Guess I’ve been quiet…

I spent eleven solid days working on new articles for my research website, By Light Unseen, which is now looking pretty darned good–much more the website I wanted it to be when I put up the big re-design last fall. I wrote some 350KB of material, some of which had been in the planning stages for nine years. Except for family things, obligatory chores and workouts, and some routine medical appointments, that is literally all I did. For eleven days! On August 29th, the 10th anniversary of By Light Unseen’s debut (as The Real Vampires Home Page), I went out to dinner with my dad to celebrate. 🙂

As soon as I got the articles uploaded, I updated the bookstore, which is up to 572 titles. That usually is a huge job, but it went faster this time, I got it done in two days.

Oh, if anyone is curious, all my medical tests and results are great. I’m in ridiculously good health. All this exercise and boring healthy diet is doing me some good, at least. I can’t lose an ounce, but I’m in the best shape of my entire life! I have a new PCP, and we’ve really hit it off. She wanted to hear about my workout routines! She’s the first doctor I’ve had who was interested!

I decided I could afford to drop some money on books, mostly vampire-related non-fiction or significant fiction that I’ve wanted for a long time and never bought. I was very excited to discover that Jan Perkowski has an omnibus volume of all his vampire folklore material, including the elusive and rare Vampires of the Slavs, so I’ve ordered that. I shopped around and saved a lot of money buying used books from Amazon Marketplace and aLibris when I could, so I have small packages coming from all over the place. The first one just arrived: Michael Romkey’s The Vampire Virus (1998 and long out of print), which I’ve wanted for ages because it ties into the persistent conspiracy-theory rumors that there is a real “vampire virus.” (I’m not kidding, there are people who sincerely believe this.)

I also cracked the mysteries of customizing MySpace (I’m learning CSS, too, just generally). By Light Unseen Media’s MySpace page is starting to shape up. Now I need to develop a circle of MySpace friends. If you have a MySpace page, friend me! 🙂 Or if you know someone else who might be interested, let me know and I’ll friend them! I’m still trying to crack the customization of LiveJournal. When I do, you will be the first to know. 🙂

I have 19 copies of Mortal Touch out for reviews, some of them requested after I queried–no review has appeared online or in print so far, though. But I just got an unsolicited request for a review copy, which is rather exciting. I just mailed that copy today. This week, I need to put together a church service I’m doing on the 16th.

So much for my life lately!