I'm doing quite well. We're in Sydney, and the autumn weather is awesome here. We just a new garden put in on the roofdeck. (We live in a flat built on top of a converted warehouse.)
I am not a dork, but am schockingly cool, especially for an author.
I do a lot of research before I start, in fact, I'm always reading anything that interests me, otherwise I wouldn't get any ideas. But once you start writing a book, you suddenly realize how little you know, and you have to do a ton more research. (Especially with clothes. Like, when did zippers appear in the Ottoman Empire?)