So, lots of good news today.

I found out that I'll finally be getting my pay rise with next month's pay. The union has been in dispute with the universities for ages over this, so there was no pay rise last August. The best news is that the pay rise is back dated. The less good news is that it's a pretty puny pay rise. Even so, 8 months of it all in one will be great for our finances. Add to that that Steph's received a cheque from the Royal Historical Society for her recent flight Vienna, and we might even do quite well in the next month. If we don't go wild in the meantime.

I've also just finished a short story. I haven't done a word count, but I'm guessing it's a bit under 2000 words. It was the final story in the story sequence I started ages ago. The combined length of the stories is around about 18,000 words, and the stories are only loosely linked. To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea what to do with the stories now. (Well, revise them, I guess). Some of them will work as stand-alone stories, but I'd prefer to keep them together. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to publish all of them together. But I'm really glad I've finished them. It was an interesting writing exercise. Now I need to get going on a couple of stand-alones that are waiting to be written, and revise a story I want to get sent out.

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I've been burning my mind out at work recently, trying to keep up with doing a job and a half at the busiest time of year. I've probably never done as much work as this, but I'm feeling that I'm moving backwards instead of forwards. Does nobody ever have low-priority projects? The only thing that's really keeping me going is the exercise routines Steph and I have started doing when I get back from work. They give me a burst of energy to go on through the evening.

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I'm trying to put together some new webpages for my site. It's taking far longer than I intended as I have to hand code at home. I really have to get something like Dreamweaver at home to cut back on the manual work.

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I've been reading Foxmask by Juliet Marillier. I wasn't totally convinced I was going to be into it at first. I thought it might be a little light, and certainly her prose style is light, but the story has been rocketing along. She's got a good plot going, and I really don't see how she's going to get her characters out of it. It should be interesting. I'm praying she's not going to cop out with a cheat ending. I don't think she will as she seems to have the whole thing well in hand. I'm hoping to read the first book in the series, Wolfskin when I'm done with this one, although it may not grab so well as I'll know the ending already. Still, looking forward to it.

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I tried to make ginger tea using chunks of fresh ginger this evening. It's okay, but both weak and sharp at the same thing, and it takes ages for the flavour to come through. Tomorrow night's exciting installment: ginger tea with smaller chunks. Watch this space.