I was up past midnight last night crafting a letter to one of my editors. By 8 a.m. Central time, I had a (very, very encouraging) response. Later, I checked the timestamp on her reply and realized that if I’d just stayed up a couple more hours, I wouldn’t have had to endure that agonizing wait.

It’s always a relief to learn that there’s someone with a schedule nuttier than yours. I just hope her encouraging response wasn’t simply the insomnia talking.

I might have been wiped out this morning had I not been excited about lunch with a posse of my writing friends. Post-lunch, I was sustained by the invigorating effects of good news, great stories, and general shoptalk.