Tomorrow is my son's 4th birthday and it is hard to focus on anything other than getting the decorations out and the presents wrapped and hoping the whole thing goes off without a single pointless temper tantrum. I'm not a big believer in the "invite 30 kids and give them all gifts for coming" type of parties, so he has one friend who will be here for a few hours and then grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the rest. It should be a lot of fun and he's excited as all get out, but I can't help feeling worried. It's crazy -it's just a kid's party - but you want it to be so perfect for them, just the best day ever. Ah well, Halloween and Christmas are just around the corner so I'm sure there will be plenty more great memories soon enough.

The pre party chaos (and cleaning of the house for company) has made getting all my reviews done a bit more difficult. I have everything turned into Bookslut for November except my article/interview with Chris Cutcher on The Sledding Hill. I originally was just going to write a review of the book, but it was so interesting how Crutcher took on the topic of book banning head-on, and made everyone so human and interesting in his novel that I was curious about why he wrote some of the things he wrote and fired off a quick email and very cool guy that he is, he responded right away. I really love the internet, it makes contacting people so much easier and gives me the opportunity to make a standard review that much richer by including the author's thoughts. So that is the work for tomorrow night and Monday - not that it's due right away, but I really like to be ahead, the further ahead, the better. (It's how I do all this reading and writing, I'm actually almost done with all of my reviews for the next issue of Eclectica and that deadline is December 1st!)

I've been giving my young girl in the rain a lot more thought and I think she will be losing herself in an urban fantasy over the next few months. This is the story that has been in my head for over a year now and I think that I can make it edgy enough to be different and exciting. The catch is that she has no powers, no sudden gift from above, no waking up and finding out she "is the Chosen One" (forgive me Joss Whedon). But, well, shit happens and you're still in the middle of it even when you don't have super strength or magic. I have to tell you, I always wondered why Xander and Willow and all the other normal people didn't get themselves to the local karate studio the second they realized they would be battling vampires for the foreseeable future. That's how I would have spent my summer vacation.

I'm starting on an old book from my To Be Read Pile tonight about the history of French Canada. A dry subject for most folks but my father was a first generation American and loved being French Canadian - he learned English in school. Of course everyone is very American now, but it will be interesting to learn about where they came from. I'm hoping it proves to be some well written history. (And there will be tons of young adult fun stuff to balance it out!)