Getting Emotional, the Black Widow, and a Chocolate-Filled Plan
Thanks so much to everyone who signal-boosted and/or sent me feedback on my new short story, "Marking Time"! It's really meant a lot to me to get so much wonderful support for it, especially since this was a story I was a little nervous about sharing. None of the details are based on my real life or that of anyone else I know, but it still feels like a deeply personal story to me, because it came out of spending last summer reconnecting with some very old friends for the first time in years and realizing just how different all of our lives are - in both good and bad ways - from what we'd planned out back in college. So it's emotionally intense and a little different from most of the short stories I've been publishing lately...and it means so much to hear from people who've connected to it!
Over here, the family seems to have gone through every nasty bug possible in the past week and a half, but everyone's feeling better now...and hooray! I finally got a replacement laptop, after 11 looooooooooong (for both me and everyone who had to listen to me complain) days without any computer of my own. It is such a relief to be able to grab free moments to write every time they come up, now, rather than having to rely on borrowing someone else's machine at just the right moment (which often turned out not to be possible, for various practical reasons). My replacement computer is a tiny PC notebook (chosen mostly for the fact that it was the cheapest one I could find that came with MS Word pre-installed), and in five months (when I will be getting a much nicer, secondhand MacBook from a relative in America), it will become MrD's computer. He is so excited that he has already named it after one of his favorite characters ever: The Black Widow!
Needless to say, I am totally happy with that decision. :) And now that I'm back to having a writing machine again, all is so much better with the world!
Next week I'll be back to work on another draft of my latest freelance project, but right now (as displayed in that photo!), I'm racing through toward the ending of my new MG novel, The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and having so much fun with it. Of course, as always, the ending recedes with every step I take, so I thought it would be done at 50,000 words, but with every new scene I write, I realize how much further there still is to go...but still. I am partway through the climax, it's full of fierce dragon-girls and chocolate and friendship and danger, and it's making me really happy. And of course I have very chocolatey plans for my celebration when I finish the draft, no matter when exactly that turns out to be!
How about you guys? What have been the highlights of your last week?
Over here, the family seems to have gone through every nasty bug possible in the past week and a half, but everyone's feeling better now...and hooray! I finally got a replacement laptop, after 11 looooooooooong (for both me and everyone who had to listen to me complain) days without any computer of my own. It is such a relief to be able to grab free moments to write every time they come up, now, rather than having to rely on borrowing someone else's machine at just the right moment (which often turned out not to be possible, for various practical reasons). My replacement computer is a tiny PC notebook (chosen mostly for the fact that it was the cheapest one I could find that came with MS Word pre-installed), and in five months (when I will be getting a much nicer, secondhand MacBook from a relative in America), it will become MrD's computer. He is so excited that he has already named it after one of his favorite characters ever: The Black Widow!
Needless to say, I am totally happy with that decision. :) And now that I'm back to having a writing machine again, all is so much better with the world!
Next week I'll be back to work on another draft of my latest freelance project, but right now (as displayed in that photo!), I'm racing through toward the ending of my new MG novel, The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart and having so much fun with it. Of course, as always, the ending recedes with every step I take, so I thought it would be done at 50,000 words, but with every new scene I write, I realize how much further there still is to go...but still. I am partway through the climax, it's full of fierce dragon-girls and chocolate and friendship and danger, and it's making me really happy. And of course I have very chocolatey plans for my celebration when I finish the draft, no matter when exactly that turns out to be!
How about you guys? What have been the highlights of your last week?