First of all, I loved Jennifer Weiner's hilarious January 28th blog entry about her process of querying the New Yorker...

It was a good weekend, despite labyrinthitis (me) and housework (Patrick). Our first Amazon rental DVDs showed up on Friday, so we watched the first disc of Angel--I can't believe we have to wait another two weeks to see the next disc! gaarh!--and then last night we went out to see Closer at the local cinema. Very well-written, very well-acted, very believable, and very, very depressing. Must find some brain-candy to watch next...

The best news is that I will be going to WisCon after all! Hurray! This is the con I've most wanted to attend since I was nineteen years old and working as the Assistant to the Director at Clarion East, enviously looking on from the sidelines, listening to everyone else talk about their own writing, and sucking up as much advice and atmosphere as I could. (Oh, did it feel good to go to Clarion West as an actual participant, five years later...talk about validation!) We'll only be there for Friday and part of Saturday, but still, I'm thrilled. Best of all, I'll be going with my awesome youngest brother as a graduation celebration. How much more fun could it get?

And in good here-and-now news, I think--knock on wood!--that I may have actually fixed the problem in Music of the Stars, by backing up and re-starting the last quarter of the book from a different POV, and with dialogue/plot actions that develop naturally instead of for-the-sake-of-the-plot (which, of course, is always tempting in first draft...). I hope so, anyway. It feels an awful lot better, which is a good sign.

Now if I can just write the last 50-60 pages in the next 19 days, to fit my target date of finishing by the time we leave town for Patrick's birthday weekend...