1. Housekeeping (sort of) note: I won’t be doing a check-in post this weekend for #SpringKazNo because… it’s our very last day on MONDAY! Can you believe that? (I actually couldn’t believe it so I just checked my calendar.) Wow, time has gone so quickly. Where did April go? What I’ll do is a FINAL check-in on Tuesday morning, so that we catch everybody in their various time zones. I hope you do well with your goals this weekend, if you’re writing then. I certainly will be.
2. I finally met up with my good friend Tricia Sullivan (awesome SF author!) on Monday. Seeing her always makes me feel inspired and creative, and we talked about so many things. I had a whole bunch of Trish Wisdom to take away with me this time, but I am especially going to force myself to remember the part about how it’s OKAY to take time to read and watch TV (football!) and do other things, occasionally. I don’t have to work ALL THE TIME, which is something I seem to have convinced myself of. I think this starts to happen to you when you write full-time. I get a sort of ‘Writer Guilt’ and feel that I have to be working every minute of every day, to prove that I’m ‘worthy’ of it… Which is probably very silly of me, but also probably quite human. So, yeah. I have to try not to beat myself up so much if I want to read for a couple of hours, or (*gasp!*) switch off my computer before 10pm.
Anyway, Trish rocks. I adore her and wish we lived closer – although it is kind of a fun adventure getting on a train for a few hours and meeting halfway between our respective UK homes. 
Oh! And here’s a Very Bad photo I took of us and stuck on Twitter for over 4,000 people to feast their eyes on. Heh.
3. I can’t believe I haven’t managed to see The Hunger Games movie yet, and now The Avengers (or, Avengers Assemble, as it is stupidly called in the UK) is already upon us. Gah! I want to see both SO BADLY, but I’m probably going to end up missing THG and waiting for the DVD. I can’t (and won’t!) miss The Avengers, though. How can I possibly miss this?
Yum!
(Click to embiggen – RECOMMENDED.)
Um… How did Chris Hemsworth end up there? Of course, I meant that I’m totally looking forward to seeing ScarJo kick ass and take names as Black Widow. (*cough*Thor*cough*)
Go, ScarJo!
4. Anyway. *shifty eyes* I have been reading on my Kindle whenever I travel anywhere on buses or trains (which is a lot, let me tell you). I’ve read a partial that one of my other writer friends is working on. OMG, it’s sooo good! I wish I could talk more about it, but Steph would probably beat me up. 
Last week I also managed to read REVISION AND SELF-EDITING by James Scott Bell which was excellent. I still read ‘writing craft’ books, but I’m much more picky than I used to be. And I’m almost finished GETTING INTO CHARACTER: SEVEN SECRETS A NOVELIST CAN LEARN FROM ACTORS by Brandilyn Collins, which is pretty interesting (and also has a very long title). It’s basically the Stanislavski Technique applied to fiction-writing.
I’m finding myself less able to read novels while I’m writing, these days. I used to have no problem at all with this, but now I have to be careful not to throw myself off. Especially when I’m revising/rewriting. Maybe I’m just getting old or something, but I seem to need more Total!Immersion while I am trying to rework a tricky manuscript. But reading craft books is okay – maybe even constructive. We’ll see…
5. Finally, why is this book not coming out until December? DECEMBER?! That’s just way too long. I’m in love with the cover:
Knowing the talented Adrienne Kress, the actual story will more than live up to that gorgeous cover. It makes me think of YA Steampunk Charlie’s Angels. What’s not to love?
