I've developed a sudden, inexplicable and ridiculous addiction to Spider Solitaire. Like, to the point that I think I'm going to have to remove it from my computer if I want to get any writing done.

The week is over and so far all I've accomplished from my list is the Yahoo! group, the sleeping, and some of the writing. I should add to that catching up on e-mail, because I'm way far behind on that, too.

Finished part 3 of Getaway and sent it to my beta readers. I've heard back from all but two. It shouldn't be much longer before I've got a final draft all ready to post.

It wasn't easy to write, not just in light of what happened in Mutant Enemy's version of the Buffyverse this week, but also because it's competing in my brain with Episode 3.6, and that chapter is begging to be written. I'm really excited about it. It's going to be a bit of a departure from what we normally do. It'll be all about Spike, so don't worry, he's not going away again; but it'll be different.

Anyway. About this week's ep. As I said before it aired, I was spoiled, and I'm still optimistic. I don't really want to go into it here because it's such a hot button issue, so you'll have to sign up to clubhouse if you want to know all of my thoughts on it. But I haven't given up.

Actually, the going speculation right now is that Spike's going to become human (this is pure spec, by the way, and not spoiler-based). I was pretty opposed to the idea at first, and though I would still prefer they didn't go that way, the more I think about it the more I think that it's going to happen. And I'm not completely against the idea, considering it goes along with my original speculation on the topic. So here's my current wacky theory: They'll turn him human, next season he'll be all redeemed and he'll work things out with Buffy. Maybe he'll even become a Watcher. Just when they're blissfully happy and secure in their relationship, he'll get turned back into a vampire. Because ME is just evil enough to do that, and they can't just kill him because James, thank God, has a contract. But it won't be just a retread of Angel/us, you see. Because he'll still be Spike, and he'll still love her, and he won't stalk her friends and kill their goldfish and kill their pseudo-girlfriends and generally wreak havoc. He'll just be set back to his current self, only chipless. And then they'll be forced to deal with all of the issues that we (we being the redemptionistas) were hoping this storyline would deal with in the first place, that being whether redemption is possible for a vampire in Spike's circumstances, if Buffy can love a redeemed vampire and if she does, what does that mean for her role as Vampire Slayer, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They'll trick us into thinking that the turning human storyline is a cop-out to avoid having to go there, and then they'll go there after all. But I think ME has painted Spike into a corner where WHAT he is has to change as much as WHO he is in order to make him acceptable to the general audience again (which is why I say FEH! to ME). And as long as he's a human version of Spike, and not the return of William the Bloody Dorkwad, I'm sure I'll be cool with it.

Or, he'll come back de-chipped and suddenly competently evil and he'll spend all of next season plotting to bring down Buffy and the Scooby Gang and Buffy will have angst over having to kill a vampire she used to sleep with. <SARCASM>Because that particular storyline hasn't been done before.</SARCASM>