Have I mentioned what a GREAT book week this has been? On Friday, I finished Jo Graham's Hand of Isis (which rocked, not surprisingly - she's rapidly becoming one of my favorite historical authors, whether inside or outside the fantasy genre) (and honestly, she could fit into either section of the bookstore with HoI). Before I could even wonder ( Read more... )

My lovely winter weather continues, complete with falling snow, and verily, I am happy. :) I'm not alone in my snow bliss, either - Maya is right there with me! She loves thick snow. She follows scent trails across the top layer, digs down to find what's underneath, and sometimes even bites off snowballs to toss for herself! She's a very happy ( Read more... )

1. One of the best things about being on the Norton jury has been the fact that I've been forced to read a whole bunch of books that aren't natural picks for me. I spent yesterday reading TIM: Defender of the Earth, by Sam Enthoven, which is a book full of smack-down fights in the middle of London between a giant, semi-intelligent tyrannosaurus ( ( Read more... )

Huh. So, pregnant women in their 3rd trimesters are notorious for having strange, vivid dreams. Last night I had my most vivid and uncomfortable yet. It was one of those dreams that felt absolutely real, down to going through it in what felt exactly like real time - and, of all the things to go through in real time, I dreamed that I was going ( Read more... )

Drumroll, please... Yesterday morning, I FINISHED Draft 2 of Kat by Starlight!!!! Wooooooot! Ohhh, this makes me happy. I'm going to wait a few days for Patrick to read through the new versions of the last few chapters (to make sure I haven't introduced any huge & glaring logic issues or major inconsistencies) before I send it off for other ( Read more... )

It almost feels like tempting Fate to admit this, but today has been one of those rare, wonderful, white-hot revision days. I am SO close to being done with this draft of Kat by Starlight, and it's making me tingle with anticipation. Today I stormed through logic problems that had been defeating me for the last few weeks, tied up character arcs, ( Read more... )

It's been sheeting down rain here, with chilly temperatures and gray skies, and in combination with my 3rd-trimester exhaustion, I've been seriously in need of a pick-me-up. So I am SO glad to have discovered Sarah Rees Brennan's hilarious "fairy tale" romance (with strong sarcastic finger quotes) An Old-Fashioned Unicorn's Guide to Courtship, ( Read more... )

So, with only 5 chapters left to revise in Kat by Starlight, I ran into a big stumbling-block on Tuesday: a magical plot-point that had been worrying me for a long time, but that I'd never stopped to figure out. (Why? Well, because that would have been hard, of course! Much easier to just not think about it...at least until I got to this point in ( Read more... )

I'm very happy to be able to announce that my near-future superhero story "After the Change" will be published in the anthology Future Bristol, edited by Colin Harvey. (This is one of the stories I'd sent in edits for last weekend. Whew!) Future Bristol is due to be published in April, 2009, and - and this makes it so much fun for me - it will ( Read more... )

Whew! This morning I revised 3-1/2 chapters of Kat by Starlight and finally, finally passed the halfway point of the novel. Between the big research hurdle I ran into in Bath and the (wonderful) distraction of the trilogy sale, it's taken a lot longer than I'd expected to get through this second draft. I do feel like I've passed through the hardest ( Read more... )