Well, I always seem to drive myself, but this past couple of weeks in Las Vegas I have pushed the envelope a bit. I've done five presentations to readers and writers promoting "Seven Deadly Samovars," all on different subjects, attended a few meetings, written several more chapters of the new Silver Sisters book, "Vanishing Act in Vegas," finished the proposal for "You Don't Say," with my co-author on that project, submitted a short story to an anthology, and posted columns three times a week to www.examiner.com and one a week to www.perpetual prose.com.

Today I took the day off. On Sunday, the author rested. Had breakfast with my granddaughter and marveled at the fact that with her 12th birthday approaching at the end of the month, she is now almost as tall as I am. She has transitioned from a child to an almost-teen. We talked a bit about how different things were when I was her age, as she took time out to text her mother and show me many of the photos and aps on her cellphone. We hung out and chatted, like a couple of girlfriends...okay, girlfriends with a bit of an age gap...okay, again...a pretty big age gap, but able to hold fun conversations.

I wish I could watch my grandsons grow up as I have with her, but photos for the most part have to do. England is a long way off, and I'm lucky to be able to visit once a year. Little Tennessee is almost two and Texas is three already. Why is it that all of my three grandchildren are named after places? Texas, Tennessee (a bit unusual for a couple of British lads) and almost-teenage Denali named for the national park in Alaska.

The interesting thing to me is that unusual names aren't considered unusual anymore. In fact, the unusual ones are names like Sally, or Bob. You know, good solid names that used to be widely used. As authors we need to remember this when naming our characters. Make sure that their names are typical of the times.

Well, as I said, I'm taking the day off, so I'm going to the movies to see Pirate Radio. Time to kick back and listen to what is supposed to be some great rock, and with Phillip Seymore Hoffman in it, it should be good.

Next week it's back to L.A. for a while.