jstro brought up a good point - some people would prefer to be mentioned in the library by their real names rather than their Rendie identities. If anyone would like me to change their names listed in the Library for contests, contributions, etc., please let me know. There will be more articles in the library shortly. I had a big family crisis come up as well as a (non-Rendie) site crisis (do not hit "yes to all" for dns name changes if you don't have all your dns servers set up!) As always, I'd love to have submissions by y'all in there, too! (Hint! Hint!) If people are interested, I have some more challenge ideas in the works as well. (Is it too early to be asking when this year will end?) Cres

My brother says all the bad stuff so far in 2003 is just dribble over from 2002. Personally, 2003 seems to resemble 2002 in too many ways for my taste. But it is still only January.

Hrmmm... the library is pretty cool. Nicely done. Under tips and tricks, especially characterization... one place I manage to get a lot of useful tricks is from reading authors forwards to novels by writers I either enjoy, or whom I think have an especially fine grasp of the craft. Zelazny, Niven, and a few others are [were in Zelazny's case, sadly] especially good about burying neat tidbits of how they achieve a "feel", a situation, or a realize story concept in their book and short story forwards. A list with a bibliography of places to look for that type of stuff might be handy... possibly with a few quotes scattered through it.

And sorry to read about your family crisis. Hope everything worked out well for you.

Thanks, IB. The worst of it will be over on Friday. My in-laws moved in on an emergency basis on Christmas day. No warning. The reasons why they had to move in are the ones you'd see in a badly written soap opera. Some of the issues haven't been resolved and may get worse over time, but the immediate stress is going away. (I do like them, but having people stay for more than a day or two is very stressful for me. I've been going though a strong bout of depression from this and the holiday season in general.)

Oh yrrk. In-laws are people you'd rather shoot but you have to be nice to them because you're married to one of em, right? ;]

My in-laws moved in on an emergency basis on Christmas day. No warning. Next challenge for the forum, in less than 2000 words? Seriously, hope you're OK. Thanks for keeping all this going when you've been up to your ears in it. It's lovely to have this here, and you keep the plates spinning very stylishly :)

... you keep the plates spinning very stylishly :) Glue does wonders. ;-)