Tying up loose ends

Last week was all about editing - I didn't write a single new sentence. I cleaned up "Dark Soul 5", then edited a short co-written piece, which is now with the co-writer for a final check. I'm a right-brain/left-brain kinda person. I either edit or write. I've tried editing one book and writing a new one, but my brain can't handle that double stress. I'm either living in one story, or in another, not in both.

So, right now, I'm in limbo, "between books", which is a place like "between job"--lots of options, usually some soul-searching, and generally things slow down a great deal. I clean my study, throw away papers, re-arrange my books (the research books for the finished books get stored further away from the desk to make way for the new ones), attempt to catch up with my email (usually hopeless mission, but I'm trying at least).

Right now, I'm helping a friend outline her novel, which should keep me busy for a week or so. Then the question is what to write next. I have the sequel to "Lion of Kent" on the schedule, which should be a full novel, but that means another boatload of research. That book has been postponed so often that I feel I need to do it now or it won't happen. That'll also mean going back to Deliverance and Lion of Kent and get back into the character. I have a couple medieval biographies here and a couple books on tournaments and medieval entertainers, so the research side at least is covered. I should be able to write all that in 2-3 months, possibly, depending a bit on the workload at my other two jobs.

There are a couple shorter stories I want to write in the meantime (I do like to write short things in between novels), but since I can never predict whether these are actually short stories or novellas or just pretend they are, I'm proceeding with utmost caution.

In any case, I loved writing the two contemporaries (Dark Soul and the co-project), and now it's time to change setting/sub-genre again.

Gearing up for the birthday

Hope everybody had a great May Day. It's a bank holiday in the UK today and I also have tomorrow and Wednesday off - Wednesday's my birthday, so I kinda liked having plenty of time off work. I can definitely feel the tension leave me. While, of course, I'm turning into a speed-editing freak to catch up with stuff, as usual. One day I'll run before the wave of work rather than behind it.

Anyway, here's an excellent review of "Lion of Kent" at Speak Its Name.


Great way to start a sunny, bright day (with oddly cold winds).

And whatever I'd have to say about Osama bin Laden being executed would be too controversial, so I'm keeping my gob shut on that count. Some people in the Guardian and various reputable newspapers have said some very intelligent things about it. The repercussions of this can really fall both (or at least three) ways. Two of which would make excellent thriller plot material - and one has a somewhat apocalyptic bent.

Oddly, I think the Vatican has an interesting angle on it. Thankfully, as a writer, I don't have to pretend I have the answer, but today marks a departure from the status quo in several ways, and I'm quite curious what's going to happen next, current affairs nut that I am.

My goal for today is to finish a 37k edit, start another one, and read what I have of my historical novel, and slowly find my way back in, too. Possibly even writing a little, or doing some preparatory work that I should have done, oh, nearly two years ago.

Two weeks without

I haven't written in any significant quantity for two weeks. Chicago has eaten my brain, and the last week was catching up and racing the clock for the deadline. Also, of course, the job interview and assorted tensions connected to that. The muse is becoming restless.

What I've done is edit "Special Forces", done the edits for several chapters, and I'm attempting to edit up to chapter 35 before the year's up. That's about the halfway point in "Mercenaries". I'm mostly cutting back Jean at this point, as well as plots and scenes that don't go anywhere.

In good news - "The Lion of Kent" is available as audiobook from Audible.com. I believe it's not available for the UK, but I somehow managed to download it, regardless. (Dear Jeff Bezos, don't take my book away, please!) I'm listening to it during a few free moments, and it's very strange to hear the text spoken by somebody else. Very, very strange. The American accent of the speaker makes me laugh a bit - I do like the American accent, but it's strange to hear a medieval British/English story read by an American. I hear my own words when I read my stuff, and invariably, my mindvoice reads stuff differently. It might be as subtle as a pause or a slightly different emphasis.

But then, reading your stuff aloud - or having somebody else read it out aloud - is a priceless editing tool. Anything that sounds hollow or tinny needs to be redone and cut. So far I haven't heard anything in "Lion" I'd want to change - so that's good news.

In case I didn't mention it, "Father of All Things" has been accepted for publication by Carina Press. I might have referred to it as "the mystery project" or the "secret project", but that was mostly to keep the pressure off my co-writer, Rhianon Etzweiler, who led the project (it was her idea, and I believe most of the text is from her). If you talk too much about a project that is being written and that can still die/fail, that puts a lot of pressure on. Well, that's over. "Father of all Things" will be out with Carina Press in summer 2011.

