At last, I'm back online. ("At last, my arm is whole again!")(Ahem. Down, Sweeney.) The move is pretty much finished, except for the dozens of boxes still cluttering our new living room, and I'm starting to get organized again. (At least, as organized as I ever am.)

And in the meantime....Lots and lots going on. This weekend I finished a new short story, called "Wish You Were Here," which made me pretty happy. And two nights ago, I started a new kids' fantasy novel, tentatively titled Queen of Thorns. I don't want to write too much about it here (for fear of losing the spark by talking about it too much), but I am very excited.

But I spent yesterday focusing solely on being an academic. I'm working on a short article, called "Unveiling the Other: Haydn's Armida," based on a combination of my master's thesis and a paper I read at last year's student Royal Musical Association conference. Since it's an older piece, I'm struggling to fit in all of the new knowledge and theories I have on the topic, and on Enlightenment Austria in general...and of course I'm working hard to smooth out the writing. I guess I should feel encouraged that my writing has improved, both in fiction and in academics, over the past year--but it's a right pain to fix! I hope that the fiction and academics feed off each other, in terms of a developing maturity of writing style. I hope.

Today, though, I'm catching up on all the critiques I owe. (Or starting to catch up, anyway--this move has pushed me so far behind!) So I'm making myself a latte, sitting down with blackberry-apple crumble, and preparing to enjoy myself by reading novel and screenplay drafts by some of my favorite writers, who happen to also be some of my favorite people!

Cheers!