Certain books are things of power.

I have just finished reading Dzur, and I am now in mourning...

There are goods books out there - you appreciate the turn of a well written line, the pacing of the story, the development of the characters, the subtle hints and references to other stories. Those are the books that you end up reading again with pleasure when there are no new discoveries (or what will become part of the firm friends in time) to read.
It's a renewed joy every time you pick them up again, and you are sad when the book ends. You wish you could watch the characters settle down and have kids, so to speak, and hope there will be more in the future.

...but you *never* forget you are a spectator...

I walked the streets of South Adrilanka for a week, one step behind Vlad - watching his back with Loiosh and Rocza...
I went to Dzur Mountain with him, and I think this time Sethra actually glanced at me for the briefest of seconds...
I was pointedly ignored by Aliera once again - she thinks a human using her name is utterly beyond contempt...
I was at Valabar's with Vlad and Telnan, trying to guess the next course...

I tried so hard to make the book last, I could only manage a week with serious rationing. And I had been waiting over a month for Amazon to deliver it.
I know he's on chapter three of The Thing That Might Be A Book already, but we are talking at least another year before it gets published. Don't think I can last that long.

Yet another photography post.

...because, well, couldn't think of a way of linking the subject in the previous post.... *looks embarrassed*
Following the advice of sirielle (she knows a lot more than me about PS) I have edited the 'conkers' pic a little more - mostly adding warmth to the colours, and I am quite pleased with the results.
Haven't decided if I am going to post it for the comp or not - I should have done it on Saturday, straight after taking it, riding on the high of getting the technical side right.......

BUT - the important bit...........

Wrote to H, asking for his unbiased opinion - which he unflinchingly provided for the first time ever...
While he said that yes, it's a good shot, but it's of the wallpapery variety rather than the print-and-display-on -the-wall one (the kind of stuff you could happily submit to a stock agency, and I totally agree), he also said:

"I hope that hasn't taken the wind out of your sails - it is a good shot, and I think you should enter it - unless of course you come up with something in the next few days that you like even more. The fact that you took it at all shows that your eye is getting better all the time. I don't think you would have taken it two or three years ago - now you're looking at things in a whole different way, and that's exactly how it should be".

Understand - I bloody well *worship* the ground the guy walks on.
My eye is getting better..................................................................................................!