You know that feeling you get when you’re **thiisss** close to winning at chess, or to untangling a very large, very uncooperative knot? Sort of itchy and excited and tense all at once – you can see the nine or ten moves it will take to get there, but in order to complete them you’ve got to concentrate and shush those around you and frown really hard, or else you’ll lose the sequence and that way lies much weeping and gnashing of teeth?

This is pretty much where I’m at with Surrender of a Siren. **Thiiisss** close to finishing the draft and terrified to break my concentration. What little of it I can gather, at any rate.

To that end, I’m going to be a bad blogger and commenter over the next few weeks. Uh, just like I have been for the past few weeks. Sorry!

Goals for the new year?
*Maintain tenuous hold on sanity.
*Walk more to prevent brain atrophy (I read this in an in-flight magazine). And my brain is atrophying at an alarming rate. I shake my head and things rattle in there.
*Go to England.

That’s all I can muster the concentration for right now.


15 comments to “New Year, Same Old Me”

  1. Gillian Layne
    January 2nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm · Link

    Welcome back! Was it an awesome vacation?

    Your goals cracked me up. Except the “go to England” and hey, if you need a babysitter while you’re there, I’m here for ya. 🙂 I’m actually quite good at entertaining kiddos in-flight.

    Best of luck with the SoaS.



  2. Tessa Dare
    January 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm · Link

    We had an awesome vacation, yes. Tacky souvenirs and all. Mr. Dare purchased a ceramic creamer in Nassau shaped like a breast. The milk pours through the nipple. So classy.

    I don’t know that “Take darelings to England” is on the list of goals. Although your offer of babysitting does sound tempting. Hmmm…



  3. Santa
    January 3rd, 2008 at 12:30 am · Link

    Go. Write. Take a walk. Kick start the brain. Go to England.

    Santa
    Who should really follow her own advice.

    PS I’d just add going to Nassau to get my hands on that creamer. I wonder what the sugar bowl looked like….



  4. Renee Lynn Scott
    January 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am · Link

    OMG Tessa, I remember years ago someone gave my dad and the rest of his co-workers a nipple mug. Gosh I must have been 10. It was quite funny and father was embarrassed.

    Glad you had a great vacation. Oh, England sounds great.



  5. Renee Lynn Scott
    January 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 am · Link

    Santa,

    You should come with a spew warning. 🙂



  6. Maggie Robinson
    January 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 am · Link

    My husband was once given a white chocolate breast as a gag gift. I got the white chocolate penis. We did not eat them.

    Write, write, write. Your fans/bloggers will wait patiently for a tempting snippet and the chance to spill our guts on TMI Tuesdays.

    All four little Robinsons went to England once, ages 12, 10, 7 and 4. They posed with pigeons and palace guards. We brought them home, too.



  7. Alice Audrey
    January 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 am · Link

    I’d have eaten the penis right in front of everyone.

    What do you mean it isn’t Tuesday?



  8. lacey kaye
    January 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 pm · Link

    I’m pulling for you! Can’t wait for you to finish SAS so I can read it. In, uh, 2009.



  9. terrio
    January 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm · Link

    My dad had a large nipple mug that he kept in the freezer and used to drink beer. We’re a classy bunch.

    My brother had chocolate penises on a stick over Christmas but we didn’t eat them. He and his *partner* had them in their freezer for some reason and I chose not to ask.

    Maggie – you brought the kids home or the pigeons and guards?

    Tessa – by all means, do whatever you need to get that book done. We’ll be here when you get back. Begging for ARCS, of course. *g*



  10. Sara Lindsey
    January 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm · Link

    Maggie, speaking from personal experience, it was a much shorter plane flight for the little Robinsons than it would be for the Darelings! Living on the east coast, England feels so much more within my grasp. And I get to meet the viscountess in a couple of weeks! Oh to be in England!

    Tessa, sorry but SoaS will always be GOB to me. Maybe it’s my Arrested Development fixation… I’m sort of speechless on the nipple creamers. Mr.Dare is apparently a college frat boy at heart.

    I do remember being given a chocolate penis once… ring any bells, San? Yeah, sure, it was all Julianne…



  11. Santa
    January 4th, 2008 at 7:31 am · Link

    Yes, the, um, creme filled ones at National. Weren’t they delish?

    It was all Julianne’s idea. I swear! I just came up with the names for them and who was going to get one – which was just about everyone we saw or spoke to.

    Class, nuttin’ but class!



  12. Alyssa Goodnight
    January 4th, 2008 at 9:29 pm · Link

    I would love to go to England, but I fear I will have to make due with just the walking.

    I hope I get that itchy feeling about my book soon…



  13. Lynne Simpson
    January 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am · Link

    My sister, my husband, and I want to take one of those Jane Austen tours of England. Our main roadblock is getting someone we trust who is willing and able to pet-sit for us. We’re very picky about this, so it may be a while before we get to tour England. 🙂



  14. India Carolina
    January 5th, 2008 at 3:55 pm · Link

    I’ll keep the darelings while your gone. I love magic shows!



  15. Lenora Bell
    January 5th, 2008 at 10:17 pm · Link

    Welcome back, Tessa! I’m glad you had a great vacation. I want to go to England, too. I haven’t been since I was eleven.