Nika's bandage is off, her nail is healed, the Elizabethan collar is only a bad memory, and she's absolutely joyful to be back to normal. Hurray!

I'm still sick, but I've been feeling a lot happier since yesterday. Partly it's because I managed to start writing again, and I've written another 2700 words of CoS since yesterday afternoon, hurray! The climax of the novel has begun, and the end is in sight. Woot! Partly it's because I figured out what novel I'm going to write next, and it's so frothy and silly and fun that I almost can't stand waiting for it. (Well, okay, I haven't totally waited. I wrote the first 180 words this morning, when I was panicking about issues in CoS. But I'm mostly waiting, really. It's just that the beginning of a novel is so much easier to write in first draft than the climax of a novel...) There are going to be a lot of world-building issues to figure out, though, and I'm having tons of fun bouncing around different possibilities with Patrick.

Partly it's because I totally fell in love with the opening of SarahP's story Jane. A Story of Manners, Magic and Romance, which is posted on the Realms of Fantasy website. I can't wait for my subscriber's copy to arrive in the mail, so I can finish reading the story!

But mostly, my mood has swung to happy because of a wonderful, wonderful purchase yesterday: Regency House Party. It's a book-of-the-reality-TV-series, in which ten British singletons were planted in a country house for two months, given Regency-era identities, and forced to follow Regency rules of manners, behavior and romance. It's also filled with fascinating real history...although of course that's not the point of the series. A few of my favorite bits:

The first night, after the ladies have withdrawn to drink tea after supper, and the gentlemen have stayed at the table to drink port:

The appeal of the tea urn had faded somewhat by the time the gentlemen rejoined the women, an hour and a half after they had withdrawn, and the port had made several circuits of the table. Mr Foxsmith promptly engaged Mrs Enright in conversation, only to spoil the effect by keeling over backwards mid-sentence. He remained there, too inebriated to move. Thus were first impressions formed.

This behavior would have been far from unusual in the Regency.

And, after a few days:

The subject on everybody's lips at Kentchurch concerned the identity of the couple spied leaving the fireworks party together. Were they the same people who had been seen by the gardener kissing passionately on the lawn in the early hours of the morning? Narrowing down the 'guilty' parties was difficult, since no one was above suspicion, not even the chaperones, possessing as they did as much charm and intelligence as their charges. Would they stand by their promise of promoting the younger women's interests, or seduce the men themselves? It was commonplace during the Regency for chaperones to distract the attention of unmarried men, even to have full-blown affairs, although it was frowned upon if the chaperone's behavior injured the chances of her charge.

It's the perfect trash TV for me. :) I haven't seen the DVD--and I have a feeling it might actually be a let-down after the book--but I am having so much fun reading this...and taking notes!

And finally, if anyone wants a jolt of cheer-up, check out: puppy break! C'mon, how can you not smile???

(Via the excellent Dave Schwartz.)