THE PRETENDER’S CROWN is spell-checked, the prologue is rewritten, the NOTES are fixed, and it has been submitted to my editor, who says, “Huzzah!”

I am officially On Holiday* until after my birthday. Laura Anne, the writing brain is yours; have at. I will be reading, exercising, trying to get my bad eating habits a little bit sorted out, visiting family, doing photography, and generally taking time off.

Starting *now*.

*Where “On Holiday” means I only have to write one short story, and possibly a comic book script if I get ambitious.

currently: exhausted

I am not feeling up for it today. This is ennui; this is the Novelist’s Event Horizon at its peak. The book is done except that niggling rewrite of the prologue, and doing it seems completely overwhelming. Even my walk this morning was uninspiring (although it did involve cygnets, and if I can find the right camera attachment I’ll post a picture at the end of this entry), and my friends list is full of less-than-brilliant medical news (except my lj-writers friends list, on which one of the communities there was a less-than-enthusiastic review of URBAN SHAMAN, which is okay except for the part where I’m already suffering from ennui and OH GOD THEY HATE ME doesn’t help … and, see, I can’t even wallow well, because I’ve made myself snicker with that…), and the frakking rental agency people didn’t turn up yesterday (nor did they call, the #$^&wits), so where I might otherwise drag myself out of the house to hand-write this prologue and have a nice cup of hot chocolate, I’m stuck here waiting on these bozos for another day. And the dishes need doing. Man, I’m just Ms. Whinybutt.

Meh, the wee little camera didn’t take a good enough picture of the ugly ducklings to bother. Have a picture of the River Lee instead:

All right, it’s 5am on the east coast. Surely I can get this prologue rewritten and the spellcheck done by 5pm their time. *slogs off*

currently: depressed

The AAs for HANDS OF FLAME are turned in. That book is officially put to bed. Look for it on the shelves in September 2008….

I have a prologue left to write and a spell-check to run, and then I’m done. That’s for tomorrow; tonight I’m going to go eat dinner and watch some House.

*lurches off*

currently: determined

Hey, I’m doing really well: I got through more than 200 pages of AAs before the Horrible Sleepies attacked me. These are not bad AAs, though I’ve had this copyeditor before and she seems to have some sort of objection to hyphens. For some reason she took the hyphen out of “extra-long” (which is to say she made it “extralong”, not “extra long”), for example, and other similar things. However, that compared to the last one is…there’s no comparison. o.o

I’ve no doubt made the Horrible Sleepies worse by doing laundry, which heats up the house like there’s no tomorrow. The obvious solution is escaping the house to do the last 200 pages of the manuscript, but somebody from the rental agency is supposed to be stopping by to inspect the place today, and I strongly dislike having people come into my house while I’m not in it.

Arright. The dryer’s stopped, anyway, so it’s cooled off a bit in here. Back on my head.

eta, several hours later: the AAs are all done but for the typing in. yay! now I shall make cookies, and when the cookies are done, I shall type all dem lil’ AAs in and get the book turned in TODAY. YAY!

currently: working

TWO. HUNDRED. THOUSAND. WORDS!

Jesus flipping Christ. I only wrote 265K *total* last year. I will be well past that by *June* this year. Jesus flipping Christ.

Oh, also? THE PRETENDER’S CROWN is done. I’ve still got to rewrite the prologue per editor request, which is tomorrow’s job, but the last chapters and the epilogue are finished. 724 pages. 179,500 words. Holy *jeez*.

I only got about 70 pages of AAs done, though, which means I’m going to have to go downstairs and work on them this evening, at least until I’m so bored with it I fall asleep.

Ted has made pork & beans in the crock pot today, so dinner will be wonderful. And I had a nice lunch with Myles and Kate, and…now it’s time to go back to work.

ytd wordcount: 200,400
miles to Minas Tirith: 404.8

currently: satisfied

I have finished everything except the epilogue and the rewrite of the prologue. The book is currently weighing in at 176,400 words, and I expect the epilogue will be around 3K, as will be the rewritten prologue (the original of which is included in the book’s wordcount, so it, at least, won’t add more to the book).

