BUT!  There is light ahead!  In fact, this week I am ridiculously excited, because guess what’s back on Thursday?

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe the words I’m looking for are: OMG OMG OMG!  WOO HOO!!!

And just in the nick of time, as Dancing with the Stars signs off (YAY KRISTI YAY!!!  I mean, if she hadn’t won, that would have been kind of a travesty) and everything else ends for the summer, too.  And then I try to write a million books in the next three months, quick before the new TV season begins again.  :-)  Have you been paying attention to the new shows that’ll be launching in the fall?  It’s OK if you haven’t, because there aren’t that many new things coming, and the truth is, there’s only one you really really need to know about:

DOLLHOUSE!

There Are No Words for how excited I am about this.  Joss Whedon returns to TV!  With Faith!  And HELO!  I can’t even think about it, because being that excited renders me incapable of doing anything else, such as, say, writing a million books.

But I can be excited today, because yesterday I turned in a manuscript (HUZZAH!).  I can’t wait for you all to read it (next summer!) and meet my new favorite character, Heidi, who is named after an extremely adorable baby I know/am related to.  :-)  More about that when the book comes out!

Writing all weekend totally threw off my internal clock; I spent all of yesterday thinking it was Friday, and most of today assuming it was Wednesday.  Baroo?  You’d think TV would keep me on track, but no, apparently not.  Or, for instance, knowing I hadn’t written my Tuesday blog yet.  My goodness.

In other news, did you guys see this New York Times article?:

OK, Avatar, Work With Me

Of course the word "Avatar" caught my attention, but it’s all about the Wii Fit, which, as far as I can tell, turns working out at home into kind of a game, with you as the cartoon star.  WANT IT!  WANT ONE!  The article says it’s kind of like having Denise Austin talk back to you, which sounds awesome, because I think Denise and I would totally be BFF’s.  She’s my kind of chipper.  :-)  And I like the idea that it monitors what you’re doing and helps you reach your goals.  Right now no one’s monitoring my exercise, which means it’s possible that I’m doing the cobra pose all wrong and/or lying on the floor watching TV instead of doing abdominal crunches.  How would I know?  The Wii will tell me!  Best plan ever!  Plus it’s a perfect excuse to sneak video games into the house.  ;-)  (Um, don’t tell Adam I said that.) 

Also, did you see the hottest baby names of the year?  Fastest-rising: Miley!  I love this name.  Super-cute, and it sounds like smiling.  Awww.  I wonder what I would have to do to get famous enough for my name to crack this list.  Maybe if I were on Dancing with the Stars (ahahahahahaha).  Do you think they’d ever put an author on this show?  I mean, like, a really famous one?  Who would you nominate? 

I bet they’d definitely let J.K. Rowling do it, if she had any interest.  Also Stephen King.  Can you think of any other authors that are famous enough to compete with the likes of Kristi Yamaguchi and Marlee Matlin?  Of course, I imagine sports and acting prepare you a little better for dancing on national TV than sitting at a desk typing all day (unless you have a Wii Fit, maybe!  Are you listening, Adam?). 

But I’d still love to see an author on this show!  Think about it, DwtS!  I mean, not me.  Don’t think about me.  Think about someone brilliant and hilarious and totally awesome, like Rachel Vail!  I would soooo vote for her every week.

On the other hand, if my favorite authors were on my TV dancing, they wouldn’t be at their desks writing new books, so I guess it’s OK if we leave Dancing with the Stars the way it is.

(By the way, I just got sidetracked into investigating my favorite authors’ websites and found Neal Stephenson’s.  Hello, fascinating.  I like his note on why he’s a bad correspondent.  Also his note about smileys.  :-)  I plan to tackle the second Baroque Cycle book soon…now that all the TV is on a break!)

All right, off to bed — I have a new manuscript to start tomorrow!  Whee!  I like beginnings.  Also endings.  It’s middles that give me trouble.  🙂