Holiday time

I used to take days off all the time...and enjoyed my hobby, writing. Now, writing is work, so I'll have to find another hobby. We have decided (partly because I'm not very well, admittedly) to take a few days off, really off, so no writing. I've finished two books I had started but kept putting down. I've entertained a visiting daughter plus one, and played board games and gone out to lunch and planned the Christmas/solstice break like a military campaign. I've cooked for the freezer, I've sorted out books and papers, and we even cleaned a room and reorganised the furniture.

Now I do feel guilty because I didn't write, in a way, yet my thinking time has been incredibly fruitful. I have a main plot for book 2 and various subplots, one of which is growing and becoming...uh, book 3. Time away from the draft, which is essentially now ready to rewrite into the next draft anyway, has given me a perspective I didn't have while I was toiling away at the keyboard. I shall bounce back renewed, hopefully. I'm just waiting for medicine to work, and fortunately, my husband has a rare week off anyway, so we are enjoying the time off.

Oh, and I passed my MA. I am now officially a graduate of an MA in Creative and Critical writing. I have had one disappointment. I knew I wouldn't get a distinction for the MA overall because one of my marks was too low to qualify (by 2%, so I didn't feel too bad). But I did expect to get a distinction for the creative part of my dissertation because the criteria includes the description "publishable" as part of the distinction mark, 70%. I got 68%. Not quite publishable. Should I return the advance? Or can I just accept that maybe the markers are a tiny bit out of synch with what publishers are actually looking for?