Well, I kept us up way too late last night, working on my job application...but it's finally done and sent off, and I can get back to real life. Sadly, I was way too tired to get up at 6:30 this morning. Patrick woke me up at 8:30 to say goodbye, and I stumbled out of bed to walk him to the bus stop with Nika so that at least we could have a few minutes of talking before he went off...but even now, in the mid-morning, I'm still stumbling around rubbing my eyes. I could really do with another 2 or 3 hours of sleep. However, there's a guy coming around this afternoon to do a gas safety check, so I really ought to rev myself up and do some cleaning. (Patrick offered to do that last night, but I wanted his help on my application essay instead.)

The coolest news is that the new issue of The Third Alternative is out, with Patrick's story "The Western Front". Hurray! And it looks gorgeous. The layout and illustrations for the story are just perfect. Pretty magazine, excellent stories...good news all 'round!

Today I've been nerving myself up to do a writing business call. My most-published friend has advised me to treat these calls very casually, as if I were working at a sprocket company and an order hadn't come through yet--thus making a phone call a necessary but perfectly casual matter. ("Have you processed that sprocket order yet?") I liked her analogy very much. Now, though, of course, I'm worried that when the phone is answered, I'll accidentally hear those words coming out of my mouth--and the recipient of the phone call will be confused and surprised to hear me asking him about sprockets!

Knock on wood...