You can't keep a good man down. Or was it a hot air balloon? Something, anyway.

I've been pretty much out of it since Thanksgiving, but now I'm finally coming back together. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I came down with what seems to be a recurrent stomach infection. It was pretty unpleasant. I couldn't do anything at all on Saturday and Sunday, and Monday I was still feeling it. I did a bit of work from home, but just doing the ongoing spreadsheets wasted me. Tuesday I went back to work and regretted it all morning. I'm still not feeling completely back together yet, but I can now do most things again.

I had planned to use the extended weekend to get down to some serious writing, but being ill leaves you unable to focus. Everything I normally do fell away, writing, walks, exercise and journalling. It's hard to do inspired journalling when you're ill (hah, says my cynical legion of reader, what inspired journalling?). I wasn't surprised I came down sick. I'd been exhausted for weeks and knew I needed a holiday. It came too late, though.

Like I said, today I'm feeling a lot better. I managed a bit of exercise and have been concentrating on the third draft of my kids' novel. As I thought after the last draft, it's pretty much together apart from the prologue and the first chapter. The first chapter might have been a mistake, but it's important so it's staying. Here's a hint: when you're plotting a book, don't start with a protracted scene where your four protaganists sit around talking. It's hard to pull off. The prologue was an attempt to add some drama to the opening, but it feels slightly more like melodrama to me. When I've got to the end of this draft I'll put aside some time to work intensively on both of those parts.

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Work, meanwhile, has been concentrated around the Xth version of my damned spreadsheets. If anyone else comes back to me and says "you know, I've had a thought, why don't we do it this way instead," after I've already finished the whole damned thing I will melt into a slightly caustic puddle that'll damage the carpet. I'm hoping that I've got rid of the project for a few days so I can go through three weeks worth of stuff in my inbox and catch up on all the other things I've neglected.