Three weeks since I submitted "Scorpion". Usually, I hear back in 4-6 weeks, so we're getting to the interesting time window. I expect an acceptance, but of course that might be premature. Self-confidence getting in the way. I do my best to forget books once they are off to find their homes. Sometimes it even works.

Right now, two projects need tackling. One is a final rewrite of "To Catch a Spy", which involves some more research and some tightening of the plot, but at least those changes are far less severe and time consuming than the last two or three rewrites were. It can be done in a couple weeks' time. And finally "Iron Cross", which needs to be written. The main problem is that I can't decide which one I want to tackle first. Both will be all-consuming, tough pieces of work. Then again, my philosophy is to wrap up the book first that's closer to publication.

To relax, I've been watching "Burn Notice". This is a show I'd recommend to every writer. You can learn an awful lot from "Burn Notice". I might write a post about that soon, but right now, I'll do some prep work on TCaS.

Only a handful stories to tell

A friend of mine emailed me to tell me she wasn't interested in reading "Scorpion".

(No, that's everybody's right - while I hope that people take chances on my writing, I understand those that rate a book badly because it's a menage and they hate menages, or people who don't buy books that deal with certain elements... writing romance, and especially selling romance, we make erotic fantasies. If it fails to turn on, it's not worth it for a huge amount of readers. People have a certain amount of things that gets them going - so they look for that. And ignore the stuff that doesn't... that's the deal with erotic romance. Like porn, people look for something specific and can't, usually, be brought round.... "look, you really want to try $kink" - no, they don't.).

So on the bus, I spent some time thinking about what it is that turns her off with "Scorpion". I analysed its deep structure. The underlying story. I wrote this by the seat of my pants, so I can only do the literary analysis now. I tend to discover the mythological structure (the "mythos") behind it much, much later. I'm not aware of it while I do this... I'm not sure I *want* to be aware of the structure, either. To re-create a myth, you have to firmly, deeply, passionately believe in it. Magic happens when you believe. I believe with my emotions and not my frontal lobes.

And I had this "oh wow" moment when I finally understood what the story is that I'm telling. Over the last two years, I've written a lot of stories that are about a younger/more immature guy maturing and proving himself "worthy" of an older, charismatic, even, in certain ways super-human man. Young alpha learns how to howl with the big guys. Young man becomes worthy of his idol.

It's in "Lion of Kent", "Return on Investment", "Blood Run Cold" (where the super-human is a vampire and the younger guy's a psychopath and craving to be a vampire, too), and, yeah, Scorpion. Usually, the moment of high drama is when the young alpha saves the older alpha's neck (William stops the murderer, Martin stops the rapist, Frederik is willing to lay down his life, Kendras frees Adrastes).

It's the same story. Sometimes told as a romance, sometimes told as a coming-of-age story, sometimes both in varying quantities.

This is one of my personal myths, one of the stories I carry in my bones, my creative DNA (and I'm pretty sure it's the most positive way for me to deal with the father issues I have. Fuck you, Freud).

The other story is that of the man reclaiming his humanity and independence. Usually, he's a deformed person with strong inner convictions that may or may not be good for him, and things that happen to him either break him or develop him out of an unbearable situation. Vadim in "Special Forces", the eagle shaman, and the spetsnaz in the sci-fi novel. It can even be applied to Thierry in "Test of Faith", Andrei in "Clean Slate"... and probably a number more.

Those are the two stories I'm telling. That's it. Fascinating stuff.

More reviews

Ah, do I like having Google Alerts set up. I'd otherwise never find reviews such as this.

"THE LION OF KENT is a novella where passions and danger blend in to a beguiling and character driven read."

And I've made good progress on "State of Mind" by Libby Drew. This is actually fiction I'm reading just for fun. No reviewing or judging involved. Makes for a change. There is still stuff to read for judging and reviewing, and I'll get to that, but right now, just leaning back with a book is nice.

Talking about great books, my friend and co-writer soon has her own book out, called "Erekos", soon out from Candlemark & Gleam. I've seen the advanced readers/review copy (ARE), and it's beautiful. The prose is completely something else - it's one of my favourite books, a far cry from the cheap, mass-produced fantasy series that swamp the market. This is a wise book, a warm and affectionate book - if I'd have to compare it to anything, I'd compare it to Peter S Beagle's "The Last Unicorn".

