A New Year

The kid has gone back to school today -- a good thing from my perspective, and from hers: mine, since now I have a whole week before I go back to school, to get some serious writing done, without kid-interruption; and hers, because whole days with nothing planned just don't mix well with the kid.

I've been getting by since we got back from New Orleans with a mixture of wheedling and bribes -- "Just let me write two more hours and I swear, we'll do whatever you want, just leave me alone two more hours, anything, anything is yours--"

But two hours for a seven year old, well. That's asking a lot.

Also it meant I had to spend many hours at Books-A-Million or the park, watching her bury dinosaurs in the sand. Not that I minded much. It's been interesting weather here -- sunny and about seventy. And thanks to all y'all who sent me reading suggestions, I have things to read again. (Send more! The stack is getting low!)

Now that she's back in school, though, I can work without bribes or threats. Seven straight hours. Paradise.

And book four is unfolding like a flower, by the way. How bizarre is that?