Lotsa Updates

Hey there! I'm back from my writing retreat, and about 2/3 done revising my YA novel. My friends Amy, Kristen and Heidi were the perfect companions. We were very focused (my parents were a bit scared, I think) and got crazy amounts of work done.

Here was our schedule of insanity for about 4 days straight:

8:00 a.m. - Wake up
8:30 a.m. - Walk into town for Starbucks or Coffee Bean, walk back, cook some eggs for breakfast
9:30 a.m. - Briefly discuss goals for the day; head to separate rooms/corners/outside shade tables
1:00 p.m. - Reconvene for lunch (Mom set out salad, bread, cheese, cookies, chips & salsa - Go Mom!)
2:00 p.m. - Read, write and revise more (I also played hooky one or two days and went swimming)
5:30/6/6:30 p.m. - Reconvene for a glass of wine, walk back into town for dinner (thanks, Dad!!) or farmer's market with my parents
8:00 p.m. - Hit Borders or head home, read, write and revise a bit more
10:00 p.m. - Meet up again, discuss our day, and read excerpts from past or present work. This was such a fun way to end the evening.

On Friday we stayed up till 2 a.m., like a slumber party. Special thanks to Heidi for flying out from Seattle. It felt like a real retreat with an out-of-stater and I think it motivated us to work harder.

Since then, I've learned that my blogging buddy Caroline Starr Rose sold her middle-grade novel. Big congrats to her! Looks like she'll be able to put all her publicity ideas into motion.

I won't be able to update my blog very much during the month of April. Two reasons:

1. My tendonitis is flaring up again (this tends to happen when I revise; it's not the typing, it's the scrolling, text-highlighting and clicking with the mouse that gets me)

2. My husband Joe will be in Boise, Idaho, performing his awesome magic for the lucky patrons of Mystique. Check out his video blog on the subject here. He's bringing the desktop computer with him, so I'll be limited to weekday usage and some weekends at the library. I think it'll be good to give my hands a bit of a break (and finish unpacking) while I wait to get feedback on my YA novel.