I had another 10,000 word day yesterday (well, close to 11K, actually), and, once again, I feel cranky and sore and out-of-sorts and a little unbalanced today. But the writing is going well, and I'm spitting distance from the end of Dead Reign, just two chapters left and then a coda to wind things up. It might end up being 90,000 words long, but that's okay -- parts of it will shrink, and others will expand, in revision.

I got the editorial letter for Poison Sleep yesterday, and initially panicked, because I thought she wanted changes I had no idea how to implement... after some back-and-forth and clarifying, though, I realized the changes she wants aren't as deep as I'd initially believed. It will entail adding some scenes, cutting some scenes, shifting some emphases... it's definitely work, but I've got about five weeks to do it. On the bright side, there's very little in the way of line edits, and she loved a lot more about the book than she didn't love. After sleeping on it, I think almost all her suggestions are very good ones, and will make the book far stronger. Hurray! I'm glad I have an editor I'm so sympatico with.

I still have my crazy plan to finish Dead Reign (in lumpy first draft, anyway) before we leave for our little vacation around the end of the month. That will mean some more heavy lifting this weekend, in addition to a zillion things Heather and I already have planned. It's going to be busy. And once Dead Reign is done, I can start revising Poison Sleep. No rest for me, but I'm not complaining. I do love the work.