I went running today for the first time in like a year. I discovered that my muscles are in great shape. My body feels like it could just run and run and run. My lungs, however, protest. I can't run very long at all without feeling like I can't breathe. I think this is a function of being completely aerobically out of shape. My heart rate is way too fast. This is okay, because it gives me something to work on. I need to do more running/other aerobic exercise, so I can get back in shape.

I like to run in the spring, because it gets me out in the sun for half an hour, at least. That's wonderful. It'll get harder as it gets hotter, but I think it'll be good for my health to keep going.

I've set my writing goal at 1000 words per day for the rest of April and the month of May. This is a nice, sustainable amount which will allow me to get the book done by the end of May, while practicing being a steady writer rather than a binge writer. The fact is I write enough as a binge writer to be fine professionally, but my writing won't continue to fit into my life once I have children if I can only get things done in large chunks. (Thanks, Emily, for making me think about this.)

So I'm practicing being a steady, a-little-everyday writer. Besides, I did the math. If I did 1000 words a day six months out of the year, I could write two books a year and still have a whole six months for revision. This makes the whole thing look not-so-hard, if I can just get in the groove of doing a bit every day. It worked VERY well with my RT revision, so I figure I can learn to write that way too if I practice long enough.

Also, with my new revision skills, it's okay if my 1000 words are bad, because everything is going to be rewritten anyway. It's happy when I figure out a process that works.

Also, with my 1000 words done today, I don't have to constantly feel like I ought to be working. That's happy. With my new-found freedom I spent some time photographing Drew's new project and getting the photos ready to post.

Life is happier when I get to work on stuff I love.

I just found out that World Fantasy 2009 is at the Fairmont in San Jose, California. My parents live a fifteen minute drive from there--my high school Prom and Winter Ball were both at the Fairmont. It's in a nice little area downtown, and I'll have a free place to stay. That means I'll get to go. YAY!

Unfortunately, my parents' house is very small, so I won't be able to provide a place for other people to stay. But I'm still jazzed about it. (There's also Worldcon in Denver this year, where my in-laws live. I still need to get around to buying admissions for that.)

Also, yesterday Drew and I bought a glass case to keep minis in. This was well-timed, because when we went into the Keep, Levi told us his was getting rid of his case, so we needed to clear our stuff out. This wasn't a big deal, because we'd been gradually pulling our stuff home anyway. I like having it displayed where we can actually enjoy it, rather than having it stuffed in a case at the Keep, and things kept getting damaged in that case anyway. Our case is about six feet tall and a foot and a half deep/wide, and looks gorgeous in our living room. We even installed a light in the top. It makes me happy.

We also set up display cases in the wall at the Keep to advertise, so Drew still has a few pieces there. We're getting banners printed to hang up there also. Hopefully we'll bring in a little business that way, though Drew is hard at work on a different project which I will be blogging about sometime soon. (With pictures!)

Finals are OVER and my Royal Tongue revision is OVER (for the moment) so I'm on to writing Keepers. We are very much enjoying not having school and teaching getting in the way of our career stuff. (Of course, yesterday was not a good writing day, but I have high hopes for today.)

My head is very, very fuzzy. Today I revised 50 pages of The Royal Tongue. When I decided I could work on that no more, I designed three banners for Garden Ninja advertising.

Drew: So, when you took a break from working, you did more work.
Me: Shut up.

All in all it was a fantastic day. Too bad I can't think straight now that it's over.

I'm going to go watch Angel and turn my mind off.

We've got a banner up at the Dragon's Keep website now.  (Might have to refresh a couple times to see it; it appears in the top right corner.)

Levi (the owner) has been awesome to us and is going to let us hang up display cases and banners in the store.  This means I get to play with photoshop some more.  (Since Drew needs to be sculpting and I like photoshop, I get the banner-making job, at least for the image production part.)  Isaac is awesome to us, and he helped us convert a little drawing of a ninja that he did for me a while ago into a logo that we can use on the banners, on the site, on images, and on future business cards.  It looks fantastic.  I'll post it eventually, once I get the PNG files turned into something smaller and more postable.

The sculpting project Drew's working on is turning out AWESOME.  Neither of us expected that he was capable of sculpting something so good for his first from-scratch mini.  It's very, very encouraging for the future of the business.  Things are building slowly, but that's the way we need it, since we're both still in school and can't devote full time attention to the artistic pursuits just yet.

But I'm very happy with the way it's all going.

My revision is rocking.  I'm into chapter fifteen now (only four more to go) and just it 50,000 words.  I'm having to restrain myself from changing the middle of the book too much--if I were to write book now, I would do it differently, but I'm not writing the book over.  I'm just rewriting what's already there.  Which means I'm making large changes, but not so large that I'm allowed to spend the next three months replotting and rewriting the middle.  I just don't have that kind of time.  It's not terrible as is, so I think it'll be okay.

I like the book again, anyway, which is a huge accomplishment.  We'll see how the ending goes.  I've blown through 18 pages so far today, and I'd like to get through another 30 before I have to quit.

Off to work.