My plan: write the epilogue tomorrow morning, then do AAs on HoF all afternoon and into the evening, and then on Thursday rewrite the prologue and finish the AAs. Fixing manuscript notes, doing spell checks, and printing the TPC behemoth out while typing up the AAs will be Friday’s job, and both books will be turned in Friday afternoon.

I’m going to go have a breakdown now.

ytd wordcount: 197,100
miles to Minas Tirith: 397.6

currently: distressed

I have been observing with interest the “solar-powered people” phenomenon as it’s gotten lighter out earlier. Three months ago I was happy to sleep until 9am, because that was when the light arrived through the bedroom window. Now it’s arriving by 6, and I’m waking up around then with a fair degree of regularity. I would no doubt be able to man through it and continue to sleep if my bladder didn’t usually really require me to get up then.

I would be more pleased about this whole scenario if there were any gyms in Cork that opened before 7:30am. The Irish Do Not Get Up Early. At All. So getting up at 6:30 doesn’t so much mean I can leap out of bed and go forth to the gym and exercise and feel virtuous as it means I can leap out of bed, put my contacts in (oh, lord, how I miss wearing contacts all the time, but most especially I miss that wake-up splash of cold saline solution in my eyes), and then…sit around getting sleepy until it gets close enough to 7:30 that I can walk to the gym.

But lo! you say. Lo, you could go for a walk early in the morning instead of going to the gym! Hah! you say. Hah, take that!

And you would be right. Except the walk I’m most fond of is on a gated trail which doesn’t open until half eight. And if I walk out along the roads, then the walk home is very unpleasant because it’s full of traffic and noxious fumes, or includes the bonus terror of narrow Irish roads and drivers coming at you at eleven hundred miles an hour. Tomorrow I may go explore whether the other Lovely Walk is ungated at all hours (they’re doing construction there, so it may not be), but today’s a gym day.

I can already tell I’m going to *badly* need a nap later. But now it’s 7am, and so I’m going to take the long way ’round to the gym, but first I’ll leave you with a story of nudity, Catholic school girls, and butter (which is, strangely enough, *entirely* work safe).

miles to Minas Tirith: 393.8

currently: awake

The warmth of my office and the late start and the general brainlessness has defeated me. I still have 2000 words or so to write on this chapter, and 5000 or so to finish the book (unless it takes 7 or 8 thousand), but I am defeated. I’ll have to finish tomorrow, which means I won’t be rewriting the prologue tomorrow, but…well…tough. Just tough. Tomorrow’s writing should go a little more easily, at least, because I won’t be stitching in bits I wrote a while ago.

I am going to have all of this crap done by the weekend. TPC will be turned in. The AAs on HoF will be turned in. And I will have a nice quiet weekend with Ted celebrating our 11th anniversary.

*looks determined*

ytd wordcount: 194,400

currently: determined

I’m guest blogging today over at miladyinsanity!

Unless this chapter does something totally unexpected, I’m not going to finish this book today. Knowing this makes working on it somewhat less fun. Unfortunately, if I don’t work on it, I won’t finish the damned thing tomorrow, either, and I have *got* to have it turned in by Wednesday because I’ve got AAs to do for HANDS OF FLAME, and they’ve already given me a week extension on those while I try to finish up TPC.

Also, surprisingly, someone sent me a Lilith Saintcrow ARC to read. I have absolutely no recollection of being asked to read one, so I don’t know if I’m just a random fortunate recipient or if they’re hoping for a cover quote. :)

currently: working

Quiet day today. Wrote 5200 words. Did not finish the book. Went to see Iron Man again. It stood up to a second viewing. Still dying for Pepper as Iron Maiden, plz. Want it on DVD so I can make more icons.

Also watched Hellboy again. Love that movie. Have it on DVD. May make icons. :)

Bed now.

ytd wordcount: 192,200
miles to Minas Tirith: 390.9

currently: content