I hope it sells a million, wins prizes, and that everybody reads it. The book deserves a huge audience, and I believe everybody should read it. Me, I'm getting the paper copy as soon as it's available and will probably give this as as birthday/Christmas present to my friends for years to come. Yes, it's that good.

First reviews and lots of travel

Reviews of Lion of Kent at Goodreads are doing good, - it's on track to be one of the highest-rated I've written/co-written. :)

I knew all the research of medieval boar-hunting would pay off...:)

Yesterday I got the galley of "First Blood", which all looks very solid. At this stage, it's all done and dusted, the main issues here are if the paragraphs look good. The galley stage is not really an editing stage, just a checking stage - are the pages in the right order, are the author names spelled right, that sort of thing. At work, when I do the galley, I end up knowing the magazine by heart... and you always, always miss something.

The secret project is moving apace. The lovers are reunited, now they only need to evade the crushing boot of the law. I'm not quite sure how they'll do that (especially since the law is personified by one of the coolest secondary characters... who wouldn't be stupid or do something without a reason). So, yeah, there's a 70-80k novel coming your way. And its first draft is 90-95% done.

I reckon it can all be wrapped up in the next 2 weeks or thereabouts, then needs editing and I need to finish writing the query and synopsis, which tends to take a week. I'll talk about it some more once it's done. There are some world-building details that need to be filled in, mainly some geography and technology.

Work is gearing up to be mad again - how I love the cyclical nature of magazine editorial work. Not. One relatively calm week, then progressively busy, until the last week is all mad dash and no sleep. But on the positive side, the Russian visa application was really quite straightforward.... compared to what they make my British colleagues go through, my application was fast and easy. I may keep that German citizenship - travel is uniformely easier than on a British passport. (And cheaper... I don't have to pay to enter Turkey, for example).

But right after the mad week I'll be in Moscow and help run a conference, which should be fun. And then Chicago in October. Wonder how many hoops they make me jump through to enter the US of A.

So, yeah, a couple big trips before the year's up. I do expect to catch up with my reading while at the airport/in the queues. I reckon I'll take WWII stuff and review stuff with me to Russia.

"Lion of Kent" - background blog posts

Today's the day that Carina Press blogs about "Lion of Kent" - there are fun entries over at Facebook, and three entries over at the official Carina blog.


Finding the Story in History talk about the inspiration of my professor - Professor H (I may have mentioned his book-buying habit).

Then Aiming for a Sense of Place - where Kate blogs about the locations, namely Medieval English castles here.

Finally, "The Lion of Kent" is some background on how it all happened.

Hope to see you there!

"Lion of Kent" is out

Today is the release date for "Lion of Kent".



Squire William Raven has only one goal—to finally receive his spurs and become a knight. When his lord, Sir Robert de Cantilou, returns from a five-year crusade in the Holy Land, William wants nothing more than to impress him.

After Sir Robert's return, noble guests arrive from France, bringing intrigue to the castle. William is oblivious to the politics, as he's distracted by nightly visits from a faceless lover—a man who pleasures him in the dark and then leaves—a man he soon discovers is none other than his master, Sir Robert.

But William can't ignore the scheming around him when he overhears a plot to murder Robert. He becomes intent on saving his lord and lover from those who would see him killed...

Find an excerpt and the buy link here.

During the day, there will be "favourite sentences" over at Carina Press's account on Facebook, and Carina Press's blog.

Would be great to see you there.

Cover - Lion of Kent

Hope it's OK to show this - the cover for Kate Cotoner & my "Lion of Kent" out soon from Carina Press. I think it looks like a movie poster. :)

Re-learning

I'm currently re-learning my job - that is, writing articles. I have to read more Economist and Financial Times to work out how to spin the angles. In the old place, everything was so formulaic it was hardly worth it, but the new place requires actual journalism. What a shocker. (They are also beating the crap out of my old place for quality and circulation.)

It's a challenge, but I'm digging in and trying to make better stories. I'm writing too dense and technical at the moment, for fear of straying too far from the press release, so I tense up and what you get is tensed-up prose. I know the problem, now I have to fix it. More reading.

Tomorrow's hand-over of the old flat, which means one huge thing off my mind.

Did 766 words on "Scorpion & Steel" and will very soon hit 20k. No idea what publisher might want it, but I don't care and don't want to think about it (yet). I'm looking to finish it in August. Ish. Let's see where it goes.

I have covers and banners for "Lion of Kent" and a release month for "Don't Ask Don't Tell," which will soon be out from MLR Press. They say July.

