At present, I'm working on a young adult fantasy novel, under the working title of Beauty's Beast.  This particular project is an attempt to produce something of an appropriate length for YA.  My last two novels clocked in at over 100K, which is honestly just too long for YA, especially if you are an unpublished writer. 

In between chapters I'm rewriting the short stories and novellas that I've sent through one of my critique groups but haven't started submitting.  I'm ashamed to admit there are quite a few of these, because I was just too lazy to rewrite in 2004.  Still, I'm making progress, and the rejects are rolling on in.  As of February 14, 2005, I was up to 5 rejections for the year, and 405 for my career total.

In August 2004, my centipede erotica story "Meeting Mother" appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated (TOTU), issue 25.  It is available through the TOTU website.

March 4-6, 2005
    I'll be attending MarsCon in Bloomington, MN
March 25-27, 2005
     I'll be attending Minicon in Minneapolis, MN
May 27-30, 2005
     I'll be attending WisCon in Madison, WI
June 28, 2005
     I'll be reading at DreamHaven Books and Comics in Minneapolis, MN
     from 6:30-8:00 pm.  It's free.  Stop on by.
August 2005
     I'll be attending Diversicon in Bloomington, MN
November 3-6, 2005
     I'll be attending  World Fantasy Convention in Madison, WI

I've been writing for most of my life, and I don't remember a time when I didn't love fantasy.  I was introduced to science fiction in junior high.  I started submitting stories seriously in 1998 after joining my first critique group.  I am currently a member of two groups in the Twin Cities, Guts and Rocks, and Pengames.  The feedback I've gotten has helped me improve far more than I had when I was working on my own.

Because I have tendonosis in both arms, typing can be a pain, literally.  I do all of my initial writing with Dragon NaturallySpeaking™, voice recognition software.  I wrote two novels and a slew of short stories with version 3.01.  I moved to version 5 in 2003, and while ScanSoft has released version 8, I'm content enough with version  5 that I don't feel inclined to upgrade yet.  If voice recognition interests you, check out my article, Writing With the Dragon: A Voice Recognition Primer.  I use the Evolution keyboard, with a completely split "floating" design, for all my editing.  In October 2001 I apparently wanted a new challenge, so I switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout.  For more information on these, check out Other Stuff Part 2.

You'll find useful writing related links in the Annex, covering such subjects as market lists, bulletin boards and writing resources.  My column, Reflections From the Sol: Don't Stare Directly At It, appeared in the now defunct webzine ShallowEnd and focused on aspects of writing.

Twin Cities Local Writers
Peg Kerr, author of Wild Swans.  She also has a LiveJournal blog.
Naomi Kritzer, author of Turning the Storm, Freedom's Gate, etc.
Catherine Lundoff's work can be found in sf/f and erotica anthologies.
Hilary Moon Murphy is a member of Pengames.
Lyda Morehouse, author of Messiah Node and Apocalypse Array, etc.
Katya Reimann, author of The Tielmaran Chronicles.
Anna Waltz, has done some nifty projects and is in Guts and Rocks.
Jason D. Wittman likes to feature games such as chess in his stories.

Others
Holly Black, author of Tithe and the Spiderwick series.
Jim C. Hines, author of GoblinQuest.
Kelly McCullough is not quite a local writer.  He's sold a number of short stories and is a member of Guts and Rocks.
Frank Wu is a science fiction and fantasy artist and a heck of a nice guy.  He takes obvious delight in beating writers at Scrabble, but we all have our flaws.