Turning 30

Here's a crazy thing. This week, it's my birthday. My THIRTIETH birthday, to be precise.

It feels like there haas to have been a clerical error - some sort of administrative snafu along the way - which has resulted in my losing 2- 3 years of my life.

But once I get over the initial shock, all I can think is how remarkably lucky I am. (This is a recurring theme for me. I have an innate, remarkable luck, the kind that leaves other people speechless and scratching their heads.)

I tried thinking about what I want for my life. Apparantly these are the sorts of things one thinks about when they reach their thirties. And there's... very little. I've achieved more or less everything I realistically could want, and that makes me happy.

Maybe that's what's helping me feel a lot more zen about the submission process at the moment. Scribes has been out on submission for six months and hadn't sold yet, but only four of the editors who have it have actually passed. It's frustrating for me and my agent, but we're just getting started.

I'm absolutely smashing my reading goal for this year as well, by the way. 35 of the target 52 books read at this halfway point in the year and sill going strong. The overwhelming majority of those have been audiobooks, because that's how I find time to consume these days. At any given time I usually have four on the go at once; two print (usually one I'm reading for research and another for pleasure), one ereader, one audiobook.

This week's rec is an alternative to coffee which contains NO caffeine. No, I'm not talking about decaff, which does still contain a very small amount. I'm talking about chicory hot drink. Can be difficult to track down, but health food shops supply it, and actually, it's very good. In an effort to curb my frequent headaches I cut all caffeine from my diet, including *gasp* chocolate. For nearly two months, not a a trace of chocolate or caffeinated beverages have crossed my lips. And my headaches, for the moment, have significantly lessened both in frequency and intensity. (In the interest of full disclosure, I also get physio treatment once a fortnight and do a bunch of morning yoga stretches as soon as I get up, which could be contributing). Nevertheless, chicory, kids. It's good! It tastes like a more butterscotch-y coffee.

Speak to you again when I'm older and wiser.