My Recent Achievements

1) First and foremost, the draft I've been working on since forever is finished, as of 4 this morning. I eventually gave up on line edits, though I probably shouldn't have. I hit all the really crucial words except for -ing, and then decided that most of the -ings were probably going to stay because a lot of the crucial words had as well. 

Current stats are: 322 pages, approximately 77,000 words, and 25 chapters. A little short, I know, but I'm hoping my betas will point out places where I can add to the text, and failing that, that being 3000 words off the lowest advised word count I've found won't kill an agent search, when the time comes. I've been moaning a little about this (sorry, Twitter), but really, I'm not terribly worried and know it's not that big a deal.

2) I'm officially a year older. I spent my birthday editing, until it was time to go to dinner, and then came home and edited some more. It was a good day. I made good progress. Also, I got gifts. 

Before

The objects in the tub are in fact cheesecakes. Mini cheesecakes made in a muffin tin. There were four of them, but … I mentioned they're cheesecakes, right? This above photo's also missing the gifts I got at dinner.

After

 And this is what was in the packages. From top to bottom:

• Maple fudge
• An Artificial Night, by Seanan McGuire 
• The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, by Terry Pratchett and others
• The Science of Discworld I, by Terry Pratchett and others
• a gift card to HMV
• Blameless, by Gail Carriger
• The Sweet Scent of Blood, by Suzanne McLeod
• Vanished, by Kat Richardson
• Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
• Supernatural, season 5
• Moonshine, by Alaya Johnson
• Mistwood, by Leah Cypess
• maple tea

All in all, a very good haul this year. I estimate that's about two months' worth of reading material, though they won't all be done by the end of November. There are other books I also want to get through soon, and I like to cleanse my palate between fantasies, generally. I've started An Artificial Night.

3) I'm going to a convention next weekend. The theme is steampunk, though it's not a steampunk con, and I want to get in the spirit by dressing up. I have about two-thirds of an outfit cobbled together from my wardrobe, but I need boots or otherwise-Victorian shoes and I'm having a hard time finding any that fit me. My feet and ankles are ganging up, I swear. So I don't know what I'm going to do about that, except check thrift stores again next week. (No way am I spending $100+ on shoes just for this.)

How's everyone else been? Anything exciting going on in your lives?