First the good: today is Ian and my eleventh anniversary. Eleven whole years…madness. Who’d’ve thought it’d last this long? When we first started dating, we didn’t. But here we are and I’m so happy to have him that sometimes I feel like I might explode from all the happiness. I loven you, Baby Doll! You rock my world. 🙂 (And you keep me sane.)

Then the bad: yesterday, my all-time favorite author died: Robert Lynn Asprin. It was of natural causes, apparently, which is good, I guess. I’m just so incredibly depressed that he’s gone. His novels are what got me through junior high, high school, college and beyond. Waiting for each book in the Myth series to come out was like a child waiting for Christmas to come…times a hundred. His novels are what sparked my own ideas for my Solennelle and O series, and his characters have inspired me more than any “classic” or religious text or flesh and blood person. I grew up with them. I grew up with his simple messages, snarky humor, and deep-felt friendships. I’ve modeled a good portion of my outlook on life based on his writings because they’re clear, straightforward and plain basic common sense. I love everything about his works, even the sporadic typos and inconsistencies. Who cares if Gleep went from being a blue dragon to a green one or if the kingdom of Posseltum went through three different spellings in three different books? None of that mattered as much as the main characters Skeeve and Aahz and their adventures in a magical realm of comedy and friendship. Phule’s escapades through space were enlightening as much as entertaining, and even the bugs in The Bug Wars were as endearing as the haggling, shrewd Deveels in Deva. I just can’t believe he’s gone. I can’t believe that Skeeve and Aahz and Phule and all the other beloved characters I came to cherish will never embark on another mission, visit another dimension, or even just buy another round for the house. The man who brought us such memorable places as Sanctuary in Thieves’ World is now but a memory. Well I’m bound and determined to see that that memory lives on, that others read his books, and that others appreciate his works as much as I do. His worlds became my world, and I’ll never let go of that, even if I have to let go of the author. Goodbye, Bob. You will be missed.