Housekeeping

Time to play catch-up on a few minor details.

1. The author pic poll

I am happy to report that my favorite picture was chosen by the masses. And no, I didn't vote. I need to have my brother work a little photoshop magic on it before I post it to the blog. It was also be posted to the website --- whenever I get around to hiring someone design the thing. In the meantime, a version of the photo that was chosen by my editor has been added to the blog.

2. Book Update

Before leaving for Las Vegas, I completed the final chapter of the book, blowing past by target word count by roughly 2,000 words. Today, I am completing the final read through, which will take care of typos, minor wording issues, and any lingering inconsistencies. It will then be shipped off to my lovely editor, who is currently at a writer's conference.

3. After the Book?

My hope is to finally catch up on the house cleaning and reading. My editor just shipped me a stack of books and I can't wait to dive in. I don't get to read half as much as I would like and my to-be-read pile could crush me right now if it toppled over.

4. A couple more Vegas pictures.

I've gotten a couple complaints recently that I haven't posted enough pictures. Well, that might be because I didn't take that many pictures. I did do a lot of wandering and sight-seeing, but I really didn't think to take a lot of pictures. I guess I was just too overwhelmed by it all to think about my camera. However, the first picture is of the Paris hotel, which was just down the Strip from Caesar's and looked very cool. I went to Paris when I was in high school and they did a very good job of capturing the feel of Paris architecture. It definitely made me want to return to Paris for another visit.

The second picture is of the interior of the Venetian. I think what I liked most was the ceiling painted like the sky. There are several hotel/casinos that do this. Considering how enormous these places are, you end up spending a lot of time inside. The sky ceilings are not only beautiful, but they also give the illusion of being outside, of being in a much more wide-open space. We had lunch/dinner (the meals kind of blur together after a while) at an Italian restaurant called Trevi in the Forum, which is a huge shopping plaza connected to Caesar's. We ate "outside" under the sky ceiling next to a gigantic fountain filled with marble statues. It was beautiful and one of my favorite memories. The food was also very good, I suggest checking it out if you are ever in the area.