Eagles Over the Kennebec

So! The first day of summer, by way of taking a vacation day on the last full-time day of the year. Go, me.

I celebrated by sleeping late, going for an after-breakfast walk with Steve and catching up, at least, on my business email.

The thunderstorms that came through last night really did the job. Today is fresh and breezy with intermittent clouds and sun. I may go for another walk a little later.

Alert readers will have seen that last night I finished reading a book! The title of that book is/was I Don’t Want to Kill You by Dan Wells, the third novel about John Cleaver (the first two are I Am Not a Serial Killer and Mr. Monster). I. . .enjoyed is the wrong word. I was compelled by these novels, which detail the adventures of a 15/16 year old sociopath who is determined not to give into his darker nature as he simultaneously tries to find a meaningful direction for his life. These are “I” books, and John’s voice never falters; they also read very quickly. The three of them make a good summer read.

As I mentioned the other day, one of the side benefits of converting chapbooks to echapbooks is that I’ve been revisiting the stories, and rediscovering my favorites among them. Yes, writers love some of their children better than others. Shhh

I do particularly like “Changeling,” “The Beggar King,” “A Spell for the Lost,” “Candlelight,” “A Choice of Weapons,” and “Pilot of Korval.”

What are your favorites among the short stories/chapbooks? Which would you recommend to someone who just wanted to sample the Universe before jumping right in?

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

It's been a busy couple of days here in the northland. First, may I just say that, between kinzel  and I, we have seen quite enough of hospitals, doctors, and health technicians? We're caught right up and really don't need to see any more for, oh, the next couple of years. 'k? Thanks.

On Thursday, thanks to the recent number of Torrential Downpours(tm) we've experienced here in Central Maine, I removed the cardboard temporary plate from my car, rewrote the (now invisible) tag number, code and dates with waterproof Sharpie (which is exactly what the woman at DMV used, but there's only so much scuba time in even the best waterproof Sharpie), covered the whole thing in plastic wrap and screwed it back in place. I told kinzel  that this would insure the speedy arrival of the metal plates, and, sure enough, they were in Friday's mail. Had I only known, we could've gotten this over with weeks ago.

In addition to the Excitement of license!plates!, Friday also brought a drive out to Belfast to meet kinzel 's brother and his wife for an early lunch and family catch up. It was good to see them looking relaxed and tanned and comfortable, and I hope the trip back down south was more of the same.

Today's mail brought even!more! contracts for German editions -- these for Plan B and I Dare. We signed and initialed and got everything into an envelope so that it can go speeding back to New York on Monday.

In between all of the above, I have made copious notes and sketched in future scenes for Duainfey. This is, let me tell you, Something of a Relief. I thought I was never going to hit critical mass on this book. With luck and a tailwind, I'll be done the first draft by the end of August and have all of September to do the second/final. I love it when a plan comes together.

Progress on Duainfey

47,480 / 100,000 (47.5%)

Today's Special:
The rock was warm and slick against his skin, the salt breeze sharp as a slap on the cheek. Below, the sea assaulted the shore, its black surface picked out in the pale reflections of stars.