I. Big translation job. University press, collection of essays, hideously strict deadline. I was hired today, and they are already breathing down my neck.

II. Slightly smaller editing job. After months of silence, now they wake up and are, of course, in a hurry. And here’s the (long) new chapter, and can I finish it by Saturday, and when can they send the next?

III. Flu. Or perhaps not quite the flu, but still. I’m just beginning to feel vaguely human again, after three days of fever and cold.

IV. Revision – because yes, there is that, too.

To think that this morning my mother waltzed in, took a good look at her only daughter, and pronounced me in need of a little vacation… But the fact is that, for the next two or three weeks, I’ll barely have time to breathe… So I’m not even sure I’ll post very often or very brightly until, say, the end of October.

You are warned, O Readers: if you find Scribblings lagging behind, you know why.