Chipping away at a mountain

I've finally, finally finished the last of my Univeristy books and can go back to my massive To Be Read pile. I've returned to Pamela Aidan's Duty & Desire, will follow it with a bizarre little pamphlet of stories by someone named M.R. James, and then on to The Poisoned Crown by Amanda Hemingway. After those, and a forthcoming Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, that's it for the Green Man Review books. After that comes My First Romance Novel, Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, the trio of Fired-From-Chapters/Coles-So-This-Is-My-Last-Chance-For-A-30%-Discount Novels, not to mention the books I got from my parents and grandparents for Christmas.

And after that are the How-Can-I-Not-Buy-Them-When-They're-This-Cheap-at-$2.00-A-Hardcover books I bought on impulse at the University Bookstore. I'm particularly looking forward to Elizabeth Hand's Winterlong, Margo Lanagan's Black Juice, and Cecelia Ahern's If You Could See Me Now (set to become a Hugh Jackman film in the near future). And all three cost less than $10 combined.

Of course, I still have exams and essays to write, so I shouldn't let myself get carried away, but it is quite nice to be back to reading for fun. And hopefully, I'll be able to post some more personal book reviews later too.

In other news, I e-mailed the editor of CICADA (pronounced SIH-KAY-DAH - I'm glad I asked) to ask when the issue with my story is coming out. She promptly replied that I will be getting my contributor's copies in about two weeks. Not only that, but my novella's going to be illustrated! I can't wait to see how the artist interpreted my story! So two more weeks - two more weeks before I'm officially published!