Like this:

A couple of weeks ago, Karen G of Coming Down the Mountain told us that Virginia Woolf spent her first advance on a cat. Woolf was very humble about the whole thing, poking fun at herself for fantasizing that if she wrote a novel, she’d be able to buy a motor-car. I, too, fantasize that an advance will buy me a motor-car. This one:

And this view from my writing room:

But in reality, I know I’ll spend every last dime on this:

In the end, Woolfe concluded that “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Not much has changed. Except now we need even more money because we have to hire publicists.

What do you plan to do with your advance?  Will you buy yourself something fun? Will you funnel it all into publicity?  Are you one of those radical thinkers that plans to give the money back to the publisher for marketing?

P.S. Check out a great contest over at http://sarahwithachance.blogspot.com.  A few prizes including a query critique from one of three agents. Also, http://boylit.com/ is giving away a signed copy of Morpheus Road: The Light.