The momentum of silence has gotten pretty overwhelming around here. The longer I go without saying something, the greater the urge to have that "comeback" post be the greatest thing ever, the Nobel Prize-winning, sliced-toast-beating collection of devastating witticisms that will cure cancer, poverty, starvation, cholera, and the Republican party.

Pretty clearly, that isn't happening. I mean, not even my writing can fix Sarah Palin.^[*]

But anyway! I should at least say something and start trying to kick the silence habit. After all, I've kept myself pretty busy -- just not here. Witness:

• Oh hey wasn't there this novel I was posting to the Web? Even though I haven't mentioned anything about it since ... um ... May?
  
  • Trent, Act II and Trent, Act III: One of our heroes gets some solid answers on what's happening with this strange game come to life.
    
  • Crissy, Act VI: Crissy learns magic, and ... uh .... uh-oh.
  
  Then there was a month where I disappeared off the radar. I'm better now. And I came back with:
  
  
• Change of Mind -- even if you've been giving the novel a pass, this short story (~7500 words) about a mage's experiences with telepathy-as-mental-health-tool should be worth your time. A tip o' the hat to dragonzuela, who challenged me with the original concept in my Writing Requests thread.
  
  
• And
  
  Racing Stripes by ~baxil on deviantART
  -- a tongue-in-cheek self-portrait. Oh, and you knew I had an art gallery, right? The newest piece of art there is from around the time of John McCain's bar mitzvah^[*], but it's the first time I've ever posted them so let's just call them "new" and be done with it.

There's much more to say, as ever and always; but for now i'll be content with re-breaking the ice.