thank you!

Thank you all for birthday wishes! It was a very nice birthday. Ted got me a couple books and a DVD I wanted, and put them in a very silly bag that sings a birthday song. My sister called me from the fairy tale palace she’s studying at in France, and my dad made me a birthday cake! I literally can’t remember the last time somebody made me a birthday cake. I don’t think it’s been since I got married, so at least 11 years (I love to bake, so usually I make them myself. :)) and possibly quite a lot longer. It was an orange cake and very yummy. :)

Also, thank you all for being so reassuring about Lucy. She’s doing fine now, though boy is she going to be disappointed to go off gooshy food. :)

On the drive up to Longford, we passed a field and I said, “Babby cows!” Ted said, “How can you tell?” I said, “…because they’re little?” He said, “Little cows are happy cows?” “BABBY cows! _Baby_ cows are little cows!” “OOOOH.” So then every time we went by a field of cows (and there are a lot of those in Ireland) one of us would say, “Are they happy cows?” :)

I’ve signed up for Novel in 90 again (having utterly forgotten to keep posting there after smashing my fingers earlier this year), and today is officially Back To Work Day.

The Project: CAULDRON BORNE*, Book 4 of the Walker Papers
The Deadline: July 18, 2008
The Wordcount: 8419, but I’ve got to edit or even rewrite what I’ve got, so that’s a bit of a wibbly starting place
The Goal: 110,000 words

And the Zokutou meter is back. This makes me terribly happy. What *also* makes me happy is that unlike THE PRETENDER’S CROWN, I know how long this book is going to be. :) (Actually, my 170K estimate on TPC really wasn’t that far off, but I never had enough confidence to use a word meter on it.)

8,400 / 110,000 (7.6%)

*my editor is probably going to make me change this, but I can’t work without a title and I like this one, so I’m going to keep using it until they’ve *made* me change it.