Whew! We just got back from Michigan a few hours ago, having set off around 1:30 in the afternoon. We made good time, with only a couple of slowdowns due to the Chicago peak-hour traffic.

We spent the weekend catching up with Carrie's family, belatedly celebrating my birthday and pre-empting her upcoming one, and eating tonnes of food! We also visited the Michigan tourist mecca that is Frankenmuth and partook of a delicious chicken dinner and did some shopping. Apparently the Christmas store there is open year round and is the biggest in the world. Although we didn't visit that, the drive past after dark was quite impressive (or gaudy, depending on your point of view).

After dinner and unpacking this evening, I logged on and realized I have quite a bit to catch up on. It's amazing how quickly things change when you've been offline for a few days!

Among other things, over the past few days I've done some thinking about my writing and how it's about time I really get stuck into it. No matter what I try (the short story challenge being a prime example), real life always manages to intrude and sticks a spanner into the works. I've just got to take this as a given and set aside at least some time each day for my writing. It'll take some juggling, but if I don't make a concerted effort, progress will remain painfully slow.

I've also realized I haven't submitted any Critters crits for quite awhile, so that's something I need to address pronto! Not only are crits useful for the authors, but I find I learn quite a bit about the mechanics of writing, and stories in general, so they're well worth doing.

I've been meaning to update the writing stats again, so here they are:

2003 Word count:	64,272
Total submissions:	13
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	12
Waiting for response:	1

Nothing much new here, but I like to keep an eye on my progress just the same...

What I'm Reading:
Wolves of the Calla, by Stephen King
Asimov's Science Fiction, August 2003