It's almost surreal that a story caught in limbo for what feels like 4 years will finally be released. It's not been the experience it could have been, and that's saying plenty about it. Four years is a lot of time to change your mind about a story. I always want to re-write after about two years. Four years feels like prehistory. It's so far away now. But back then, it was a good story, and I'm glad it is coming out. Closure is important.

I have to update my website with reviews and release dates and excerpts, so that's a project for the weekend. In the meantime, I'll report on financial modelling while knowing next to nothing about it. I feel like an impostor, but I hope I'll be able to catch that professor tomorrow first thing and ask him some half-baked questions. Nothing like borrowing somebody else's brains to look smart as a hack.

Also read the House Style Guide. The fact that we use the Oxford serial comma makes me happy.

Two days to go

Two days left at this job, three days until Turkey, eleven days until new job.

Stuff happened yesterday - I got the cover for "Lion of Kent", which is pretty damn impressive (despite the minor niggle that the armour on the picture is more than hundred years 'too young', but it's a minor niggle and mostly due to the fact that I simply cannot switch off the historian in me). I keep looking at it and the more I look at it, the more I like it.

That's the funny thing with covers. Sometimes they hit you in the face with a "WOW" ("Clean Slate" was one of those), sometimes they look great but aren't what you had in mind, but the more you work to get into the head of the cover artist (who tends to not read the story), the closer the two visions move together and eventually overlap. All this is totally independent of whether it's a good cover.

As a rule, I don't publish with publishers who have bad covers. It's my name on there, and I have a pretty strong need for good/appropriate visuals. Cheap Poserware and badly rendered anatomical monstrosities slapped together in 30 minutes aren't worthy to be put on months of bleeding hard work; bad/cheap covers feel like a slap to the face and I'm simply not having it. And with e-readers getting better screens and the all-singing, all-dancing (and pretty frivolous)iPad and all the clones that will follow, e-books will have to be pretty.

So, "Lion of Kent" looks like a movie poster. I really like it, even though it looks nothing like I imagined. But that's OK, because I'm not visually inclined that way. I'm not a visual designer, even though I'm a visual writer, so I'm leaving that aspect to the pros, and they do a great job. Hope to show it to you guys soon.

Then scenes from "Lion of Kent 2" hit me square in the face this morning. Some of that is really painful to "watch", in a way, because we're dealing with death and loss again, and, let's say, I have to open my own scars to get to the blood to write with. In some weird way, every dead major character is my mother. "Lion2" will be historical rather than romance. It's great that Carina supports us that way and allows us to write a series where part 1 and 3 are historical romances and part 2 is a purebred historical. It makes writing this so much easier.

I'm looking forward to getting the edits for "First Blood", too, so we can get that on the way before things get really hairy.

Writing yesterday didn't happen, but I made some progress reading. Tonight I'll do some more work in the old flat, and then that chapter's closed, too. I put a bookshelf up, too, and am now in the process of putting my remaining books on the shelves, which should keep me busy today and tomorrow. Saturday morning we're off to Turkey and I'll be incommunicado for a week (I really can't afford the roaming charges this time round and there's no internet cafe where we're going).

I expect to get a lot of writing/editing/planning done while in Turkey... that's the expressed reason for the trip. Sitting at the pool, reading, sleeping, eating, writing. Just resting up from the stress of the last 6 weeks and getting lots of rest and catch-up before the new job. I think it'll be exactly what I need.

Proportions

We just returned from measuring the rooms in Casa Voinov - and I noticed all the little things I love about that place and several things I really want to change come time and money. Good news first - we'll be able to fit all the bookshelves (and likely a little extra). If you enter the house, you'll be immediately struck by how many books the inhabitants have... six bookshelves in the "library" alone, and then more upstairs. The library will also be the dining room, with the table there then serving as a research place (so I don't get distracted by the internets).

Just walking through it, my memory of the place was severely wrong. The living room is larger than I remember, the library smaller, the corridor much shorter, and the bedroom a little smaller. But since the previous owner is now moving out, stuff's strewn around the place making it busier. It's the kind of place that needs to be tidy to look larger, so part of my job will be to enforce that nothing lies around. Well, good luck with that. :)

It's around 98sqm, so, while small, it's sufficient for two, very nicely proportioned and has a ton of potential when it comes to kitchen, garden and bathroom.

Right now, we're packing up stuff and organizing the move and what goes where. Kicking out a load of stuff we'll never need or read, and while my heart bleeds a little for all the books, some will have to go.

