I do.

It was the spring of 2001, and Audry and I were looking at wedding dresses at various boutiques on Ventura Boulevard. There was one in particular that Liz Sage (who had diabolically tricked me into becoming engaged and who would end up marrying us) had recommended. When I saw it in the window, my reaction was the same as Audry's had been: Ugh. On the blank mannequin, it looked Victorian and matronly. Worse yet, it had green and pink beadwork running up and down its front. Green? On a wedding dress? Who thought that was a good idea?

I was ready to move on to the next shop, but Audry insisted she had promised Liz she'd try it on. We went in, and while she went into the fitting room I sat down and waited with grim expectations.

A few minutes later Audry stepped out from behind the curtain, and I nearly fell out of my chair.

This dress, which had been a drab sack with green beads, transformed into a thing of utter beauty when Audry wore it. She brought it alive. She was the most glorious thing I had ever seen.

Months later, in Orlando, on our wedding day, she was as radiant as a princess.  (Click for larger view.)

I bring this up because eight years ago today, Audry and I were married, at Disney World.  It was the happiest day of my life. Here's the highlight of the ceremony:



Notice how Liz doubles over in surprise, but immediately snaps back by saying "That's legal!" Thank god we were married by a comedy writer.

Current reading. (Like you were really interested.)

Recently:

Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher. (Research.)

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath by H.P. Lovecraft. (The old Ballantine Adult Fantasy edition from 1970 – and it’s the first time I’ve read it!)

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.

Gothic! (YA short-story collections; more research and a MAJOR slog.)

The Writer’s Tale by Russell T. Davies. The Doctor Who writing process, by a genius who’s not afraid to burn his bridges.

Currently:

Ophelia Speaks by Sara Schandler. (More research.)

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. (Yet more research.)

About Writing by Samuel R. Delany. (Chip’s astounding knowledge, erudition, and writing chops have always been a source of profound irritation for me.)

The Jewish War by Josephus. Found my father’s copy of this old Penguin – printed in Isreal! – last June in NYC. You can only read a few pages at a time. Dense, but chock full of violence, treachery, depravity, and other Roman goodness, written by one of the most fascinating characters in literature – a Jewish historian and commander of the Jewish army in Galilee who became a Roman citizen; upholder of Jewish tradition to the Romans, Roman apologist to the Jews, and a guy for whom the phrase “You can’t please everybody” apparently held no terror. I am reading his famous account preparatory to reading Lion Feuchtwanger’s novel Josephus.

A bucketload of plays by my friend Rob Shearman.

The first draft of Audry’s novel.

Next from the stack:

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead. (That I might better understand what flips Audry out.)

The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. (Penguin Read Red, loaded with win!)

Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenter & Seymour by J.D. Salinger. (Can’t believe I never read this one.)

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link.

Ridiculous! The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam by David Kaufman.

…unless I change my mind and grab something else instead.

The start of a 40-hour journey.

Here is Audry at LAX, waiting for the first leg of our flight, from L.A. to Chicago, with a change of planes before flying to Germany. Naturally, she looks better in my hat than I do.


And here is Audry, 24 hours later, at the restaurant of the Airport Hyatt in Chicago, where we spent the night because our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was cancelled. Oh, boy. It's gonna be one of those trips...

And so we arrived in Frankfurt, 40 hours after leaving Los Angeles...

Where we were just now.

Behold the wonders of a tiny Flip HD camera and in-room internet access.



I'll be posting later about the past week. Stay tuned.

While you were sleeping...

Audry was up at 5 in the morning today, and the song of the birds in the front yard so impressed her that she whipped out her Flip HD and shot this.



Meanwhile, I was upstairs, sound asleep, dreaming of -- Dan Quayle? Yaaaaugghhh! No more MSNBC before bed!

Tweets from Audry

So Audry, who is up in San Francisco at the Game Developers' Conference, has been keeping in touch with me via Twitter. (That's a link to her feed, if by some bizarre happenstance you're interested.) Anyway, apparently she hasn't had to pay for a meal -- or even open a door for herself -- since she got there. This is what being blonde and cute does for you. Some recent Tweets:

#gdc reclining luxuriously on bean bag. show floor is next!
about 6 hours ago

#gdc saw skin tight booth babe felt blonde fu weaken
about 6 hours ago

#gdc great meeting @ mochi about tkng over world mwa ha ha
about 5 hours ago

#gdc iron man game looks good as movie
about 5 hours ago

#gdc left show floor feel blonde fu returning
about 4 hours ago

Clearly she's deep inside what they call "The Bubble" on 30 Rock.

Happy Queryfail Day!

My ever-delightful wife Audry (known to some of you as The Lovely Janet) has made a couple of posts about Queryfail Day, a day you probably didn't even know existed.

Here's her post about the sort of inquiries we receive from would-be translators and proofreaders.

And here she shares several literary agents' droll queryfail Tweets, and rags on Twitter in general.