I'm Back!

And better than ever. Or, at least, that's what Mike Greenberg says all the time. No, not about me, he just says it. Oh, never mind.

I've taken a little vacation it seems. It's been over a week since I posted here. I even missed my weekly chance to dash the hopes of another complete nation of fans by telling them that their team was not going to win the World Series. Y'know, like I did with the Pirates last week. Yes, the same Pirates that are in second place right now, a week later. No, I'm not going to take it back. That would be cheating.

But allow me to correct that oversight right now by telling you about the Houston Astros. They were waiting for their savior, Roger Clemens. But he's not coming. He's not. He's going for even more money instead, and getting it from the Yankees. They've got Roy Oswalt for their pitching and Morgan Ensberg for their hitting, but not much in between other than age. If they had Clemens, I might give them a shot. But they don't. Sorry, Texas, your two teams are now officially done.

The Pits for Pittsburgh

This is really starting to get tough. I am eliminating a team this week who is actually two spots from the bottom of their division, but are no less, I think, fated to be sitting hom in late October. Pittsburgh is young, and possibly talented team. They have shown sparks of real quality this season and have hung in longer than I would have thought at the beginning of the year. But their time has come to an end. Hey, they had the All-Star Game last year, right?

Woo-Hoo!

I'm blogging from New York City. Work stuff. No writing. No baseball. See you monday!

Boy, Is My Stock Rising!

Marcus Sakey has signed a deal to release his 3rd through 6th books at Dutton, which you can read here. What this means to us (read: me), is that if BURN NOTICE is, indeed, picked as the title of his 2nd book, due out next year, then the character Jared Case will debut in the 3rd novel in 2009, with, I'm sure, a strong push by the publisher. With all that free publicity, it's only a matter of time before I just explode!

I'll be gone over the weekend, and it will be a late post on Monday, so you all enjoy yourselves, and go buy a book!

I Wish That I Had Jesse's Curve

Now, look at this picture. Is that a face only a mother could love, or what? Well, for at least today, I love him too. His name is Jesse Litsch, and he is the starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays tonight. With 3 of the 5 starters set at opening day gone from the rotation, the Jays need some help. They looked down to their AA affiliate New Hampshire Fisher Cats to find it. There, Jesse Litsch was having a great year. He had compiled a 5-1 record with an ERA under 1, including giving up only 1 Earned Run in his last four starts. He proabably wont' stay on the roster, but for tonight, he's the Golden Boy.

But the more I find out about him, the more I like him. First of all, he shares my birthday, okay, not the same year, but still--The most famous person to have my birthday up until this point was Emmanuel Lewis. And that WAS the same year. But also, his Dad's birthday is today. He's going to fly up from Florida to Toronto to watch his son make his Major League debut. How cool is that? And his Dad is turning 57, which means he had the kid when he was about 34, and I wasn't much younger than that when my boy was born....

Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? So, come on everybody, put your positive thoughts out there for Jesse. Let's beat those Orioles and (woo) maintain our tenuous grip on 4th place!

And Sorry to You, Too, Kenny

The Cincinnati Reds are what I would consider a hard-luck club. They always seem to be improving one part of their game while a part they thought was solid is slipping away. Last year saw the emergence of Bronson Arroyo as a dominant NL pitcher, but the offense slid away. In the years before that, their offense seemed to be solid with Felipe Lopez, Felipe Crespo, Adam Dunn, Austin Kearns, and of course Ken Griffey. This year, neither seems to be working. They have a new owner, reportedly a baseball guy through-and-through, so there is hope that this can change.

But it's not going to change this year. The Reds are currently 15-23 and are 9 games out of a playoff spot. Now, this isn't an unsurmountable lead to overcome, but there are 11 teams ahead of them that already have a head start.

I'm a Sister!

I went to Malice Domestic last weekend with $200 in my pocket. I looked around in the book room, saved the cash till the end, since I didn't know where I was going to eat, or who I was going to meet at the bar. Whn Sunday came, and I still had more than $100 left, I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to be a Sister-in-Crime.

Sisters-in-Crime is an organization that was created in 1986 by Sara Paretsky, among others, to protect, promote and support women in the Mystery field. Since then, the organization has grown to include these types of services for all writers in all parts of the country.

So, for $40, I joined up at the conference, and I now await confirmation that I am, in fact, a Sister. One of the things that has been recommended to me by several people is to join a subgroup of Sisters-in-Crime called the GUPpies. They are the Great UnPublished. They provide support to new writers in feedback on query letters and manuscripts, as well as creating a large pool of knowledge and experience from which to draw.

I have great hope for the future and will keep you updated on how everything works out.