Memo to Self:

When issuing challenges that demand the writing of 60K words or thereabouts - the better half of a novel - in a month, it is not a good idea to celebrate with eight or nine pints of beer.

*nods*

*flinches*

*needs coffee*

In other news: I seem to have woken up with a cold. Bloody FantasyCon. All those bloody people needing kissing, bloody bloody...

*coughs*

*sniffles*

In other news: I hate my book. It's all talk, it's going nowhere, I've lost the plot (in a very literal sense) and will something please happen? Please? Look: I have a motorbike! I have a boat! I have a girl with superhuman powers! I have a boy with six fingers on the run from mighty evil beings! I have a blindingly obvious trap he's about to walk into! How can it be this dull?

*sighs*

*goes shopping*

My copy editors like my book. A lot.

Okay, look, this is shameless self-promotion to the max, and I really shouldn't do it; but this herebelow came this morning and it made me feel better, and it's good to share...

When "Bridge of Dreams" came back from copy-edit, I was frankly stunned. This is the stage I hate worst in publishing - I usually end up unpicking nine-tenths of what the copy editor has done, thereby earning myself a reputation as being difficult to deal with, which I'm not, honest - but the edit on "Bridge" was clean, acute and genuinely useful. So of course I asked if the new book, "River of the World", could go to the same people...

I am here to tell you that Bob and Sara Schwager are the best copy editors in the whole world evar; and they are here to tell you this:

My wife Sara and I are your copy editors and I just finished the final read on the book. IMHO it is the finest piece of fantasy writing I have ever had the great privilege to read, much less to work on. As you will see from the paucity of queries, there is not a single question about the plot, time line, etc. That in itself is amazing for a book of this length and complexity. Frankly, the most difficult part of the copyedit was fighting against just falling into the story and the writing. This combination of storytelling and luminous writing is a rare and precious commodity. Thank you so much for requesting that we do this volume after having done Bridge of Dreams. Hope to see much more from you and will certainly be going back to get your previous fantasy pieces.

Wasn't that just the kindest thing, that they bothered to write to me? Made my day...