breaking radio silence (aka a post of excuses)

So. It's been a while.

I have excuses! I swear! And photographic evidence to back up ALL of them. In fact, maybe it's just better if I let the images do the talking. (A picture's worth a thousand words, right?)

About a month ago I got this in the mail:

First pass pages for ALL THAT GLOWS! For those of you who don't know what FPP are, they're pretty much the final chance the author has to go through the manuscript and change things. It means reading your story for the *^%$-teenth time searching for typos and things you want to change.

BUT when you get to that last page you're DONE!!! And you have a brick of paper that could probably kill someone if you dropped it from ten-stories up.

So, lo and behold, my first completed novel:

About 24 hours after I slipped the death-brick FPP back into the mail, husband and I got on a plane and skipped the country for two and a half weeks. I plan on doing a more extensive post on this once the photos are edited (though this could be a while). But here's the outlined version:

We hung out with my husband's side of the family in Bolivia for a week and a half (his sister lives down there.) We went to the jungle and tramped around looking for anacondas and fished for piranha. And I realized my lifelong dream of seeing a wild capybara! (They're the cutest giant rodents ever!)

Then we scuttled on over to Peru and did a 5 day trek in the Andes around Machu Picchu:

We also got stalked by llamas.

Then I came home to a round of revisions for THE WALLED CITY! AAAH! You guys, I'm so excited about this book I can't even--

Here's my handy revision map. I just finished them up on Saturday.

Meanwhile, during my break from the revision cave, I moved my baby brother into college!!! He's all grown up now. Or at least, he's now responsible for his own diet and schedule! It was so weird being back in a dorm on move-in day. You could smell the sad and excitement and now what the heck do I do oozing from each freshman's room. Don't worry, kids. You're about to start one of the funnest, free-est times of your life!

And then there were a few boat breaks. Where we taught wolf-dog how to swim.

We also determined he's about twenty times the size of a Maltese. (And still growing!)

So yes. That's what's been happening while I've procrastinated posting.

Hopefully the silence won't be so long next time!