Deadlines....

Its the last day of the year.  And I have have just spent the last 48 hours, in the midst of battling flu, trying to finish off tweaking the manuscript of my novel, The Seventh, to send  to the Terry Pratchett Prize competition.  The deadline is today.  I've known about it for months.  I've been telling everyone for the last four weeks at least that I definitely was going to enter.  So why did I leave it till the last minute, the VERY last minute?  What is it with me and deadlines?  I am furious with myself, and having kittens over what will happen if my email gets bounced for some daft reason and it doesn't get there. 

I've had that happen before with post.  I left a competition entry till the last minute and gave the envelope to my husband to post for me.  Unbeknownst to him, the woman behind the counter at the post office got the postage wrong, so it never got to its destination, and was returned to me, unopened, four months later.  I wondered all along why I didn't get the acknowledgement of receipt I sent with it.  These things can happen.  (I believe the post office woman got sacked in the end, for other, similar mistakes.)  Well, I've put a receipt function on the email this time, and am keeping my fingers crossed. Now its done and I can dissolve into my cough and aches, and not think about it any more until next week, when I have decided to start re-writing the whole thing!

In the meantime, I hope that you have a very enjoyable and peaceful New Year's Eve, and a happy and successful 2011.
luv Bex*