Hello dear readers,

I write to you from my office, which is far too hot despite the window being wide open. Unfortunately I am not helping matters, drinking my second cup of coffee for the day, but it’s a second-coffee kind of afternoon.

I have sat down to write this blog post multiple times, and every time I have ended up staring at my keyboard, or getting up to grab a glass of water I didn’t need, or losing myself in space and time, so that when I come back to the room several minutes have gone somewhere I can’t reach.

The problem is, I don’t know how much I’m actually allowed to say about what has happened. I keep telling people in real life, but where’s the line with the internet? I probably should have asked, but didn’t. And so you get this vague sort of blog post that doesn’t really tell you anything. 

Let’s just call this foreshadowing: I’m returning to my witchy novel near the end of next week, to polish it up even more. I’ve been given some insight into what needs changing in order for it to be the best that it can be, and I will be taking the advice seriously. So, while I’m about 25,000 words into the first draft of another novel (the mystery is finished, if you remember that old thing), it’ll be set to the side next week in favour of those important polishing points.

Until then, I’m trying to write as much as humanly possible on this new-old project, which I’ll call the library novel. It was something I outlined last fall, and then kept setting aside for the witch novel and the mystery novel. But now, with a bit of time before the final steps in the witch novel, I’m going to make progress on this one. I had actually planned on having it all wrapped up by the end of summer—final draft, ready to send out—but it looks like it’ll go on the back burner once again when I start revisions on the witch novel. Which isn’t terrible, with the way things are going, but I had been looking forward to plowing ahead on that story.

What really sucks about all this is that my teaching contract and my grad course are still going for another two weeks. It’s definitely going to be a test of patience until everything wraps up, because all I want to do is write. But c’est la vie, yes?

Now, I’m going to water my parched garden and lie in the hammock to read. I hope you’re well, and that you find pockets of time to relax during your week.

—Catherine

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