But we're on track for everything here. Walking through that house, it's all becoming very real. It's a pretty good feeling. We'll have that place before the month's up and will be moved before June's done. And right after the move, we're off to Turkey for a week. Upon our return, I'm starting the new job. Perfect timing.

The writing suffers with my obsession over the move and the job and the house, but all that's really to be expected. I still did the last look-through for "Lion of Kent", and will enjoy myself now doing the cover forms.

Once I'm done, it's probably dark. And that's when the muse usually comes out to play. Maybe I'll get a few words down, but I wouldn't mind at all getting some work done on To Catch a Spy, which I want to send out soon. The other stuff will have to wait a little. Patience.

The Good Place

My life just rocks at the moment. I'm still exhausted after the roller-coaster of the last 3 weeks, but that should have been the worst. No more sneaking out for interviews and calls from job agents, no more job site surfing at lunch (or during work hours), no more bullshitting. No more fear that the house purchase will fall through. No more money worries about the deposit and rising prices.

I look forward to rocking my old job for the next four weeks. I'm also looking forward to handing over my letter of resignation with a "fuck you, b*tch" smile, decked out head-to-toe in my best pinstripe. I've learnt how to be incredibly rude just with the pitch of my voice. And I can't WAIT.

"Lion of Kent" is off to Carina Press to be proofed and hopefully released in August. Kate and me are done with that one.

My favourite metal band, Sabaton, has released the full new album, "Coat of Arms" on their Myspace page, way before the official launch on 21 May. Check out "White Death" and "Aces in Exile", but "Uprising" is also very good. Can't wait to get my hands on that album and have it on my iPod. I haven't been so excited about a band since Disturbed, Rammstein and Niyaz.

Sabaton helps me write action scenes, which is a Good Thing. I need that energy to do a good one. Thanks guys, for our music and hard work. See you in Munich!

Today, I'm running errands, "running" being the operative word. I have to post the Dreamspinner contracts, a book for Kate, pick up a packet from the depot, pick up a couple titanium rings (and stick one on my partner), throw some paperwork into the solicitor's letter box, and I think then I'll sit down and have a coffee, and a pen and notebook in hand, plotting/thinking on paper.

At some point, the edits for "First Blood" will appear in my inbox, too. And that will require some work. It's fun when the research comes together after the book, but then, at least I'm doing my research, and reading 400 pages about the development of Russian crime while writing my share of the 60k novel in like 3-4 weeks isn't easy. :) No, seriously, though, there will be more background and a couple scenes are missing from Nikita's perspective.

I'll have to get these projects into some kind of order, then power through. Meanwhile, I'll have to ready "Return on Investment" for submission. I think that's pretty much the rest of the year laid out for me.

I do hope the new job entails a lot of travelling and soon. They promised, definitely regular trips to Frankfurt, but since the magazine is global, it's potentially way further than that. I'm always pretty creative and productive while on the road/on the plane. At least I manage to catch up with my reading. I have 4 books here for Elisa Rolle's Rainbow Awards and five for Speak Its Name.

Full schedule. The challenge is now to do it step-by-step and find my rhythm.

ETA: And I just pitched a new idea to Dreamspinner. I must be insane.

Post interview comedown

I've been told that crashing feeling of ebbing adrenaline can be called comedown, so that's what I had yesterday evening. Got home, chatted to my partner, was chatting a little with friends about the interview/job/magazine, and suddenly my energy level just went through the floor.

That's five days of stress crashing all at the same time. Woah. I went to bed, had 9 hrs of badly-needed sleep, and awoke, feeling much saner.

To recap yesterday, I went to the second interview and rocked it for about 90 minutes. I just had fun, really. The Publisher dude said "just in case if you don't get this, please keep applying for jobs here, because you're a perfect fit for the company as an editor", and if I shouldn't get that job, I'll give him a call and ask him for leads. It's a great company which offers really good opportunities. And the commute would be much faster, too. :)

So apparently I'm up against two others, one of whom seems to be weaker than me and the other person. It's a close race. Depending on the interview with the other person, they might offer at the beginning of next week, or they might do a third round of interviews, or, as they said "make you jump through another hoop". But they also kept asking about my notice period and "who will replace me." A good answer there: "I think they'll struggle."

I kinda want them to struggle. After the way they've demoralised, dismantled and plain abused my team, I want my old employer to struggle with replacing me. I want them to look at the mess they created with a feeling of "oh shit." Not that I seriously believe they'll learn from it, but at the very least, I want them to look at their utter failure and that they made thing worse, not better.

