Stephanie Burgis - Magical Books for Ages Ten to Fifteen

Happy Saturday

March 20, 2010, 11.25 pm

WHEW. We've been approved for the new house! There are still lots of reasons to cross our fingers (for instance, we hope to be able to move in April 1st but have been told that the house might not be ready yet on that date - and our current tenancy expires March 27th!), but right now I'm just massively relieved to have that next stage figured out. And if we end up having to put all our stuff into storage and go hang out in a holiday cottage somewhere in the Welsh mountains for a week or two...well, darn, is all I can say. ;p

(I really, really like the Welsh mountains. Have I mentioned that before?)

This morning we went out to the local market, where we followed our recent Saturday tradition of buying fabulous curries and baghlava from the Persian food stall. The nice thing about being regular customers is that my "small" tray of delicious, fresh-made baghlava gets stacked higher and higher every time! (I have become a VERY loyal customer because of developments like this.) I also found out that today is Iranian New Year. So: happy New Year! :)

The CFS is doing a lot better. I feel a little nervous writing this publicly - I don't want to jinx myself! But I've been holding off on saying this for a few days now, and I'm starting to feel confident again. I really am feeling much better. WHEW.

And best of all, I wrote 1530 words today and finished Chapter Three of the dragon novel. Yay! I am having so much fun with this book. My neurotic back-brain - the same part that made me give up Kat1 for a year because it convinced me I could never, ever pull it off - keeps trying to waylay me with regular panics about my competence as a writer (this one is too hard for you! you'll never pull it off!), the idea's inherent marketability (it will never, ever sell, and people will sneer at you for even imagining it could!), etc., etc., ad nauseum...but what keeps me going through all the assorted panics is just how much fun this book really is to write (combined with fabulous cheering-on from Patrick and my beta-readers, Tiffany and Jenn).

Today I managed to make Patrick laugh out loud when I read the chapter to him. Score!!!

So it's been a happy Saturday. :) How about you guys? How is your weekend going?

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Bad Week, Cheer-Ups

March 11, 2010, 11.15 am

I try to keep this journal upbeat, but the truth is, this has been a very bad week, mostly for health reasons. The CFS has been a real pain all week, and I'm not even sure why. (This is one of the frustrating things with CFS - you learn how to manage it, how to carefully balance activity and rest, and then, suddenly and unexpectedly, it goes haywire anyway. What a cheat!)

So I haven't been doing as much writing as I wanted to do, and I'm way, way behind on emails (even more so than usual). Sorry!!!

On the other hand, here are some things that have cheered me up this week, and I'm really hoping you guys can suggest some more things for me to check out while I wait out this crash.

1. I am incredibly proud of my brother Ben, who is now officially known as Dr. Burgis! (Ten years ago, I didn't know a single Dr. Burgis. Now there are two of them in my immediate family, and within a few years, there will be three. It's pretty incredible. But I rely on my youngest brother to keep me from being the only non-PhD in the family...okay, Dave??? ;p )

Seriously: congratulations!!! I am so proud of my little brother. (Who is now, of course, about a foot taller than me. But whatever!) And here is the great webcomic one of Ben's friends drew to express the terror of an oral PhD defense, which made me laugh a lot.

2. My glittery dragon stickers arrived! I had so much fun arranging them on my moleskine for the new novel. Inspiration + laughter = perfect. :)

3. Before the big crash hit, I managed to get halfway through Chapter 2 of the dragon novel, and it's making me really, really happy. I can't wait to get back to it!

4. Ying Lee's first book, The Agency: A Spy in the House just had its North American debut! I love this book, and burbled about it last year when it debuted in the UK. Ying is the first novelist I ever wrote a fan letter to, because I was so excited when I finished reading her book. Girl spies in Victorian England! Disguises, mystery and intrigue! A perfectly-toned romance! A genuinely unexpected family secret, a whole host of strong, interesting women, and a completely non-stereotypical view of the Chinese community in Victorian England!

So, so cool. You can read an excerpt on Ying's website.

What about you guys? What's been cheering you up this week?

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Bullet Points Galore

October 9, 2009, 9.45 pm

I've been saving up points for a blog entry for SO long now, I think bullet points are the only way to handle it! Otherwise I might just explode trying to link them all neatly together. ;)

• This morning several wonderful people emailed me different articles about the most positive and important medical discovery about CFS/ME that's ever been made, to my knowledge. The physical virus that causes the syndrome may have been isolated; if this theory turns out to be correct, even though the syndrome will still be lifelong and incurable, there will actually be *possible treatments* - something that's been completely impossible until now. This is so incredible, it's...well, there really aren't words for how wonderful it would be. But as I read the end of this article, I found myself chanting under my breath, "Oh, please, please, please..."...and really, that sums it all up. Here's the NY Times article about it.
• My awesome friend Jenn Reese (the one who came up with Kat's series title!) has truly awesome news: she's now agented by Joe Monti at the Barry Goldblatt Literary Agency! I am enormously happy to be agency-mates with Jenn, and I can't WAIT for her to sell her wonderful trilogy of girl-powered science fiction adventures! You can congratulate her here.
• I was lucky enough to win a copy of Megan Crewe's YA novel Give Up the Ghost last week. I was expecting it to be fast-paced and fun, but to be honest, based purely on the description, I also expected it not to necessarily have much depth. I was right on 2 out of 3 points. It was fast-paced and fun...but what made it honestly wonderful was the raw emotionalism of the novel. I cared passionately about the heroine, and that was what made the story matter so much, way beyond the snappy pacing and banter.
• We're in the process of getting quotes from moving companies, sorting through masses of old clothes and books, and generally being overwhelmed by moving madness...but all the same, in the best news for a long time (on a completely subjective personal level, that is), I'm actually powering with some speed through Kat3! The big motivator for me (apart from JoNoWriMo, which definitely helped to kick-start me after far too much time off) was my realization last week that it had been a whole year since MrD's birth...and yet, I still wasn't back in a regular writing habit. Ouch. So I made a vow that from now on I absolutely have to average at least 500 words/day until the novel is done - and if I manage to stick with it, I should actually have a draft done by the middle of January at the very latest. WHEW. Just to keep myself honest & accountable, I'd really like to set up a wordmeter at the bottom of my posts from now on, but the old one I used to use at zokotou.co.uk doesn't seem to work any more. Does anyone have any wordmeter recommendations?
• And in not-very-surprising related news, I'm having SO MUCH fun with Kat3 now that I'm actually playing in that world every single day instead of only popping in and out at long intervals (and thinking, What? Who? Was I planning something here...?). Now that I'm absorbed in it all again, it's just a totally different experience. I was actually giggling out loud yesterday with pleasure as I wrote one scene, and one of the moments I wrote today...well, all in all, I just feel really, really lucky to be getting to do something I love so much. Getting paid to write this trilogy, in particular, is just one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life. And I'm so glad to be finally giving Book 3 the energy and focus it deserves again.

That's it for me! What about you guys? What are your highlights from this week? And can any of you link me to a good wordmeter?

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