Yesterday, J was telling me he'd heard the head of the Arts Council being interviewed about the huge reductions in their budget, and I said to him: Ok, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm not going to get a grant.

Famous last words.

This morning, 24 hours before my birthday, I get a large envelope from the Arts Council and... whoo-hoo, they've awarded me a grant to work on a biology-inspired short story collection!! This is not just an amazing boost financially, it is a real validation to me that they think I'm doing something worth funding. And it is a vote of confidence both in short story collections and in science-inspired fiction. Yay!

My project is for a collection of short stories inspired both by current research in several biology-related labs in Bristol University and a fictional response to a 100-year-old biology text book. I won't go into more details about that now, but over the next 18 months, I'll reveal more, as I get going. I have been in a kind of limbo ever since I submitted the application 5 1/2 weeks ago, not feeling I can really get stuck into anything. And now I can, which is the best part. I have the "next thing" I've been waiting for, really since my book came out, which is almost two years ago. Ok, got to get to it!