How My September Came and Went

It’s been a busy, sad, and thoughtful few weeks.  It’s now the end of the first week of October and I can’t believe how fast time goes by.  I’m deep into my class for JHU.  I’m still working away (and crossing my fingers for the business to do better) at my full time job.  I’m still on the hunt for great books, although I haven’t found anything good since the last post.

But last weekend was hard.  One of our cats (I say “our” because she was technically my parents, but I had been taking care of her for the past two years.) had to be put down.  She was a wonderful cat, but at fourteen, she just got very sick.  I cried when the vet told us, but I didn’t want her to suffer.  She will be missed.

Class is keeping me busy.  We just read and discussed A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.  I liked it.  The structure, voice, and characters all made it for me.  My favorite chapter, “Ask Me If I Care”, just jumped off the pages.  I also love the flash forward moments too.  This seems to be a trend in literature today.  I’ve read a few other authors that practice this technique.  I haven’t tried this yet in my own fiction, but I am excited to try one day.

Speaking of writing, I’m suiting up for National Novel Writing Month.  Lately I’ve been feeling like I need more material.  I am a very slow writer, but now that I am in grad school, I feel like I need to have more material.  I just feel as if my body of work is too slim.  So I’m going to tackle something big next month.  I also have grand plans to finish a few other short stories I have started.   We will see how far I get.  Hopefully I will have something to show at the end of the year. *Crosses Fingers*