This was a good reading weekend. I finished Mike's The Wannoshay Cycle, reading the entire last half of it yesterday and really enjoying it. I read and critiqued the three first-thirty-pages assignments for my class. And I plowed through the first third of Margot Livesey's Eva Moves the Furniture. I had tired eyes when I went to bed last night.

It was interesting to go to an NC State basketball game last night after not going to one for a couple of years. It's become almost as big a spectacle as professional wrestling. Loud music, spotlights, scripted responses from the crowd. Despite that, it was a very good game against Maryland (the current #1 team in the ACC), even if we lost in the last 1.5 seconds of the game.

I was also very suprised that I was so moved when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was sung. I was almost brought to tears. Most of the rest of the world thinks we have no idea what patriotism and pride in one's homeland are, and for a long time, I agreed. But I felt a swell of pride for our nation last night, even if I don't agree what our current administration is doing with it.

There's a big job ahead of me for the rest of this month, rewriting the first few chapters of my novel. I decided, after all the comments from my class, that the current structure just won't work, and that I'll be fixing the narrative in a more linear direction. I also won't be telling the story in the present tense voice, it'll be told by the character when he's 30. So a-rewritin' I will go. I also started a short-short called "Enlightenment" that I'm hoping Mike will like enough to put in his possible one-shot zine thing.

Busy busy busy.

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Now Reading:
Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey

Stories Out to Publishers:
11

Stories Sold This Year:
3

Novel Word Count:
18,800