There's a funny kind of push-and-pull going on in my head as I write any book. On the one hand, there's the part that measures wordcounts, thrills to achievement, and thinks, wow, I'm going to have a whole draft in just a few more months! That's awesome! Then there's the other part that thinks: But I looooove writing this novel! Why can't it just ( Read more... )

Whew. With nine days to go until A Most Improper Magick releases in the UK*, I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a whirl of to-do lists, all of them AMIM-related...but the single most important thing that's happened for me this week is that - incredibly - I actually hit THE END on my rewrite of Kat3! I still haven't sent it to my editor ( Read more... )

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was fabulous. Patrick and I had a joint writing session (my favorite kind, which we hardly ever get nowadays) in my favorite café. We ate lunch out in a local pub, and although the food itself wasn't great, it was wonderful to be sharing a meal out on our own. We had a looooooong, luxurious wander through our local ( Read more... )

Alas, the sun I love doesn't necessarily love me. Yesterday I spent a wonderful day out on the patio, hanging out with a good friend (who also, in a HUGE stroke of luck for me, happens to be my sister-in-law) and talking about all sorts of things...and by mid-afternoon my shoulders, arms, legs, and even feet were lobster-red ( Read more... )

Whew. I finished reading through (and taking notes on) Kat3 today...and I really, honestly loved the last 100 pages. Which was a HUGE relief, as I'd been fretting over a bunch of things beforehand. Loving the ending, though, and having faith in that last third of the book, makes the first two-thirds feel so much more fix-able, and gives me a ( Read more... )

I really love this blog entry by the very awesome Karen Healey, where she orders women to stop qualifying their achievements and start taking pride in them. (And I'd personally extend that order to the men I know, as well ( Read more... )

1. This afternoon as I was pushing MrD's pram back up the hill from the playground to the house, I had to stop walking for a moment because I was just floored by the beauty ahead of me and all around me - mist-swirled mountains rising up before me, flowering apple trees and rich magnolias in the yards nearby, and lush greenness everywhere I looked ( Read more... )

Here's the weird truth about fulfilling my dream for the past 25 years and selling my first books - oh, and finishing the trilogy, too, and being about to see the first book come out in bookstores where I live. (97 more days till the UK pub date, according to my daily Waterstones.com update ( Read more... )

Whew! Lots of chaos going on around here, but I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and write some of it out ( Read more... )

OK, you guys are going to have to forgive me if I sound a little giddy...because:

Today I finished writing Kat Book 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I am so, so, so, so happy about this. I'd had to take a few days off earlier this week because of the Viral Bug of Doom, but ever since I started feeling better, I've been writing like a ( Read more... )