Hey there!

Am I the worst blogger in the world or what? I'm going to try and be better, but don't hold your breath. My birthday came and went, I survived turning 40. NYC was awesome and we had a fabulous time. Hubby and I will be going back next February for a day, since my sister gave me tickets to the NYC Ballet for my birthday. Squee! I am happy, hubby is incredulous about going to the ballet. He'll just have to suck it up.

It's the last day of August, the official last day of my summer vacation. Tomorrow is my first day of work/school for the new year, even though I spent two half-days up at the school this week, getting things in order. They're still NOT in order, but at least it looks sort of like it knows what it's doing. My office computer is up and running properly (thank you, tech department!) and I've been playing with the cataloging software. I entered a book and tried to print up sample spine labels, but for some reason they didn't print. I'll have to work on that, because I am NOT going back to cards and pockets if I can avoid it. The last big thing I need to do is put up the main bulletin board. I have everything out and ready to go, just need to get it done. 

Grad school also started this week. But, because of Hurricane Irene, campus was out of power until yesterday. So they pushed the first day of classes back to today. Fortunately one of my professors posted her stuff so I could get started, because I KNOW things are going to get crazy between work-school and school-school, and I'd rather NOT be running behind. So I'm spending this day, my last day of summer, getting a jump on projects, reading, and putting the finishing touches on the next Library of Athena book. 

Yes, that's right, it's done. Or at least I think it's done. It has been written and rewritten, except for the last chapter. Sometimes I leave that chapter until the end, after I've revamped the rest, because that last chapter hinges on everything else and there's no sense in rewriting it five times. I am very, VERY happy with this book, which is complete turnaround from how I felt about it a few months ago. I just have to write a couple more paragraphs and tie it up. Then I can send it off to the editor, and finish up the author forms and put it to bed until the publisher is ready to get moving on it. Which I kind of hope isn't until the semester is over. And then I can work on re-writing TALISMAN OF ZANDRIA, which will be easier to do than writing new material.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, I'm still waiting on the three agents that have SMOKE AND MIRRORS. There's one that I have a really good feeling about, but no definite responses yet. I'm wondering if I shouldn't send it out to one or two more, just in case. I have a couple on my list that I was waiting on until I got all the replies back. Maybe I'll add that to my list of stuff to-do today.  

Like I need that.