Oof. I just looked into the mirror and saw that my eyes are looking seriously blood-shot. This morning was our first 6:30 writing wake-up for the past few weeks, and ouch, it hurt. (And yeah, I know, in the not-so-distant past we used to get up at 6:15 for writing, but that was just never going to happen this week...) It didn't help that last night was one of the most disturbed nights of sleep in a long time, with Nika growling and barking at every drunken pub visitor who stumbled back down our street. (And, for a while afterwards, at every bird/cat/imaginary noise she heard, too. Thank God at least out house wasn't passed by either of the two foxes who live around here, because then she would have really gone insane!)

Oof. But we got up anyway, stumbled around, made breakfast, oohed and aahed at all the snow outside, and settled down to typing in more of our novels. I finished typing in the two chapters of The Music of the Stars that I wrote over the weekend, which turned out to be 20 typed pages--hurrah! Of course, the scary thing is that nearing the end of this book has felt like trying to catch the horizon on a run--every time I think I'm almost there, it leaps backward behind the next hill. I used to think the book would be 40,000 words...it's now almost 44,000, with several left to go. I used to think Chapter Twenty-Five or Twenty-Six would be the last chapter, and I just finished Chapter Twenty-Five, which is mere set-up for the climax. Someday, I swear, I really am going to write The End for this book, and that day will feel fantastic. But the lovely consolation prize is that I'm really enjoying it, enjoying the characters, their internal and external battles and their impossible situation, and I'm feeling so much happier about the novel as a whole now that I've finally escaped that dreaded 2/3 Point of Doom. Once I finish, I'll need to set it aside for at least a month to get some breathing space, but I think I'm going to end up liking this book a lot. Knock on wood!

We just bought the 3rd season of Black Books, my favorite TV sitcom ever, and have been watching it the last few nights after dinner. The second episode of Season 3, 'Elephants and Hens', is my favorite writing-related TV comedy episode ever, as Bernard & Manny decide to become children's authors. There were so many fantastic moments, when Patrick and I, laughing, turned to look at each other in amused horror (oh God, it's true, we do that too!). If it's available where you live, then please, do yourself a favor and watch this series! It's hilarious.