it's like the sky fell on me

I think I'm getting sick, which is absolutely not allowed to happen -- my throat is getting that unfortunate pre-massive-disaster soreness, which is always a prelude to me having a massive cold that turns into a month-long merman cough a la Zoolander. I can't be sick -- I have a publishing empire to build and books to write and media plans to conquer!

But despite that, and despite the fact I didn't sleep enough last night, I still had a good day. I went down to Palo Alto to train with Alyssa, and then left and came back up here immediately to have lunch with Terry and Lauren (aka Subz), since people with normal day jobs had the day off today. Then, I came home and did some work, but it was hard to focus because I knew that my editor was reading Scotsmen all day, and I kept waiting for the hammer to drop. I was half-convinced that she would tell me I needed to rewrite the entire thing, which might have made me cry/throw things/burn down the house so that I wouldn't have to face such a horrible failure, as I would then be in prison for arson and more concerned about protecting my tender flesh from the depredations of sadistic fellow prisoners than I would be about rewriting that manuscript for the twentieth time. Yay for Plan B!

But luckily I didn't have to put Plan B into effect. My editor emailed around 4:30 and told me that she loved it and enjoyed reading it, etc. She made a couple of plot arc suggestions and some notes on the manuscript itself of areas where I could clarify issues, but these were all relatively minor changes that don't require any sort of massive overhaul like I feared. It's a minor miracle, since I wrote several of the scenes in the past three days and hadn't really had a chance to proofread or edit them, but hey, I'll take the minor miracle. This means I might be able to finish Scotsmen this week, if I can stayed focused and not get distracted by all the other urgent things on my build-a-publishing-empire to-do list.

Anyway, when I got that email, I came downstairs and told Terry that we should go out to dinner to celebrate, since before that I had planned to barricade myself in my room and avoid human contact until I was done with the book. She said I looked happier than I have in months, which may be true since I actually sat on the couch and watched tv for awhile tonight, which has not been my usual mode of operations recently. We eventually went out for Mexican food, which was delicious (albeit not Alyssa approved -- but I didn't have a margarita, so she can't be too mad).

I spent the rest of the evening watching "The Voice" with Terry while trying to figure out print production for Heiress, which is taking longer than I thought it would. And now, even though I should write three guests blogs, I'm going to go to bed and do it in the morning -- I need sleep more than I need anything else. Goodnight!