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A brief commercial break

a pink cover with a cupcake in the center, title: DIY Chick Lit/A Writing GuideI just got back from two weeks in Central America with Andrew. We traveled around Guatemala and Belize and saw mountain lakes, old cities, lots of cathedrals, geckos, cave roaches that will haunt me for the rest of my life, and many Maya ruins. It was awesome. I was so hot.

Now that I’m back in Seattle, where it is FINALLY STARTING TO COOL OFF, I’m trying to get back in the swing of things. This summer was ultra-busy, with lots of tutoring work and moving stuff. Our house is pretty much settled into now, especially since we decided not to paint anything. We have things to do but nothing urgent, things like curtains for some random windows and maybe that frosted glass stuff for our door.

I am so happy to be wearing a sweatshirt as I type this.

So, here, in no particular order, are the projects I’m working on for the rest of September:

  • A new cover and title for The Chick Lit Cookbook. It is now DIY Chick Lit. Almost Also available on Amazon (again)!
  • A fun new guide to running your own writing retreat–DIY Writing Retreat (get it? There’s a theme!). It was super fun for to write, like designing a workbook for writers–it’s the nuts and bolts of getting away for a weekend to work on your own writing. There’s a schedule, writing prompts, and lots of inspirational JUST-DO-IT paragraphs to motivate you. It even includes recipes and how to make a God’s Eye, as if you were at writing camp. And it tells you when you are allowed to drink wine. Once my darling editor Kel finishes our final tweaks, I’ll be putting it up for sale here and on Amazon. Sign up here if you would like to be notified when it hits the so-called stands.
  • More writing about Valley & Mountain, forthcoming.
  • Another project that I am not sure how to launch yet, but I will be sharing on here for sure. It’s a book for women called You Don’t Have to Do That. It’s all about things you don’t have to do. I don’t know what else to tell you yet, except that in the course of my research I’ve discovered that you pretty much don’t have to do anything.
  • Various short stories, a short novel (I hate the world “novella”) and ooh ooh ooh! My first short story is going to be published here for winning an Editor’s Choice award for this prize. It’s called “Flask Dress,” and it’s about a girl who gets drunk at her fundamentalist Christian father’s house on Christmas Eve while wearing a dress that conceals a flask that she made herself. Like my mom said, this story is about all of my interests.
  • Posts on two sites: a column on We Heart Writing, where I’ll be contributing monthly, and an interview on Tara Swiger’s blog. I’ll link when they’re up.

Whew, I feel accomplished already. Or terrified.

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