I’m back from a nice, relaxing vacation on the Adriatic, where I drank too much cappucino and got too much sun. Ah, the Dalmatian life, LOL. I think the time change is the hardest part of travelling, but after about a week of not knowing whether it was day or night I’ve readjusted and am ready to write. This month will be relatively low-key because heat makes me lazy, but I do have a few things going on project-wise and some prep for an upcoming conference I’m attending to do.
For actual writing, I’m finishing up another round of edits on GRENDEL. My betas had some great suggestions, and a few will probably make it into the final draft. I’m also working on a basic sketch of book two in the trilogy, and playing around with a gothic story. I’ve got about 45k in on that, but I’m at a point where I have to make some decisions about the plot. There’s a fork in the road, as it were, and I’m not sure which way the characters should go. So I’m sitting back and waiting for one of them to speak up with an opinion. 
As for the conference, there’s not prep to do so much as slogging through the class catalog and figuring out what I want to take. Usually I stick to the business end of things, going to query/synopsis courses and marketing ones. I’m feeling like I want to take a few “writerly” ones this time, though, maybe something outside the genre I usually write just for fun. And of course I’ve got to keep working on my query for GRENDEL, since I’ll get the chance to pitch to some agents at the conference. My goal is to use the pitch sessions for feedback , asking questions about where the query works and where it doesn’t. I figure it’ll help me get a better response when I start sending it out. I’m also waiting to hear if I finaled in the yearly contest they run. The winning novel will be announced at the conference itself, but the “you made it to the last round” letters should be coming out soon. I’m not holding my breath, but you never know. Since entering was more about getting the editor feedback on the pages than anything else, I’m good either way.
So happy summer, everyone! Hope you’re keeping cool. And hey–if you’re bored check me out on Twitter at @AMS_writes. I finally caved and joined the tweeting side of social media, though I still say I have nothing relevent to say on a daily basis. You might learn some fun words that aren’t used enough anymore, though: https://twitter.com/AMS_writes
