So, straight from the high of finishing one novel, I've plunged into revision on another...and lord, it's scary. I wrote Music of the Stars straight after Masks and Shadows, and then put off looking at it again for almost a year because I wanted to write my next adult historical fantasy as a follow-up to M&S before going back to working on kids' books. So now I've just finished reading Music of the Stars again for the first time since last June...eek. It turns out that I like a lot of things about it, and there are bits that made me really happy as I read through it. But of course, as always, I'm shocked and horrified by how many things I'll have to fix...

I am trying very very hard to stick with the "rewriting as fun" philosophy.

Deep breaths.

As a good reminder, I'm re-reading my favorite kids' series right now, the Casson family books by Hilary McKay--Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star and Permanent Rose. Of course they're totally different from Music of the Stars (the historical fantasy set at a music boarding school in an imaginary Italian city-state in 1858), but they're light-hearted, fun and uplifting, and I'm trying to hang onto the fun aspect absolutely as much as possible.

It’s a beautiful day, a new shipment of hot chocolate just arrived yesterday from Plaisir du Chocolat, and we’ve just finished watching the new mini-series of Bleak House, my favorite soap opera ever. I could never make my way through the book, but the DVD was hilarious and tearjerking and wonderful--so much fun.

Back to revisions!