What's Up Wednesday

It's been a while since I've posted, so I'm jumping in on Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk's weekly blog hop. Just like 2010 went down in my memory as the year that blew ALL THE CHUNKS, I have a feeling 2014 will be remembered as the year where EVERYTHING HAPPENED ALL AT ONCE. When I tell people about the amount of transition in my life right now, they just kind of pat me gently on the back and look for an escape route.

What I'm Reading:
There hasn't been much free time for reading this year, but last week things lightened up a bit and I managed to fit in a quick beta read for my CP Liz Brigg's upcoming NA release, which was fun and funny and romantic and I highly recommend. I also read Kathryn Rose's debut Camelot Burning (which comes out NEXT WEEK!), a completely unique steampunk retelling of Arthurian legend with a feisty, brilliant, metalworking heroine that I very much enjoyed. If you live in LA, come to Kat's launch party next Friday at Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach!

I've got a huge stack of wonderful new books waiting on my nightstand, but right now I'm working my way through A Dance With Dragons and hoping that book six isn't far away. I'm also listening to an audiobook of The Martian in the car--I had recommended it to my husband for a three-day drive he took, and since then he's been raving about it, and it's really excellent.

What I'm Writing:
Right now I'm in that glorious phase of having turned in all my work, and I'm just waiting for feedback and letting my brain relax for a bit. I had a hard time writing earlier this year due to a long bout of nausea and general busy-ness, so it's a huge relief to feel finished, at least temporarily. Book two in the Lost Planet series is coming along nicely, and I'm getting so excited to share this next chapter in Chase's adventures! I've seen a sketch of the cover already, which is just as fabulous as the last one. Hopefully we'll have something ready to reveal soon!

What's Inspiring Me:
I recently had the chance to see some of my favorite authors at the LA Times Festival of Books, including the wonderful Laini Taylor. I'm so excited to read Dreams of Gods & Monsters, which has been patiently waiting for me on my e-reader ever since it came out. I'm saving it for my vacation in about two weeks.

What Else I've Been Up To:
Preparing like a Boy Scout. My husband and I are leaving in a couple of weeks for a three-week trip to Turkey, partly traveling with friends, partly visiting his family. Which is grand...except for the part where we found out our landlord wants us and our two cats out of our house midway through our vacation. Scrambling to find a way to make that happen, which would be easier if my husband didn't have to also cram in two business trips to Europe in the tiny space of time before we leave. Hopefully we'll find a solution so that we can come back from Turkey to a home where we can continue prepping for the babygeddon that's coming our way at the end of summer. It gets even more hectic from there, but I'll withhold those updates until the details are finalized. Things are just kind of bananas right now.

So what's up with you this fine Wednesday?

What's Up Wednesday: The Where I've Been Edition (With Cat Photos)

Well, hellooooooo there, strangers! If it looks like I'm blinking a lot in the bright sunlight, it's because I've just crawled out of the deadline cave. And I survived! Because I cannot word anymore, I'm easing back into blogging with a What's Up Wednesday (the weekly meme started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funke, go sign up on either of their blogs!):

What I'm reading:

Not much since early August, but I'm commencing a major reading binge, starting with these lovelies:

What I'm writing:

The sequel to THE LOST PLANET! I turned in my completed draft to my editor Sunday night, and I'm feeling about a million pounds lighter. I had fun writing it, but it's no joke what people say about the first book under contract being a completely different animal than a book you write in your own free time. I learned a lot about what it takes, particularly energy- and focus-wise, to produce a book in a year, and I plan to use what I learned to make writing the next book go a little more smoothly. Because I'm not going to lie, there were some panic moments and maybe even an epic meltdown in there somewhere. Whew! I can laugh now because I'm on the other side.

What inspires me right now:

Having free time for the first time in six weeks where I don't feel the constant pressure of a deadline. I haven't entirely lost that feeling of productive churn, and I'm trying to harness it to pick away at some new projects. More sequel ideas, and one Shiny New Idea that hit me like a hurricane while I was revising and has been vying for my attention ever since.

What else I've been up to:

Um, besides my day job, that's about it. I've been a serious house rat for the past month, swearing off the gym, turning down social invitations, and ordering delivery when my refrigerator ran out of food. Luckily for my productivity, my husband has been out of town for most of the past month.

One thing I did keep up on was my Instagram account (which is all cats and food, because what else?), so I'm going to paste in some shots of from this time period. As you can see, I was not entirely alone. I had my two house goblins, Jack and Simon:

Nothing to see here. 

I don't function without breakfast. Every day.

My desk weasel.

I ate a lot of kale. What can I say? I live in California. And kale is delicious. I pretended I was a vegan for part of the month.

Until my husband came home for Labor Day, and cooked up this 9-lb rib roast.

We took our cat out on the patio on a leash. He loves his leash. Or at least the outdoor time that it brings. The leash is more like a hobble.

My cats are there for me when I'm writing.

There when I'm revising.

There with me burning the candle on those long, late nights.

And finally, a shot from the final stretch. Husband sent flowers and a sweet note of encouragement. Awwwww.

And that's where I've been! What have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme, started by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk, that helps readers and writers touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up. If you'd like to join in, you can find the link widget on Jaime's and Erin's blog posts. 

What I'm Reading

I've had to fit my reading in between the cracks lately, so I'm not reading anything very quickly, but at the moment I'm really enjoying the copy of The Fifth Wave I picked up at BEA. I'm also gradually slogging my way through A Clash Of Kings. I'd like to finish all the Ice & Fire books before the next season of the show starts, but holy LONG. It's kind of painful when you read and read and don't even advance 1% on the progress bar. I do have some binge reading time coming up because I'm leaving tomorrow for a 17-day vacation. I've got some fun ARCs, but I don't like to bring physical books on vacation with me, so I'll be hitting the backlog of awesomeness on my e-reader.

What I'm Writing

I'm racing for the finish line right now in the first draft of the sequel to THE LOST PLANET--hoping to get it done before take-off at 7pm tomorrow! I may treat myself to a little champagne on the flight if that happens, because writing a sequel on deadline is to writing the first book like motocross racing on a mudslide is to taking a two-week bike tour of Provence. This is a draft that's for my eyes only--I was figuring it out as I went, so right now the front end doesn't match the back end...at all. But at least the hard part's done!

What Else I'm Doing

As I mentioned, I'm leaving tomorrow for a vacation, aka the European wedding tour. We're going to an old friend's wedding in Bonn, Germany this weekend, and then joining a group from the wedding party to vacation in Israel for a week. I've never been to Israel before, and I'm so excited to see it! Afterwards we're flying up to Istanbul for the wedding of one of my husband's best childhood friends and to spend time with family--including my husband's brand new nephew! I love Istanbul so much and I can't wait for sunny, tea-filled mornings and warm Bosphorus evenings. (And don't worry, we'll be perfectly safe there.)

What Inspires Me Right Now

I can't listen to music while I'm writing, but I do keep a playlist of music for getting into the mood of each book. If you're curious about these kinds of things, here are two of the main songs from the playlist for the book I'm drafting:

(Note: Apparently you need to have Spotify installed for these buttons to work...blerg. Embedded YouTube videos of these songs don't play on Blogger, but if you really want to listen to these tunes, you can check them out on YouTube: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, and Allegretto from Palladio.)