I will start with happy news first:
I’m not a fabulous photographer >.>. I couldn’t make to to the RT convention, but they mailed the award, and I received it yesterday (I had it sent to the bookstore because someone is always there during the day).
At the moment, it is sitting beside my computer, along with the birthday card I received from DAW (which would be: Sheila Gilbert, Betsy Wolheim, Joshua Starr, Katie Hoffman, and Briar (whose last name I can’t find >.>).
This is all good, because: I have — for entirely different reasons, jettisoned the 55k words of Grave, and started it again. And then again. And then again. So: I am working, and have been working, on this book, which I honestly thought would be finished by now. I have not pulled out all my hair.
Oracle is going well, on the other hand. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s so long, it would be a joy to write. Length has always been one of my big stressors — and this is true whether I’m writing a short, a novella, or a novel. My sense of how long something will be before I actually write it is tenuously linked to reality.
On the other hand, Silence and Touch were short books. Grave will be short. So maybe stress about story length is the better stress.
In other news: I am Behind On Life. I have done very little reading recently, I have watched no movies. Tower of God is on hiatus, so I don’t have the Sunday morning ToG chapter to anticipate. I have been working on ebook proof-reading/formatting, but not quickly. I promised someone that the UK ebook of Oracle would be available at the same time as the US ebook version — and I still intend to do that, but I’d hoped to release the ebooks at more regular intervals, and at this rate, they’re probably going to all appear close to the same day >.<.
But, on the bright side, it is a gorgeous day; it is warm, but not hot, and I am about to sit down to work on Grave again.
Happy birthday! And congratulations on the award. You have my permission to relax and go see a movie with your husband :).