Amber and Ashes, by Margaret Weis. This novel was...well, inconsistent. I'm a bit sorry to say it for some reason, but I have to wonder whether the quality of Weis' writing suffers without her husband on board. It often seemed a bit dumbed down, and not intentionally, even, and I really couldn't quite figure out whether the wavering focus on the pantheon-of-gods archetype was supposed to be epic or more personally dramatic. I will note a particular passage near the beginning which leads me to think that Weis had to have been reading yogic texts as she was writing, it was uncanny the parallels with something else I was reading concurrently. As to the attempt to add a martial arts aspect to the Dragonlance, I'm torn, as it was kind of nicely understated, but at the same time cliche - I think she could have made it more unique to the setting, rather than relying on old standbys.

On saving money -

on gas, in Tucson
---and everywhere

and on plane tickets

and passport photos!