Hhhmmnn … interesting to re-read my last blog and see how confident I was about version #6.  What touching faith!  In the event, it was version #7 that made it to the end – or even version #8, if we’re going to be picky. I was just about to email the manuscript to my editor when I realised that I’d miscounted the total number of words, and had 5,000 more than I’d thought I had.  NOT a good moment.  I had to slash and burn my way through the manuscript again, cutting whole scenes, to get rid of 2,500 words.  I don’t suppose I actually had my eyes screwed up while I was doing it, but that’s certainly what it felt like!  All in all, it was a real Mistletoe Marriage of a book (plus RSI – excellent!) and I feel as if I’ve been lashed to my computer for months.  I let myself have a morning off to have coffee with a friend a couple of weeks ago, and it felt oddly as if I had jet lag and had just jetted in from another country entirely!  Anyway, it’s done now and never was there a greater phew phewed.

So desperate were things on the writing front that I had to abandon everything else, and am now frantically trying to catch up with Christmas preparations.  I’ve obviously left it too late for the Christmas contest promised in my last blog, so let’s have one for the new year instead.  I have two hardback copies Cinderella’s Wedding Wish to give away, so if you’d like to read it in advance of its publication in March, just tell me what you personally are hoping for in 2009  and I’ll do a draw for the winners at the beginning of January.  You can add a comment here or email me separately, and all entries will go into a hat.  So go on, what’s your goal for 2009?

I think mine is to make the most of any opportunities that come my way – personal or professional (I would say that I was determined to eat healthily and get fit, too, but I know it’s not going to happen and there’s no point in wasting resolutions – it’s always best to be realistic) so I’m planning to approach the new year with a positive attitude. In the meantime, I’d like to thank everyone who’s dropped by at the blog this year and to wish you all a very, very happy Christmas and the best of everything in 2009.