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on and on

My father-in-law is responding to the meds and is awake and aware. Grandmother Death seems to have given him a pass this week.

I am at the end of the revision of my historical – huzzah – and am looking forward to getting back to the new WIP.

Our problems with Time Warner Cable – messed up cable, internet and phone – continue to drive us crazy and make their technicians curse and kick the ground. This has been going on for a month now. I am about to cancel all of the services, permanently, and see this as the Universe’s way of giving me more time to write and read.

A couple of people have asked me what I think about J.K. Rowling’s announcement that Dumbledore was gay. I think she misses writing, that’s what I think. I suspect that now the pressure is off to finish the series, and the hoopla over the last book’s publication has died down, she finds herself thinking about her characters a lot. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s writing about them, but she doesn’t want to tell anybody until she’d finished.

What do you think?

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Reality steps in

It really was a loverly day yesterday, even after it turned a little sad in the evening. Thank you so much to all of youse guys for the birthday wishes. It was fun reading through them. BH gave me the best birthday present ever: he made us a bed (we’ve been doing the grad student sleep-on-mattress-and-boxspring-on-the-floor since we were married) – and he made it for free, using old doors and wood he had laying around. He even made matching night tables. It is gorgeous. If I wasn’t already married to him, I’d be dragging him to the justice of the peace right now.

This birthday was better than most; I finally have a sense of who I am, I am surrounded by people I love, and I have the chance to do good work. Except for when I become a stupidhead and whine about the trivial stuff, life is amazing.

Life is also balanced by death. When we got in with the sushi last night, we had a phone call from the nursing home which sent us right back to the car. My 86-year-old father-in-law was in the ER. He made it through the night, and given that he is as tough as nails, he might well come through this crisis, too, but it’s looking like he’s going to be in the hospital for a while. This might sound weird, but it was really nice to have the chance to hold his hand and talk quietly to him for the hours until they admitted him. So even though you don’t want to be in an emergency room on your birthday, it was all good.

Sara Ryan sent along a link to an article about one of the reasons why teenagers have such a hard time getting through the day. It reminded her of Kate in CATALYST.

And Sharyn November gave me the heads-up on a fabulous shirts-off combo of social protest and performance art. When we were doing some school shopping with Number One Son in September, we both remarked on how A&F was beating males up with unattainable body images to make them feel bad and buy more. It’s nice to see somebody fight back.

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Time to rock the cupcakes

Do you know this song?

Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na! (shunka-shunka-shunka-shunka)
Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na! (shunka-shunka-shunka-shunka)

Still don’t know? Play this:

That’s right – it’s my birthday, which is a National Holiday here in the forest. I proclaim that this day shall be celebrated by writing for fun, reading new books, eating popcorn and pumpkin ice cream, and singing loudly.

SINGING VERY LOUDLY!

::wanders off to kitchen, book in hand, ice cream stained-mouth, thrashing head violently to music playing so loud the windows are preparing to shatter::

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Monday madness

Thanks to everyone who ignored the gorgeous weather, the Bills game, and the Giants game to come out to the bookstore yesterday. The crowd was much bigger than I thought and I stayed for a very long time chatting and signing. I hope to have some photos to post soon.

I have already been working on my revision for a couple of hours. I should be able to ship off Part 1 this afternoon. I sure hope so – I am desperate to go to the gym.

In the breaking news category: FEVER 1793 will soon be translated into Korean, TWISTED has been nominated for The Heartland Award, and next month, a stage version of SPEAK will premiere at both Fayetteville-Manlius High School and Nottingham High School.

I leave you library lovers with a little game to play…

Happy Birthday, Doris Noble Prize Winner Lessing!

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