It Has Been a Stellar Week!!

I have had a lovely week. Busy--thus not posting in five days, but lovely nonetheless.

On Monday night, my husband was looking at houses online (we're moving to Phoenix this summer.) We like to look early. It's fun! I LOVE house shopping. If possible, I like to drag the process out for months. And he found a really great, just-listed house that seriously hits every point on our must-haves list and most of our optional-but-we-would-really-like-to-have list. We have spent the last four days drooling over it. *le sigh*

Tuesday was a working day for me. Not that I don't work every day (especially during revisions, eek!) but on a day I label a "working day," it means I leave the house and work for as long as my computer's battery will last. One of my favorite places to go is here:



It is this old trolley car restaurant that has been updated and expanded into a full restaurant, but they have kept the trolley section up at the front. I always go in and ask to sit in the trolley section (as much so I'm out of the way as because it's awesome!) and I spread out my work and order a very large salad. Now, I have ordered the full sized salads here before. And they always come stacked rather high in one of those plates that is more like a shallow bowl. But hey, I generally sit there for three to four hours, so I like having something to slowly munch on the whole time. But nothing prepared me for the mound 'o salad that they brought me this time. I noticed they printed out new menus and had added a few items . . . but I didn't think they had changed the size of the salads! Check this out! (Yes, I am a nerd, I took a pic of my salad.;))



That is a big salad.

(Also, that plate is like a foot in diameter!) And it was piled so high that every time I tried to take a bite things would fall off onto the table. So I gave up and asked for an extra plate. I kid you not, I made three salads out of that monster. I thought my tummy was going to burst by the time I left!

It was really good though.:)

And I got a TON of work done!

Wednesday I went to my husband's school's Barrister's Ball, also known as the law school prom.:D We had a nice dinner, my husband got an award with a really nice plaque, and I even got to meet a fellow author who is the wife of one of Kenny's professors! It was a great night, and a nice break from the kids. (We don't actually go out by ourselves very often so this was nice.:)) It was funny though, I posted about the Barrister's Ball last year too, so I spent a good chunk of the night reminiscing over how much has happened in the last year. It's been a big year. Last year at this time I had just completed the first revision on WINGS. Since the Barrister's Ball I received my contracts, went to NYC to meet my agent and editor and team at Harper, finished three rounds of editing and countless rounds of copy-editing, got four covers (only two were keepers;)), wrote the sequel, finished another book I've been working on for almost three years, sold translation rights into three countries, went on a pre-publication tour, signed over 1350 title pages, and am halfway done with revisions on the sequel. What. A. Year. It has been amazing!

And now we've almost reach the pinacle of all that work! WINGS comes out in less than six weeks (39 days!!!). Wow! I can almost say, "Why yes, my book comes out next month!" It has been a long, fun year and really has been a lot of work! I never understood how authors without dayjobs (and especially without kids) could be panicked about deadlines. I mean, they have all the time in the world, right? I understand now. It IS a lot of work. I don't actually know how authors with day jobs do it. I am baffled. But even though I stay very busy, I love what I do and it has been an amazing year.

Oh, and yesterday my husband flew down to Phoenix and bought the house. *SQUEE!!!!*



Ciao!