Autumn/Fall is probably my favourite time of year and is definitely my wife's preferred season. We love to check out roadside farm produce stands and often come home with apple-cinnamon doughnuts and apple cider. On the way back from the party today we stopped off at a farm and bought some apple cider and maple syrup, which we'll enjoy over the coming weeks. Fall colours were evident everywhere today, as was the chilly weather which meant we had to rug-up more than usual. Hooray for central heating :)

Last night Carrie had a look at the edited draft of The Bunyip and pointed out a couple of redundancies here or there and changes I should make. From her suggestions I ought to be able to trim another few hundred words from the final draft, which I'll do once I get the remaining crits back. I'm often surprised at the things she picks up in my stories - she doesn't read any horror or SF, but still seems to be able to come up with some very helpful suggestions. I really appreciate her help and that of my other first-reader! (a friend back in Australia)

It's been awhile since I last wrote a short story and it's getting to the point where I'm eager to work on something new. Earlier in the year I was averaging one story a month, but I've been slipping lately - according to my writing log, the last new story I wrote was back in June!

How do I go about starting a new story, you may ask? I typically read through my ideas file, looking for ideas that seem interesting and may lead to stories. Sometimes I end up combining ideas and other times a story title (I keep a list of these too) will lead to an idea and a subsequent story. Tomorrow I'll spend some time combing through the ideas file and brainstorming new ideas. From there, we'll see what happens!