Call me vengeful, but after 4 months of this shit, I've had it.

So, after rocking that interview, I had to return to work, but I also had a sudden urge to get ice cream, so I got off at Leicester Square and went into the local Haagen Dasz shop. Then I realised that if I stroll into the office munching ice-cream, while my team holds the fort and does my work, too, I'd get likely crucified, so I bagged seven cups instead of one and went to the office, handing them out to the editorial team (leaving out research and sales - I have enemies there, and I'm not spending £40 instead of £20 on a whim... I'm not making that kinda money. Also didn't want to feed the fat bastard from research who backstabbed me by telling my boss about a "negative" remark I've made AFTER HOURS).

So, munching icecream, I checked my email and saw a contract offer for "First Blood" from Dreamspinner. I'll sign the contract and shoot it over to Barbara today or tomorrow. It'll likely be published in the third quarter of 2010, both print and ebook.

In other positive news - I did the line edits of "Lion of Kent" and now waiting for Kate to approve a name change.

Writing, job hunt, and house move are all on track. If I get the job, the writing may suffer a little, but I don't think so, but it'll be a *lot* easier paying off that house. It'll mean, in effect, that I can almost double my mortgage repayments. Every buck I make more than what I make now is disposable income, and I'd love a tight schedule to improve the house, insulate the roof, get fitted wardrobe and study furniture, the lot.

So. Whew. Much going on. I hope to be back to writing today. I'll also have to prepare my financial thriller for submission to a publisher, but I might do that next week rather than this weekend.

Working in da coal mine

First half of the first day of the week is done and I'm ready for my weekend. Sock boy has already made me laugh twice today with his funny little I'm A MANAGER NOW antics. Well, you got the customary abuse and ignorance down pat, my boy, well done. You'll fit in well with middle management here.

Still learning about derivatives and beginning to understand the global meltdown much better now. Also understanding that the financial crisis will take at least another 2-3 years of clean up. We're not nearly done. This stuff is "weapons of mass destruction", no kidding.

At the same time, I'm fascinated by that market which can bring banks, countries, never mind multinationals to its knees and has already done so, often. I want that job to learn more about it... get as close as possible to the dark heart of finance. I'd love that. Stories galore, plenty of inspiration. I might, ten years from now, write a really funny tell-all book, too.

On the other front, "Lion of Kent" is back at Carina and is being edited in the second round, which frees up a little time for ongoing projects, but I think the main focus of this week is to NOT take a baseball bat to sock boy's kneecaps and prepare for the interview I have lined up and arrange the move. I'm currently surfing websites to buy a washing machine and a fridge - or at least get an idea about the market.

Saturday, I want to go out and measure the walls in the Casa Voinov to get an idea where to put all the books and stuff we own. Maybe this time round we'll even get a dish washer, which would be nice.

Also going to look into remortgaging, but that comes in step 2. But I'm pretty sure we're overpaying on the mortgage compared to the value of the house. Tehehe. I've learnt stuff in finances.

Kidnapped by derivatives

If I'm mostly invisible in the next days, that's due to having been kidnapped by derivatives. I have to prepare for a second interview at Huge Financial Information Provider (the kinda place that could crush my current place into dust if they wanted), and the guy I talked to in the first interview said: "Next time we meet, we'll talk derivatives."

It sounded like a challenge.

Since I only know the bare basics of equities (say, public equity like stocks and private equity like the stuff I've been dealing with the last 2.5 years), this opens up a field of finance I have no clue about, but the first glimpses of the field are tantalizing.

It's also enormous. Way, way larger than anything I've ever dealt with before. So, yeah, I'm off to town to get a book on futures. I have a book on options here, and will begin eating it. Soy sauce should add a little taste.

The last three days kicked my writing around like an abused puppy, but I'll get back to it hopefully tomorrow. Also expecting edits for "Lion of Kent" tonight. If all goes well, "Lion" comes out in July from Carina Press (we've agreed to the contract offer, contracts will be soon in the post, we're editing, so I guess I'm allowed to talk about it). Pretty excited about it all, but most of all, the house.

I'm still not sure whether I can/should relax about it all - what can go wrong now? Is there anything that can go wrong now? I'm not sure I want to ask the estate agent, those people probably hate me by now. But in any case, I've begun to start compiling a list of what needs doing and when and in what order.

I think I'll just pop into the estate agent and ask them how stuff proceeds from now on. Possibly get some flowers/chocolates for the ladies, too. This was one hard transaction.