Sigh. I suck at blogging. Just something that I forget to update. So here’s lots of updates from me:

• Playing For Keeps: We’ve reached over 12,000 listeners. We have pint glasses and tshirts available, and on Jan. 1 I launched the book in print. It’s going quite well and I’m really grateful to all the people who have helped me out, blogged about it, or told a friend. I have been inviting some pretty high-profile people to guest star doing episode recaps, and I’m really excited about that.
• Freelancing for 2008: I recently became a columnist for Hub magazine, a free British SF magazine that asked me to do an SF Podcasting column. Hub is weekly, and my column will be monthly (debuts this week!). It’s a free magazine that pays its authors and works on a donation system (much like Escape Pod and Pseudopod), so check them out. I’m also working with some other magazines to on projects I can’t disclose right now, but suffice to say, I’m busy.
• Running: I got the go-ahead to start running again as the new orthodics have been helping my right foot out a lot (no surgery! yay!). So back to square one of run-a-minute, walk-a-minute. Sigh. But I will be mighty soon enough.
• Writing: I started a new novel yesterday I’m calling, for the time being, UNDERGROUND. I got 1200 words into it and plan on more today. Feels good and strange to work on something non-Keepsie and non-Heaven related. (And I’ll be doing Wasteland this spring, never fear)

And lastly, a brief rant on faith. Jim and I recently saw The Spelling Bee (very funny, highly recommended) where Jesus appears to one of the spellers and points out that it really doesn’t matter to him whether she wins or not. And that got me thinking. Those of us without strong Christian faith mocked Georgia Gov. Perdue who gathered people together to pray for rain. Why not pass a law pushing for more environmental legislation? If it doesn’t rain, does that mean Jesus doesn’t love you?

But The Spelling Bee got me thinking. People who pray before competitions aren’t mocked (or at least, not as widely as this Atlanta dude). And I’m pretty sure that Jesus would care a lot more about a parched city than whether the Giants win in the playoffs. Maybe we accept the little weirdnesses of each other, but when someone steps forward with a big gesture, it’s worth more derision. But honestly - which do you think is more important - drought, or a spelling bee? So who should we mock (if anyone) for turning to his faith for help or answers? I still don’t share his faith, but I’ll give him props for praying for something more worthwhile than personal gain.