Where has the time gone? Two weeks since I posted here! Arrgghh. Classes started again after the Games finally finished, and it was like starting the whole year again. Now I have assignments to mark already.
An item in the Publisher's Weekly email newsletter made me pull out my stamps and cover letters and set the printer on High Speed. At Bologna Children's Book Fair, pirate books were the hot item. I mentioned in the last post that it's easy to get the feeling you are missing the boat. Well, when I read that item, I felt like the pirate ship had set sail without me and if I didn't get in my longboat and row like hell, all I'd see would be sails in the sunset. How's that for stretching a metaphor?
Seriously though, after the initial panic subsided, I decided I really did have to put my novel out there as a partial and work hard on finishing the rewrite. So that is what I have done. Has the rewrite proceeded apace? Not yet. But I know the first three chapters are vastly improved and ready to be seen, and the rewrite is more than half done.
In the meantime the renovations began, and the planning permit paperwork loomed. But I know where the priority lies, ultimately, so it will be nose to the laptop this weekend.
Received my copy of "Lasting: Poems on Aging" edited by Meg Files last week. Some wonderful poems about all aspects of growing old, and lots of humorous or wry poems too to make a balance.
Read Jonathan Kellerman's new novel "Gone" - a good read, but not a top notch suspense experience. Seemed to be an awful lot of dialogue between Alex and Milo, working out the case, rather than action. So rather slow but interesting.
Am reading Robert Crais' new book "The Two Minute Rule" - not an Elvis Cole novel but also a good read without being startling.
Yes, I have been buying books again. Just can't help it when favourite writers bring out a new one. Tried two new writers from the library but one was pretty awful.
I plan to buy the "Firebirds Rising" anthology for a friend's birthday - best collection of fantasy stories I've read in a long time.