When I returned from Australia, where I finally finished the final revi­sion of Grave, I felt a little burned out. I went back to work on War, but progress there was slow. This happens some­times when I haven’t quite emerged from a state-of-anxiety with regards to writing — and Grave was defi­nitely that. As I’ve said before: when things are hard, I feel incom­pe­tent. When I feel incom­pe­tent, I tend to with­draw. The internet is full of bright, shiny, enter­taining things — none of which I am at that partic­ular moment. I am always at my most gregar­ious when the writing is going well. Some­thing arrived at my doorstep, liter­ally, that really helped. In the mess of dead­lines, more dead­lines, emer­gency dead­lines, page proofs, it actu­ally made me very happy — but I had forgotten entirely that it was coming. (I … Continue reading →