Well, it wasn't a relaxing weekend, but it was a pretty good one. Saturday morning I woke up panicking about how impossibly much work there was to do by the end of Sunday, how I would never get it all done, etc., etc...and guess what? I didn't get it all done. But I did a lot--most of what had to be done, probably all of what could be reasonably expected--and we even got some fun stuff mixed in as well to keep the whole family sane. Along with my novel rewrites, book review-writing (I just sent off my first-ever book review, which will be published in Interzone very soon!), and job applications, we had some beautiful walks to the park and to the valley, and we watched four episodes of the BBC DVD "Pride and Prejudice", which is the perfect medicine for stress. And Patrick did an incredible surprise cleaning job yesterday while I was doing my own work, so when he announced that it was dinner time and I blinked up out of the job application, I got to be nicely stunned at how much better the house was looking. I am very, very lucky! :)

BTW, does anyone know where I could find lists of the new fantasy novels coming out? I've been asked to come up with a list of choices for books to be sent to me for review--a prospect that fills me with absolute bliss--but I have no idea what is coming out, or how to find out!

I spent this weekend doing (gasp!) even more revision of the opening of Masks & Shadows, and am looking forward to the end of my self-imposed vacation from new writing, and getting back to Thief of Souls. If I can just get this darned thesis chapter finished for good...I decided not to work on the thesis over the weekend for the sake of my sanity (not to mention getting everything else done), but today it's glaring up at me from my computer screen again. Sigh. My new tentative prediction is that I'll have a full rough draft of the thesis by August. Ohhhh, I can't wait for it to be over...

And one note in honor of the very fun article on writing music over at Strange Horizons today: I'm listening to Tchiakovsky's Eugene Onegin right now and will probably switch to Delibes's Lakme after this disc finishes. Gorgeous big, sweeping, wistful melodies, lush, romantic orchestration...somehow, it fits my Monday mood! How 'bout everyone else? What are you guys all listening to today?