Today, I spent the morning and early afternoon working on a whole bunch of Slender Man poems and think I am getting close to the end. I still have some more research materials coming through ILL, but I have a good number of pieces down. I'm going to be turning my attention toward a couple other projects, including AUTOMAGIC & another serialized project before the end of summer, so stay tuned for details as that develops. Plus, there are always the zodiac poems to keep working on. This year has been super productive on the writing front, so I hope it stays that way as we enter fall craziness (which this year, looks to be even more crazy than others.) It may just be that I've gotten better at prioritizing that little bit of time at the start of the day rather than trying to do it at the end of the day, when all I really want to do is sleep, the worst time for having the sharpness to speak, let alone put words together in any coherent way. Even today, I was up early and needed a nap after a couple pieces. I may need another this afternoon.
We've again reached the point in summer where I am ready for fall..it's actually been rather mild this week and looks to stay that way for at least a few days. But I am tired of late buses & traffic & mob crowded streets of slack-jawed tourists that will leave as soon as September hits. I used to say I loved fall but hated the impending winter, but me and winter have reached a detante.I will tolerate cold as long as I can wear cute coats all season and everybody stays mostly inside. And fall, fall is a delight, at least October if not November, and probably not November this year or for the next few. Or maybe never--November probably being my least favorite month and maybe treacherous terrain all along. Nevertheless, December perks up, and even January has the shine of a new year on it.
We are in the thick of planning for fall events, including a ballet themed murder mystery and, of course, Beautiful Monstrosities. I have a chance for a potential title revision to incorporate some of the more interesting things that I've been doing, or at least a raise if not that. (more on this soon, I'll be thinking out loud here about terminology). Our recent staffing changes have been promising (see my last entry about loss of toxicity.) So we are poised for fall to be so much less of a hostile environment. It means more work temporarily, but it seems worth it. I am also now writing a bit for the library blog, or at least cross-posting some AofR things there.
I am just about to begin diving into dgp submissions for next year and am excited to see what's been coming our way. If I start now I can read about a month's work of work as I go and have all responses out by the end of October which is ideal. There is always that balance issue of what is possible going into a year, and I am feeling it this year more than ever, having lost a lot of time and momentum after last November. I am more cautious about time commitments made in the best of circumstances versus what is possible in the worst of them, so we'll see how that plays out.
