Tragedies and other things

The news about the Virginia Tech shootings was horrifying. It hits close to home here, of course, since Virginia Tech is a big school, and so many people here have kids on the campus. VH went to college there, and I visited the campus a number of times. It's a lovely, peaceful campus, and the thought of something like this happening there is hard to imagine. Then again, the thought of something like this happening anywhere is hard to imagine. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.

In more personal news, the kids are doing well. Even Oldest Kid, whom I was most worried about (because she's old enough to understand everything), is doing great. Her grades have actually gone up in school, and she is very happy to babysit for me when I need her to (for a small fee, of course). She's old enough to help me out a lot, which is good, because I don't always have quite enough hands to do everything that needs doing. I'm trying not to load too much responsibility onto her, but she is a big help. The other kids seem pretty cheerful, and I'm thinking they're going to get through this without massive emotional scarring and trauma. I hope. I don't think it can be easy to lose your dad so young, but kids are remarkably durable, and so far, mine seem to be doing better than I would have expected.

And in writing news, I'm working on getting someone to redo my website, since my in-house Web guy had to leave me. The person I want says she won't be able to get to it till June, and that's okay... it's not like I'm going to have a book out between now and then:-). I'm getting back to writing, slowly, but publishing is a slow business. Even e-publishing is slower than it used to be, with so many publishers' schedules getting filled up a year or more in advance. But there's no rush. I took some time off, and now it's going to take me a while to get back up to speed. I would like to publish one title this year, though, even if it's a short story-- I'm going to have to give some consideration as to how I can accomplish that!