Hello dear readers,

I write to you from my kitchen desk after a long day in the garden. Today I replanted sunflowers for the third time¹, added some new flower seeds to the tulip bed, and helped my mom spread wildflower seeds for my aunt’s new front yard. 

But I’m not here to talk to you about gardening; today, it’s time for another writing update.

The last couple of months have been strange writing-wise, mainly because I haven’t been able to focus on one thing long enough to make any sort of progress. That, and I’ve been teaching full time, which has meant much of my writing time has gone out the window.

But I finally feel both settled and caught up², and so I’ve turned my attention back to a project I started last autumn and have been slowly working away at: a mystery novel, which went to beta readers at the end of March, and which I had not set eyes on since.

Now that I’m back at it—for what I think will be the final draft before it gets sent to agents—I don’t want to do anything else. Which is unfortunate, considering I’m working full time and am also doing a graduate-level course in inclusive education.

But these both have end dates, thankfully³, because what I really want to be doing is writing—really, it’s all I ever want to do. So for the next little while, I’ll work on this novel when I can, but I need to keep reminding myself that in six weeks, I’ll have all the time I need. I’m hoping to have this draft done by then, though, so I can get submission materials together and begin sending it out in July.

What about the other novel I was sending out, you may ask?⁴ I haven’t actually sent it to anyone new since April, but I plan to start again when my work contract is over. 

And then, I’m also slowly editing a book of poems I wrote a couple years ago. This one feels less pressing than novel editing, but I do hope to have it out late summer or early autumn of this year.. We’ll see how that goes.

Another writing-related point I’ve been thinking about is Substack. I don’t like what it’s become⁵, and I really do think I want everything I put out to be in one place (as much as possible). So I’m not sure I’ll keep posting on there; I may keep writing the same amount, but it’ll likely all end up on my blog. I just can’t keep up with all the social apps that are around nowadays!

Alright, I think that’s it for writing-related things. I hope you had a restful long weekend, and I’ll talk to you again soon.

—Catherine

FOOTNOTES

¹ Someone kept eating the seeds! This time, I’ve sprouted them indoors; hopefully that will deter whoever was getting to them.

² Two weeks in and I feel completely comfortable in the new job, and have a good rhythm for the coursework. Now I just need to survive six more weeks of this (and, you know, not do this again).

³ Both are over on June 26th, though I know myself and I’ll have the coursework done before then.

⁴ You didn’t ask, but you get the answer anyway 🙂

⁵ I have so many feelings about Substack and Instagram in general, but the one thing that really bothers me is that all the posts feel so recycled, which I may complain about at some point or I may not. That, and Substack only shows me people I don’t follow! What’s the point of following someone if I don’t see their posts!

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