These are the flowers my dad gave me (in congratulations).



These are the questions that have been occupying my mind:

1) What does flying feel like? (I mean, the magical kind of flying.)

2) How do I get a website? And is it possible to create one myself? (Afterthought: Please don't tell me I'll have to learn HTML.)

3) How long will it take to write a 30K manuscript?

Question #1 deals with the third chapter of my new work-in-progress. Said WIP is currently top secret, but flying is involved (at least, in chapter 3).

When I was working for that publishing house in New York, the higher-ups were making a big push for looking for web-savvy authors and for teaching established authors how to promote themselves online. Hence, question #2. Having a website can only help me - granted that it's all nice and professional-looking. If I plan to make a career out of this (and I do), a website is probably essential.

I'm really not sure on Question #3. Writing always varies. This is especially true from writer to writer, but the pace of writing can vary sometimes when the same writer is involved - depending on the project and what's going on in the writer's personal life.

Now, I was working on a manuscript up until Wednesday - you know, the first novel in that five-book series I was busy dreaming up. It has 28.5K words. That's seven weeks of work. (It's also a very rough draft, and probably only half of the book.)

Also, I have a lot scheduled in the coming weeks:

October 30 - November 2: Trip to DC
November 5 - 9: Another Trip

November 26: Thanksgiving
November 27-8: My sister's Debutante weekend
December 2: Trip to Montana

So.....

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

In other news, my mother took me out of P.F. Chang's for a celebratory lunch. (Over the years, P.F. Chang's has hosted many celebratory lunches in my family.) After we ate, our waiter asked us what had planned for the rest of the day:

"I'm going to the library," I said.
"Are you in school?"
"No." (With some heat, because the idea of grad school still frightens me.)
"What do you do?"
"I'm a writer. For children's books."

!!!!

First time that I said it out loud to a stranger. It made me both happy and uneasy, like I was worried that I would jinx it.

Later, my fortune cookie was this:

Soon, you will be sitting on top of the world.

:) That describes my mood pretty well.