I’ve two things to report on the editing front. First, I do believe that I am getting faster at it. Second, I still don’t enjoy it, but I think it is getting less onerous.

I’ve gotten through a few rounds of editing on my middle grade novel (working title: Al’s Everything Store). The story at this point, I think, is pretty complete. I am about to embark on a round of getting scenes, chapters and sections broken into reasonable bits.

I’ll start by saying that I’ve written a lot of first drafts of novels over the years. Probably more than I can count. Certainly more than I can find in my less than adequate filing system. I’ll come across hand-written notes of a story I wrote so long ago that it may as well have been written by another person. Some of the stuff even seems a little bit good.

What if there was an environmental property tax?

I am not a morning person. Never was, never will be. That’s not to say that I haven’t tried. For years, I stumbled out of bed before the sun woke up?—?to get into the bathroom first; to swim (I was a competitive swimmer in my youth); to take the early classes; to get into work before the traffic got heavy. I went to bed at a ‘reasonable’ hour to get at least eight hours of shut-eye. I did all those things to mesh with the rest of the world.

I stumbled upon the app Relax Melodies a couple years ago somewhat by accident. At the time, of all the apps in the genre, it had an overwhelming (perhaps 100 to 1) number of reviews and positive ratings than its nearest neighbor, so it was kind of a no-brainer to try it out. Like so many others, after a few minutes of playing around with the free version, I went right back and bought the premium version. Within a week, I had it on all my devices: iPhone, laptop, desktop, iPad.

The truth is, I haven't stopped taking pottery classes yet. I'm now about half way through my third 8-week session and already working out my schedule to allow for more. I am able to get to the studio on Tuesdays and Saturdays to spend between 6 and 8 hours a week with this new obsession. Yes, I would spend more time at it if I could.

I wasn't going to do it this year, but I signed up for NaNoWriMo again this year. This is because last week a new story popped into my head and I feel compelled to write it down. I've only a vague idea about where its going, but it is another one about Sarah and the strange houses she encounters. The working title so far is, The house that George Built. This is really back story, about when Sarah first realizes she has paranormal intuitions. Of course, it's all a part of the family curse, but then what isn't? At any rate, I expect to have fun with it.