Finished the novel last night, and have been kicking back ignoring things since. Going to give it one more read through, clean up tonight and tomorrow, then off to the agent it goes.

At the end, I reckon it's come out alright, this book. The fold back I wanted with the end, where essentially it loops back to the beginning, works well, I think. I even like the final line, which I thought of months ago, and I kept tacked at the bottom of the file until I got there. Hopefully the editors who want it are going to think the same thing, and shower me with wealth, because that would be just super, thanks. Likely, I'll be able to lower my expectations to a print run and appearing in bookstores, but I'd hate to give in to easily, especially when there are midgets with bowls of cocaine roaming around to be had as well. That, incidentally, is an image that has stuck in my head from an old Queen documentary I saw years ago, in which the band members were talking about things they had reportedly done. "A party where midgets with bowls of cocaine on their heads walked around," said one of them (I forget who). "I wish we'd done it."

Well, he might not have said that final bit. But still.

In other news, Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt have picked up my story 'John Wayne' to be reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Volume Four. Sweet, hey?