Best Sign Award, Skagway, Alaska.

The summer is coming to a close. It seems much too early to be heading back to school, but here it is. I’m happy that I’ve had so much time to write this summer. Here’s a recap.

What I did on summer vacation:

1. Took an online class, Body Language Basics, from Margie Lawson, with my amazing writing buddy Vicki Tremper.
2. Went to Alaska and enjoyed seeing a part of the country I’d never visited. My cousin and daughter went with me, and we had a fun girl’s week out.
3. Worked on bumping my article count at Suite101.com to over 100. Apparently 100 is a magical number at Suite101. That’s the point at which writers begin to see real results from their efforts. I beg to differ. For me, the magic began at 101. An editor tore my 100^th article apart, (gently, of course,) and I had some major rewriting to do.  Thanks to her, it looks much better now.   B-)
4. Finished my novel, House of Chimes with the many EDITing pointers I learned from the class I took in June. (See number 1 above.)
5. Swam almost every day, and spent lots of time with family.
6. Started getting my recipes and cooking tips online at my new blog, DinnerMagic.
7. Finally got on Facebook!
8. Moved from Media Literacy to Writing Fiction as a feature writer at Suite101.

What I didn’t do on summer vacation:

1. Lose those ten pounds I gained over the school year. I had a fabulous parent who brought treats for the class to school at least once a week. It shows on my tummy!
2. Update this blog. Oops. I’m making amends for that now.
3. Learn calculus. Yeah, I had big goals in that area, but the way I see it, calculus will still be there next summer.
4. Start brushing my dog’s teeth. I know, I know, my vet tells me dogs need to have clean teeth to stay healthy. I prefer to give her lots of chew toys and denta-bones. And to not let her breathe on me.

I’m happy to see that my list of what I did is twice as long as the list of what I didn’t do. It makes me feel good. Now I need to stop blogging, and get to work plotting my next novel. I’m definitely a plotter, not a pantster.