Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd share a reasonably random peek into my life for this week's Thursday Thirteen. So now you have:
13 Things I've Done in the Past Week
1) Offered advice and - in a manner of speaking - counseling to a few different folks via Twitter. I've also been incredibly silly there, too. It's funny - I didn't think I'd like Twitter much, but a friend persuaded me to use it to follow all the cyclists on there. Now I'm pretty well hooked on it!

Doodle!
2) My darling furball, Sophie (a.k.a., Doodlebug) has seen to it that I've been awakened at varying points throughout the night to keep her company/feed her/I have no idea why. So, one reason I don't have a smashing TT post is because I'm incredibly sleepy.
3) This week, I agreed to continue doing guest blogs for
Book After Book. I'm pleased to be able to continue my ongoing relationship with this book blog.
It's been a lot of fun, so far - and now I'll be writing about more subjects than before, including a fictional piece or two. 
Inspiring, isn't he?
4) I've gotten back to work on
27 Stages in a big way. Needless to say, this pleases me. I'm roughly four chapters away from wrapping up the first draft. Wish me luck!
5) I vacuumed most of the house. Except for the bedroom where my kitty was cowering, because I couldn't bring myself to scare her further with the vacuum. Even though she has no qualms about keeping me up at night.
I'm a sucker. I know.

It's a good read!
6) I'm reading (will finish it today, actually) my wonderful critique partner Nell Dixon's book,
Crystal Clear.
7) On a similar note, I also got to critique a couple of chapters of one of Nell's current Works-in-Progress. I can't wait to see how this one will play out!

Short and sexy, just like me!
8) This week (this morning, in fact) saw the end of
Alternate Rialto as one of Amazon's free offerings. I have mixed emotions about this. I enjoyed seeing the (for me) higher "sales" numbers, but I really would like to actually earn some money on this book, too.
9) I saw the New Year in with my hubby's family. We had a quiet evening - well, mostly, as there was a hyper-excited three-and-a-half year old involved - and that's how I prefer to go about it.

I'm still pleased with this cover.
10) This week also saw
Ask Me if I'm Happy as the
Book in the Spotlight for the day over at the Famous Five Plus blog.
11) I've helped my hubby with his Beatles homework*, and we've watched episodes of Beatles Anthology via YouTube almost every night this week. It has been a wonderful way to wind down and end the day, and I'll miss it when we've watched the whole series.
*My hubby was told by a friend of ours to "study" the Beatles albums when he confessed over a dinner that he wasn't exactly familiar with all of their work.
12) I finally managed to get the exercise bike brought up and put in my office. This picture is of the model I have, but it's not a photo of mine. I just wanted you to see that I'm rocking this thing old school. (I can't wait to ride my real bike again!)
13) In relation to #2 above - I spent a couple of hours poring over maps of France in order to plot out the final two race stages of
27 Stages. I even had to negotiate a French train ticket site in order to be sure I hadn't gone mad with the route planning.
I don't speak French.It was exhausting.Don't judge me.
I know, it doesn't sound like much when I mention it like this, but these events really have kept me quite busy over the last week.
And I'm pretty prone to distractions, so that doesn't help.
I mean, I'm wandering around online, here and there, tra-la-la-ing as I go...
And then...
I'm sorry, I... ah... Hmmm?
Ciao for now!