Kage Baker, as I have often reported, believed in celebrating at every possible opportunity. She felt that anything could be enhanced by making it the center of a celebration. Also, the more things you found to honor with a good bash, the better life in general could be.

You like clinking glasses for a toast? Kage liked to clink everything. Fruit, pizza slices, candy bars, moo goo gai pan sarnies – if it was a treat, if it was nice and eating it made you happy, then clink it with a friend. I’ll admit you do end up wearing unusual amounts of hot cheese, brown sauce and crumbs, but the party atmosphere was worth it. Pro tip, though: if you do this in a moving car, make sure one of you keeps their eyes on the road and one of you directs the toast. Otherwise, you end up backwards on the traffic island in the middle of El Camino Real, or with an eclair in your ear.

Anyway: nothing thrilled Kage more than completing, selling or being paid for a story. This called for singing, loud praise to all the saints, loas and responsive gods, happy cries of “I-Am-GOOD!”. And of course, wild dancing around the living room. Never mind Carmen Miranda and her fruit bowl accessories: Kage danced with a parrot, any small child currently in residence, and usually a cocktail in her hand.

I’m more the quietly glowing in satisfaction type. So far, anyway. I got a little noisy when Nell Gwynne II was finished (though not too much, because it was somewhere around 1 AM) and I did jig a little when I completed and sent off Knight & Dei. If and when that one sells, I likely will howl and dance in glee. But in the meantime, I just grin and rejoice.

Today, I got a royalty check from the inestimable Subterranean Press. This is always pleasant; this one was even more so, because the books it covered were Best of Kage Baker, Where the Golden Apples Grow, and Ladies of Nell Gwynne – PLUS Nell Gwynne II! That means that Kage’s stuff is indeed still selling – huzzah! Calloo callay! And it also means I got royalties for something I actually wrote!

The delight this conveys is impossible to describe.

Inspired by this, and by Kimberly’s patiently reminding me not to leave her hanging, I put on my writing hat and necklace and sat down with “The Teddy Bear Squad”. And guess what, Dear Readers? I finished it! It’s done! It came in as a novelette, which is mercifully shorter than I had feared. It may alter considerably, but the first draft IS DONE!

Oh, what a relief …

So here’s to all of you, Dear Readers. We can’t clink glasses across the aether, but I raise my cold coffee and a handful of Jordan Almonds to all of you.

To Victory!