Gaaahhhh. Yesterday morning at about 10:30, our phone line stopped working. Period. We contacted British Telecom, and they said, "Ah. That must be your fault." Or in other words, the fault of internal wiring issues, which they will not fix except in exchange for large sums of money. This is not what we wanted to deal with right now. Just to add to the fun, our shower has started to drip through the ceiling into the living room again, and the outer layer of the living room window needs repairs. We are really not going to be popular with our landlords.

Oh well. Luckily, at least we do know someone who's good with wiring, so we'll probably ask him to look at our phone box before trying to arrange BT payments--or at least, we'll ask him after we've managed to clean up the house so that I won't be too embarrassed to have company over. So I know what I'll be doing today...

The good news is that this morning I finished the hand-scribbled revisions to Masks and Shadows, so as soon as I've finished typing them all in, I'll be able to declare myself officially done with Draft 1.1 and ready to send it off to any and all volunteer critiquers. And then...whoa. I can actually work on my Vienna/Istanbul novel again! That is almost too weird to imagine. Do I actually write other novels?

Maybe it's time for a break.

Luckily, I got some luscious Amazon care packages in the mail this week--one surprise package from a friend in America (thank you thank you!!!) with a copy of Helen Fielding's Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination (which I devoured in less than 24 hours), and one expected package with Jennifer Crusie's newest novel, Bet Me. I am working very hard to persuade myself to do other things too and NOT just read it curled up in the fetal position of Total Comfort!

And there's even some blackberry-apple crumble waiting for me in the fridge when I get home...