A few things to celebrate:
I won Camp NaNoWriMo! Another mostly-finished draft is done, and a future for Vacancy has been sealed. This series still needs a lot of work, but every day forward this month has been a massive step toward its publication date, and that feels amazing. I ended up topping out at 54,997 words, so a little short of where I planned, but I’ve been getting in deep with other projects, and it’s been great.
I’m purple again! I like playing with other colors, but I’m meant to be purple–luckily it compliments my skin the best of all the “unnatural” colors since it’s my favorite (not that I ever let my patchy red skin ever stop me from being pink!) I’m also embracing my natural texture which is often a pain, but sometimes it pays off. I’m working up to Jessie from Saved By The Bell.
I love oatmeal? I’m shocked because I used to hate it, but recently I’ve been having it with fresh fruit either for lunch or dinner, and it’s been a huge boon to getting my bad eating habits back under control.
Bart has lost over a pound! He’s been doing so good on his diet, he’s more active, a way better jumper, cleaner, and definitely happier. I’m so proud of my chunky boy.
I published a short story! Yeah, okay, only did that yesterday, and it’s only on my blog, but I’ve been sitting on this, unrevised, for a while and finally decided to whip it out, fix it up, and post it. I was going to use it in a collection of Moonlit Shores tales, but that idea has evolved and left behind “Real Magic,” so now it stands on its own.
This novella is about to get off the ground! I’ve got a big plan for my reader magnet, and I’m hoping I can bust it out in a short amount of time and write up how I did it for the blog. I’m going very formulaic and straightforward as an experiment since it won’t be a money maker (not that anything is right now), but I’m hoping it’s entertaining and a nice escape for you, Dear Reader.
Summer is halfway over! It’s hot forever in the south, but Georgia is nowhere near the constant scorched existence that being in Florida was. I mean, it still blows, but at least by mid September it won’t be 100 degrees and humid for 18 hours of the day. I want to love summer, but as the years go by it has devolved from a welcome break full of fun to a sweltering slog through misery, the last and greatest obstacle between the rest of the year and the best of the year: autumn. I might feel differently if I had access to a beach and skin that didn’t develop melanoma just thinking about the light in the fridge, but that’s just not my life, and we must make the best of what we have. I am enjoying the daily thunderstorms, though.
And finally, I’m 33! Three is a good number, and two threes? Well, the only thing I can think of that’s better is 39. Well, maybe 333, or 369? But those aren’t quite reachable age-wise, so 33 will have to do. This is going to be a good birth year, I can feel it. I’m going to make so much magic happen.
A.K. Caggiano 