The Wind-down

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes! I had a very nice birthday, even if it was without a cake. (I bought my own Pepperidge Farm chocolate fudge cake at the store this morning--tonight my husband 'plated' it with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, probably just hoping for a little credit).

Things are starting to work their way back to normal here. We said goodbye to my sister's family today, and we have one more day with my sister-in-law before she goes, and then it's just us. I'm hoping that at least by next week, I get back to the writing. Several Christmas cards and well-meaning comments probed into the progress on Novel #2--my progress report was far from impressive. Clearly I won't finish the book this year--quite the disappointment. My new goal is definitely, no-excuses by the end of the school year, and I'll probably try to have queried a few agents before then. That's the plan, and I'm sticking to it. I think I may even write down some daily goals--imagine that...

Since my last book update, I've finished The Luxe, which I enjoyed very much. Really it was a light but very eloquent book, a romance of sorts with some dicier topics. I'm actually a little surprised that they're billing it as appropriate for forteen years old and up. There is quite a little bit of innuendo and inappropriate behavior going on, and while I certainly read romances at that age myself, I wasn't reading teen-geared novels with the same sort of implications. It (The Luxe) definitely wasn't explicit, just read-between-the-lines racy.

Right now I'm reading Sharie Kohler's Marked at Midnight--my RWA PAL's debut paranormal romance. Very edge-of-your-seat creepy so far. In a good way. Maybe I'll finish in the next couple of days--before I get back to writing. A few minutes to myself...that sounds nice.... I have so many good books on my stack... Tomorrow I'll post on the books I got for Christmas.