First of all, a shout out to the Bad Egg Blog (“Raising Chickens in Sacramento as an Act of Civil Disobedience”) for linking to my third Story of the Week, “Roosterville“. I’m glad to be a part of such a noble cause.

Second, NaNoWriMo is coming up, of course. Having finished the second part of The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster for my novelists’ group tomorrow night, I’m happy to put that aside so that I can concentrate on my NaNoWriMo project (and my stories of the week) throughout November. I’m practically bouncing with excitement. This past weekend I visited the Railroad Museum in Sacramento and got some good ideas for my novel (and realized that many of my ideas will only work as anachronisms, which I’m okay with).

Third, thanks to everyone who responded to my request for title suggestions. I got replies from fifteen different people, who gave me a total of 73 suggestions, both here and on my LiveJournal, which is pretty awesome. I’m starting to tabulate them and writing up my outline, and my plan is to use at least one title suggestion from each person who replied. Of course, for some of you I only know your screen name, so I’ll have to get a real name from you (or at least a name you’d like to use). I’ll be getting back to you.

And, of course, I’m still happy to take suggestions. For what it’s worth, the train itself on which the novel takes place is one of those named routes (like the Coast Starlight or the California Zephyr), and it’s called the City of San Augustin.

And on a final note, I bet you can guess why this picture amuses me:

Obviously, the cow’s attempt to try on new armor has failed.