Oof. Yesterday I stuck my laptop in my backpack, hopped a bus into town, and managed to hammer out a 4,000-word Summary of Research/Proposal for Future Research in about 2 extremely intense hours in a cafe. (I figured it was well worth spending the £1.20 for a big mug of tea just for the lock-in effect with No Distractions Possible.) I've spent most of this afternoon revising it and the additional 25,000 words of my academic writing sample, organising details for referees, and sending stuff off for academic critique...as well as researching academic publishers this morning. It's almost 4pm, and it may well be time for lunch. Soon, anyway. Or at least dinner!

It's a good feeling to have gotten so much done, though, especially because we're off tomorrow for a lovely four-day weekend down South in Essex. I've been counting down days to it for the past two weeks--I can't wait! Just the act of getting Out of Town is so wonderful, after a stressful month, and the idea of seeing a new place, free of alarm clocks or productivity deadlines, sounds absolutely heavenly. Next week will probably be a bit harried--I've taken on a four-day full-time temp receptionist job on-campus, so I'll be struggling to finish up the rest of my PhD work on top of that--but that's all right, because it is Post-Weekend, and thus very very far in the future for me right now. Out of town! Vacation! Woohoo!

Not too much fiction-writing progress...I had to go into the university early this morning for receptionist-training, so we only managed 45 minutes of writing time, which translated for me (very very tired and slow-moving) into about a page or so of Chapter Four of Music of the Stars. Oh well. Chugging along slowly....

Have a great weekend, everybody!