I’m currently experiencing the general sensation of that bit on a rollercoaster where you ease slowly up to the first very big dip – basically the last chance you have before your thoughts get reduced to a fairly primal level of “AHHHH!!!!” Admittedly, life isn’t quite that extreme at the moment, but I am staring straight at two phenomenally busy weeks – tomorrow, I’m setting off for a weekend at The Asylum, a steampunk weekender that’s taking place in Lincoln (for some shots of me in the final version of my costume, go here). Next weekend I’ve got Fantasycon in Nottingham. The week after that, I’m speeding down to London for an incredibly swift visit, and the yearly Gollancz Autumn party. And inbetween all this, I’ve got to fit in a massive amount of proofreading – a delayed bit of work (which I was supposed to spend most of this week doing) didn’t turn up until yesterday, and it’s also nearly 150 pages longer than I expected (and my expectation was pretty damn large already). So, my life is going to be work, and socialising, and very little else. I have the feeling I may spend most of October lying in a corner making dazed noises. I’m looking forward to it, though, and while I will attempt to update whenever I can, be assurred that if there’s silence for the next two weeks, it isn’t because I’m miserable, or because nothing’s going on – I’ll just be waiting for the world to slow down so I can finally catch my breath…