listmania! list. (Really, honestly, and for true, if you are 24 years old, you have no business writing a memoir. It's not that you aren't a good writer--you can write about your childhood in quite an affecting manner--it's because you don't really have a strong sense of identity yet, and everything about your current life comes across as "LOVE ME! I'M COOL!")

A much stronger book in the PUBLISHING--AGGGHH!! genre (which, if current trends continue, may soon be the only genre produced by large, commercial houses) is the novel How I Became a Famous Novelist. It is genuinely hysterical. If looking for a publisher is driving you crazy or bumming you out, and you need to figure out a way to laugh at your situation, that's a good one to read.