Cellophane updates

The first stop in my blogtour for Ms Cellophane is my publisher's website. They made the mistake of saying I could write about anything, so of course I wrote about chocolate. It was either going to be chocolate or the Middle Ages, and it was a cold day, so chocolate won. The other thing that won was me finally admitting in public that the books I write aren't always the books people read.

The mirror is still sitting on my coffee table,looking charming. And Sharyn doesn't know I invented some dialogue for her. We actually had that conversation, but not all of it.

And my competition will run for the whole of July. I shall look forward to amazing pictures of my book getting up to mischief. Or maybe simply of my book being read in cool surroundings. Elizabeth-in-the-book (since Elizabeth-not-in-the-book keeps thinking I'm talking about her) has had a dull life recently,and needs some adventure.

In other news, my computer continues to spew forth new challenges every couple of days. The most recent is the spacebar deciding it's going to half-die. I am saving up for a new computer.

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I'm very slow starting in on real work today. I've done lots of small things and I've even done some housework (I know, this is very unlike me) but I haven't actually finished any of the need-finishing tasks. Some of them are well advanced but no, not actually finished.

I blame end-of-term-itis. Tomorrow is my last class for two weeks. I'd planned many days of long hours working on my dissertation during this time, but somehow I've caught up with myself and what I have to do is sort out the footnotes and do a close read. This is still two weeks work, easily, but neither long hours nor particularly difficult. I also have to re-read my novel at a few pages a day (to pick up things I missed on faster reads). And my wild work today was to clear the decks for this- and I'm not sure I need to, I think, deep down.

I ought to. Those fourteen things will make my life easier and then the same again tomorrow will make my life almost straightforward, but I'm so used to being pushed beyond my limits that I'm almost scared of not having to. This is daft. I know it's daft. Also, in a few weeks time, my life will become crowded again,for there will be revisions to all the work I'm finishing now and there will be job hunting and there will be October 26 (the date after which my life may or may not change,depending on the job market). So it's sensible to do the work and to finish things. But still, I procrastinate.

I've made a big pot of coffee and I shall work steadily on various items until it's finished. Then I shall have a hot bath (for it was -6 overnight and my toes are still cold) and then I shall work steadily again until 6 pm. By this stage my list will be half the size, or maybe even smaller and I shall be lured by the prospect of success to finish the last few things in the evening, before I do teaching prep.

If I say this firmly enough and publicly enough, I won't have a choice...

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I just got a phonecall about the insurance stuff. I'd not posted something because, as I explained, I was being bookish. We talked about my books and she was very excited about Ms Cellophane, but even more so about the Conflux book.

"Where can I find the new book?" she asked.

"On iTunes," I suggested.

She obviously called my details up on the spot, for her answer was "OMG, you're there!" She has to send me an email but she's buying the book first.

And now I've had my squee of the day, I'm back to bibliographies.

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My keyboard died on me tonight. Fortunately, I had a spare in L-space, for I am tough on keyboards and this is not the first time it's happened. It happened at a good moment, too. My lists were developing their own spin-off lists and I was about to throw my common sense out the window. This would have meant opening the window, which would have been unwise, for it had just turned -2 outside. Spare keyboards; down dressing gowns: my advance planning has paid vast dividends tonight.

I shall hunt my teaching notes and ready them for class prep in the morning and then I shall take my warm self to my cold bed. Or I could air the doona over the heater and have a warm bed in a half hour? I deserve it - I did ten out of the fifteen items on my final list, and that included all the time sensitive items. And I ate chocolate.