What have I been doing this summer?
No, really, what have I been doing this summer? Where has it all gone? Why haven't I updated this journal in weeks?
Well, my reading list remains stubbornly long despite my efforts to, you know, shorten it. Highlights of this summer's reading include The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx. Wyoming is a weird, weird state. Britain is a wonderfully weird country. That is all.
I've started a new batch of short stories that are mostly going well. I've also managed to stick with my goal of writing every day, except when I'm not in the house all day because of work or traveling with the family. We've visited Door County (of Wisconsin, I guess I might have to tell you that), Starved Rock, Illinois, and some family friends in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Door County had a bookstore with entire shelves dedicated to local authors. It ranged from self-published poets to stories from iUniverse to a Harlequin Intrigue. Makes me almost want to move to Door County for the marketing help.
I'm 26 pages from the end of my final edit of Aqua Vitae. Now I'm mostly just checking for typos and confusing sentences. After I get the surely inevitable rejection from Writers of the Future, I'm sending it around to a few small presses (it's expanded from the 16,000 word contest entry to a just-hovering-below 25,000 novella.)
And I've started watching TV. Maybe I have brain rot to blame for this feeling of lassitude and nothing-has-been-doneism. Sunday's I have Merlin. Mondays is Big Bang Theory (a geek sitcom!). Tuesday and Wednesday is America's Got Talent, which has become a chore as there's more and more suspense and less and less demonstration of talent. And Thursday belongs to the oddly entertaining Mentalist.
Well, it's not like I'm watching Reality TV, here. On the bright side.