Here is the news, coming to you every hour on the hour...*

...or every month or so, at no particular time. You know!

I finished my new novel this week. I'm very excited about it. Then again, I'm very excited about every novel I write. But, that includes this one. It's the first time I cried while writing an ending!

Sometimes when people are looking for an agent or waiting to sell, they complain about how long it takes. It took me three years to find an agent. But the whole time I was dabbling in various projects. This particular novel I just finished? I started it back in August of 2006.

My 8/15/06 blog entry:

"I have a constant need to play with fresh ideas. This one has been percolating for awhile and I finally had a chance to work out the plot and character basics today. My #1 setting I wanted to play with was a domestic Victorian one. Done and done! #2 on the list is sort of a dark Germanic art deco, so I fired up my Klaus Nomi and my Gary Numan on the old iTunes and started taking notes."

I wrote a partial, then had no idea where it was going and set it aside. For years! I wasn't ready to write it until I had a few other books under my belt. It only took me four months to write, which sounds so fast (unless you're one of the HYPER-FAST writers who churns out two tomes a year), but the reason it was so fast is that I've been THINKING about the darn thing for almost five years, and researching it for the last year.

Plus Dade had some particularly awesome plot assistance ideas this time. I didn't get stuck much. Yay!

Now I can get back to some lighter works, which I'm also looking forward to. And I can stop listening to the soundtrack of Metropolis. Which I LOVE, but seriously I am so over it.

Also, appearances.

I am delighted to report that I'll be doing a library visit at the West Irving Library in Irving, TX on June 11th at 1 pm as part of their teen book club, so if any of my teenage fans are in the area, please drop by!

I'll also be returning to the science fiction convention Oasis here in Orlando the last weekend on May. I must say this is really an old-school sci-fi convention so I wouldn't attend just to see me, unless you are into old-school sci-fi yourself. But I do enjoy being on writer panels, so I like going anyway.

Lastly, the Magic Under Glass paperback hits shelves on Tuesday, and I know some of you will be at BEA at the time, perhaps picking of an ARC of Between the Sea and Sky! I wish I was going, but I can't wait to hear the reports.

*Total bonus if you know the song with these lyrics in it. I'm such a nerd.