At last, the Nook version of No Quest for the Wicked is available at Barnes & Noble. There's still something a bit glitchy with the listing because the top of the page says "paperback" even though on the page it's the Nook version, and you pretty much have to find the direct link because all searches will just bring you that paperback pre-order that doesn't really exist, and you can't even find it when searching by my name, but it is there. It's also available at Google books, which means it should soon be available through independent bookstores that sell e-books. Sometimes it takes a day or two to make it into the individual store catalogs. It's not yet up on the stores I've checked.
I actually made it to ballet class last night. I skipped the petite allegro (fast jumping) because I knew I didn't have the wind for it, and I had to take a few breaks and sip a lot of water, but I made it through the whole class. I don't think I've lost as much strength as I feared. I'm not quite at the level I was before I got sick, but I still held up pretty well. I'm not sore this morning, though that usually hits later in the day.
I've had yet another lesson this week in "what works for some people doesn't work for everyone." I saw a post by a writer friend about how she'd tried this new time management technique that really increased her productivity. You set a timer for 25 minutes and during that time you stay totally focused on the thing you're doing, and then you take a five-minute break before doing another 25 minutes. I thought I'd give it a shot. And it totally killed my productivity, at least writing-wise. It doesn't really fit with my flow. I need to do writing spurts of about an hour to maintain enough flow to accomplish anything. I generally pace myself by word count, since I write about 2,000 words in just under an hour (unless I'm really stuck). I'll write 2,000 words, then take a break. At 25 minutes, I'd usually just hit a bit over 800 words, which feels like an awkward stopping point, and then my breaks were never five minutes. This might work on those days when it's hard to get started, and I can tell myself I just have to work 25 minutes, and by then I'll be in a groove and work more beyond that. It might also work for other tasks, like housework. Or I could use it to manage my goof-off time and keep it from getting out of control -- I can play on the Internet for 25 minutes, but then I have to go work. So today I'm going back to my usual routines.
And now to address some more questions about the Enchanted, Inc. series:
I feel like the blank pages in Ethelinda's book were never explained. I never figured them out. Did I miss something, is an explanation coming, or something else? This has bugged me…
That was a hint about Owen's mysterious past that had somehow been blocked from even magical records. You'd think that an omniscient book that knew everything about both Owen and Katie's histories would have clues about his real identity, but the pages about his birth parents were mysteriously blank and his history only started with the Eatons taking him in as foster parents. And you find out why all that is in Much Ado About Magic. Yes, I was foreshadowing this book that far ahead.
We learn more about magic as Katie does. Now that we know more about these compulsion spells and such.... Why is MSI "hidden" from everyone until they are shown it by an employee or magic user? Is there a compulsion spell to keep people away? A veiling spell? Something different?
There's sort of a "don't notice me" spell on the building, a lot like the "Somebody Else's Problem" field in the Douglas Adams books. The building's not invisible to people who aren't in on the secret, but there is something about it that makes people just not really notice it unless someone points it out to them. That sort of comes out of what happened when I was doing the initial location research for the series. I was wandering lower Manhattan, looking for where the MSI headquarters should be, and I paused at City Hall Park, where there's a gorgeous fountain, with some old gas lamps around it. I took a number of pictures of the fountain. Although I'd spent a fair amount of time walking around that neighborhood, I was still surprised when I was taking one of those pictures and noticed this castle-like building in the background in my viewfinder. I hadn't even seen it before, even though I was sure I'd looked directly at it a number of times. Although the real building is actually relatively recent, in spite of the turrets, I figured that was my headquarters.
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