Ah; I love this story! I got about halfway through before I remembered what it is about. Excellent timing on publication, as I'm taking two American History classes this summer, both dealing with the Civil War.

Congratulations again on all your success!

Oh - and I noticed that the title of this page has the title of story as "Calibration" - might want to fix that?

Thanks, Val! Fixed it.

How are you? It's been ages.

I love your user icons, by the way. So much personality in such a small picture!

I've been pretty good. Some weird stuff on the medical front, which has been a pain to deal with, but that seems to be settling down now that we've figured out that my thyroid was pooped out.

Erik and I are bracing ourselves for full-time parenthood now that Meg's coming to live with us, and I can hardly contain my excitement. She's going to be 11 in August. I can't possibly be old enough to be the mother of an eleven-year-old, can I?

We put our house on the market and in over a month have only had two people come look at it. I think after this coming weekend we're going to take it off the market and look into adding some rooms instead of moving. I've still got your advice e-mail saved for reference!

Oh! There's a group called Geeks Who Drink that puts on pub quizzes in several cities. I know they do some in Colorado and Texas; not sure where else. They held a "Quiz That Shall Not Be Named" back in June. Cash prize was $400 for each city. Each team was allowed six players, and some of the teams came dressed in full-on wizard robes and tattooed Harry Potter quotes and all kinds of intimidating stuff - 45 teams in Austin alone. But I, all by my lonesome, beat everybody in Austin! I got 81 out of a possible 88 points, which also wound up being higher than any team in any other city. I am officially validated as the Grand High Queen of Harry Potter Trivia.

I am so pleased that you're doing so well in the writing market. And I knew you when...