drive another nail in

Remember me asking the universe to take it easy on me? Well. I came down with a sinus infection RIGHT after that. Really, April has not been my month. 2013 hasn't been my year. But I'm determined to not get bogged down in negativity. To keep trying to make things better.
The new job is still good. I'm moving into a slightly bigger office tomorrow, so that's exciting. I'm working on some fun books. I still think everybody's nice.
As far as the April to-do list goes, I have done some brainstorming on the next novel. I don't have it all figured out yet, but I have a start. There's more I need to suss out before I can actually start writing it, but that's fine because I've got another draft of the ghost/witch project to get through first. I've worked on the short story and the synopsis, but not the query letter. Maybe I can get to that this weekend. The first draft of the short story isn't done, but all I really need is a day or two with some solid time on it and I'll have a draft. Still proofreading, so that copyedit will wait until May. And I've made a lot of progress on the spring purging, but not so much on the cleaning. I've sorted/organized pretty much everything in my office. One or two more evenings on that, and then I'm moving on to the bathroom cupboard. Very exciting!
A book for you: 9) The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. This is book two of the Infernal Devices trilogy, and I don't want to get spoilery for those of you who are intending to read these eventually, so I'll just say I feel bad for Will, and am cheering for Jem, and am frustrated with Tessa. Good books, if you like YA and/or urban fantasy, you really need to check out Cassie Clare's work.
I need to get back to work. Things to do, and I need to get organized for switching offices tomorrow. Happy Monday, everyone!

am i drinking this bottle?

I feel like a broken record this year. Still busy, still stressed. Done with band until the fall. Done with my second draft. This month:

• brainstorm about new novel
• work on one short, and query letter and synopsis
• proofread a book
• dig in to a copyediting project
• spring cleaning/purging

I think that's enough. Don't you?
Two books:
7) Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. I really enjoyed this one. First book in a YA paranormal trilogy, but the narrator's a boy, and he's normal. There was a lot to enjoy about this one. Some really fun characters, Civil War history, and a different take on witches. It was also refreshing that there were no vampires or werewolves. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
8) The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist. This book . . . I can't honestly tell you whether I liked it or not. I'm not sure. I really enjoyed some of the snappy writing. But sometimes I felt like it was winking at the reader. A look-how-clever-I-am sort of feeling. I liked the main characters. I liked the sumptuous feeling of the book. But I was a bit confused occasionally (which perhaps is due to my lack of consistent reading time) and don't really feel compelled to seek out the other books in this series.
As most of you probably already know by now, my purse was stolen on Sunday while I was playing my pool match. I've mostly taken care of things at this point; I really just need to replace my driver's license still. But I lost two writing notebooks when my purse got taken, and that really angers me. It's been two days now, and I still have a lot of emotion about this. Not to be dramatic, but I feel violated. Some asshole felt like he had the right to take my things and do what he wanted with them. Some asshole took off not just with my money, cell phone, and driver's license, but with two notebooks containing ideas, bits of poetry, friends' email addresses, autumn leaves, titles of books I want to read, etc. And I'm sure those notebooks (not to mention the purse) just ended up in a trash can somewhere. Which infuriates me. (I'm not even going to delve into what a mess I was yesterday between dealing with replacing stolen things and watching the coverage of the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Some days human society just completely disgusts me.) And it'll take me a while to feel comfortable at that bar again, which sucks because it's not their fault and because I'm there regularly for pool.
Hey, Universe, you think you could take it easy on me for the rest of 2013? This whole year so far has been pretty stressful, and I'd like it to ease off a bit.
Back to work for me, it's a busy day. I'll write again soon.