Wow, well, it's been quite a while, old friend, hasn't it? There's quite a bit to catch up on from the past few months.

On the writing front, I've been continuing to work on my adult fantasy novel. I'm about 125 pages into it and I have a pretty good idea where it's going. The change from YA to adult is certainly interesting. In some ways it's freer because I don't have to worry about language or perhaps having my characters do things that are despicable. On the other hand, I'm so used to writing YA that it feels strange having a character curse or talking about attempted rape. It feels a little out of place for me - I hope it doesn't read that way.

Rachael has edited Before White for me and we'll be sending it to editors in the new year. I'm very excited about this - hopefully we have better luck than we did with Connie. To be fair, there are still editors who have Connie and we're waiting to hear from them, so it's certainly not out of the range of possibilities. It's just a big waiting game, isn't it?

School has gotten especially rough. Administrators are all over everybody about every little thing. My supervisor has really been on me, and I've gotten to a point that I'm actively looking at other jobs until this writing thing can take off. If anyone knows anything in the central NJ area...

Let's see, Caitie and I went to see Jason Mraz in concert a couple of weeks ago. He was excellent. Our seats were terrible, but he was A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

We've seen several movies: Argo (EXCELLENT!), Lincoln (pretty good but boring first half hour or so), Wreck-It Ralph (very cute!), Flight (decent movie, Washington was great) and Looper (a real mind-twister and very entertaining). We cannot WAIT to see Les Miserables on Christmas (yes, we convinced her parents and we're going on Christmas).

In books, the best I've read in the last couple of months was The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde. It's a MG book, but HUGELY entertaining. I definitely recommend it. Right now I'm reading A Fraction of the Whole - an adult book that is thick but SO well written that I don't care.

In TV shows, the only new ones of the season we're still watching are Revolution (I seem to be addicted, Caitie can take it or leave it), Go On (Caitie likes it more than I do) and Next To Normal (we both like it). We're still hooked on Once Upon a Time and Modern Family. American Horror Story has been pretty good this year, though I don't find it as engaging as I did last year. The Walking Dead has been excellent - I'm definitely curious where it's going. My second favorite show of the fall was Parenthood. We always watched it, but it's been incredibly good this season - funny, smart, moving and totally engaging. My favorite show of the fall though is, without doubt, Homeland. Holy crap is that a good show. I can't believe we have to wait till next September to find out what happens next.

Caitie is still at Book of the Month Club. Her job keeps changing which is very frustrating to her, but at least she really likes the people she works with (and they like working with her as well).

We'll be heading to Ohio for Christmas (and Les Mis!) with Caitie's family - our holiday tradition - and then back here for my birthday and New Year. I can't believe we're on the seventh year of me going to OH for the holidays already.

So, old friend, I hope you have a very happy holiday, whatever you may celebrate, and you have a very happy new year!

Love,
Jason