Vacation at my fingertips

School is hours from being out for the summer. The two and a half hours a day in the car stopped being relaxing many weeks ago, which leaves me looking forward to a few months of not-driving. If that comes with kids in the house every day, all day, that is a trade off I can accept.

Tomorrow morning the kids and I pile in the Prius for a road trip to Alabama. Much sibling harassment will follow. Six birthdays to celebrate in 3 days means I’ll eat too much, drink too much, laugh as much as I possibly can, and come home next week ready to start the summer.

{Deleted long ramble about an epublisher that I’ve taken off my “dream publishers” list, that really no one cares about anymore.}

My yummy (can I call my editor yummy? I just did, so I guess I can) editor at Samhain has a call out for submissions for a Cowboy Roundup. I have much discomfort with submitting for these group anthologies – it’s a huge number of submissions usually, and if your story isn’t chosen, it can’t be resub’d – it’s “move along, thanks for playing”. I’ve resisted the urge to write something for several of these calls now. Samhain has fabulous themes, so it has been hard! But cowboys – mmmmm. I’m reconsidering.

More writing talk – Flawed is almost ready for submission. I’ve been living in a fantasy world while I write it – it’s elves, and magic, and hints of dragons that may make an appearance some day in another book. I’ve reread some old favorites (Weis, Hickman, Lackey) while I wrote it, and found a new one (Brandon Sanderson is my favorite new-to-me author of the year). I get so focused on romance, sometimes I forget my love for fantasy and sci-fi.

J.R. Ward’s Lover Enshrined came last night. I put it up without reading – I know! Shocked even myself with my will power >flex<. But I know that even my less favorite of her books suck me in and I can’t put the damn things down until I’m done. I’ll have to wait until next week to sink into this 540+ page book.

Sis doesn’t have ‘net (does dialup count as ‘net anymore? She has dialup, but with 15 people in the house I’d feel rude tying up her phone to use it) so I’ll be out of touch for the weekend. Back next week!