The Sovereign Prince of Beltresa (and the Queen of All Katherine)

Book's still getting better. The campaign to cut the length has hit a plateau for the moment, but I've finally figured out how to get His Royal Highness right. His first on-stage occurrence is scarier and crazier, and the one chapter in his POV will actually get across why his condition's tragic, rather than cheaply villainous. Poor sonofabitch Edrun, heir to a throne that's seen dynastic change by means of massacre every three decades or so until his House took over, knows his family is long overdue for a regicide no matter what he does. No wonder he ordered the near-extermination of Our Heroes in the House of Ythrae when they threatened his rule. Now I've figured out how to get on the page in Vol 1 how deeply he pays in regret every day for the mistake he can't stop making.

And being haunted by 400 angry ghosts who've made a pact to drive you mad, since no one among the living has yet spoken the curse that will allow them to kill you outright--that really does suck.

I love writing about the mistakes the characters see with anguished clarity and still can't (yet) stop making.

And now for something far cheerier. Some of you have asked for pictures of my new niece. I don't want to be that tiresome person pressing baby pictures on anybody who doesn't run away fast enough, but if you want to see the little organism I'm completely besotted over, here she is . Funny how her nervous system's barely wired up at all, yet in several of these pictures she looks as if she's thinking Very Deep Thoughts, Very Tranquilly.