… but then I realised that I collapsed in an exhausted heap and haven't written a word since, while you have kept going and must now be ahead of me again.

So much for my brief moment of glory!

Thank goodness it's over, anyway! I love it but I'm always so glad when it finishes — it's so demanding to write so much on top of all life's usual stuff. I don't know how you manage to do it all the time. One month a year nearly kills me.

I am writing a blog post on the whole experience at another writers' blogging site – will link to it when it goes up.

For me it's what the mad hatter said: "The faster I go, the behinder I get."