Well, tonight is the last night of summer.  Yeah, I know that officially summer doesn’t end until the equinox, which is still a few weeks away.  And in the US, Labor Day, which is a week from tomorrow as I write this, is traditionally considered the end of summer.  But classes start in the morning, and my days of at least theoretical flexibility are pretty much gone for the next three and a half months.  In reality, I’ve been back at work and hitting it pretty much full steam since early July with only a few moments here and there to slip away.

Back at the beginning of the summer, I wrote this post, in which I outlined some changes I was implementing over the summer, along with some plans I had.  How did I do on accomplishing the plans?

Not so well, actually.  Among the things that didn’t get done were nonfiction reading and writing original fiction.  I did submit some items to a few markets, but they were things that were already completed.  And while none sold (although some are still pending), I did get some very encouraging rejection letters.  The kind that say the story is a good story but doesn’t fit the tone/theme/other selections and please try us again.  I can live with those, because it means my work is actually being considered.

However, the months of June, July, and August weren’t a total wash.  I read a decent amount of short fiction, a large percentage of which didn’t get reviewed.  I’ve started reading comics regularly again, mainly the DC Rebirth, but a few others as well.  I’ve been picking up all of the Rebirth titles.  There are a few I’m going to drop, but I wanted to give all of them a read before I made up my mind.

I also started reading more thrillers, with one or two of them being reviewed.

I attended Howard Days, as I usually do, and had a great time.  You can read about it here.  I also attended Armadillocon for the time in seven years.  I still need to write that one up.  It was a last minute decision, prompted by a particular event.  I hope to get that report done by the end of the week.

To sum up, while there were some accomplishments and good things, overall the summer wasn’t as restful or productive as I’d hope.  At least the second half wasn’t.  The first half was meant to be a time for family travel.  That was accomplished, and it was good, in spite of driving in the New Mexico desert in 105F degree heat in a car with no air conditioning.

The temperatures here have bordered on fall-like, and fall is my favorite season of the year.  I’ll have more to say about the fall in the next post.