Did a quick final pass…

Did a quick final pass on "At the Gates of the City", one of the few genre stories I've written in a while. Was startled to see how very autobiographical it was -- oops. :-) Still a good story, and I'm just going to send it out anyway. I had thought I had a lot of edits to make on it, but when I looked at it again, I was really pretty happy with it. It's very understated, and perhaps too much so, but it's the way I like it. And if no one else wants to buy it, I'll publish it myself some day. So there. (Actually, I think the only places I'd really like to see it are SciFiction, Asimov's, F&SF or Realms -- if none of those wants it, then I think I'll just save it for a collection of my own, since I should include some new material in any of those I publish, ideally.)

Next, review the Sri Lankan stories that I think might be ready for submission. Trying to churn through and get some of these damn things out and in the mail.

Oh, a few diet notes -- I experimented at the grocery store yesterday, and bought a bunch of health food/diet items. Report so far -- the veggie meatballs were quite yummy, and while they appear to be about the same calories as turkey meatballs (baked) would be, they're easier, since they're pre-made and I can just dump them in some Muir Glen spicy sauce (add some chili flakes) and spaghetti (1 oz., 100 calories), which is all I felt like coping with last night. Some nights I just want spaghetti and meatballs, and I want it to be as easy as possible. For 230 calories, this was a good option, and while it didn't actually taste like meat, the texture was remarkably similar, and I think it's more the texture that I crave.

On another front, low-carb bread works fine to satisfy my desire for bread, and is an astonishing 35 calories a slice (as opposed to a more usual 100-120). 2% cheese is decent, and tastes quite a bit like real cheese (60 calories a slice), whereas skim cheese tastes noticeably more watery -- but is only 30 calories. I'm having a slice of toasted swiss skim cheese on low-carb bread for breakfast, with tea -- 90 calories total, and as long as I don't have real cheese next to it, I can forget what real cheese tastes like and just enjoy the warm toasted goodness of this. :-)

I don't want to spend my life eating diet foods, and I still plan to cook lots, which I think is the best way to do this kind of thing without feeling deprived. But as I move into a more intense dissertation-writing period, it's good to have fast but satisfying options, so I don't just cave and order stuffed pizza from the Giordano's next door. (Which, in any case, is yummy but emphatically not fast, since it takes a good hour to make one.)

Oh, and one more -- in the diet section, I bought some sugar-free butterscotch candies. 4 = 15 calories; I sucked on one after dinner last night, and it satisfied my sweet tooth and kept me from going to the kitchen and making more food to put in my mouth. Good alternative.