Hooray! Fall Break!

Whew, has it been nine weeks of school already?  On the one hand, it seems like I’ve been back to school forever.  On the other hand, it’s like I’m still getting back up to speed from summer.  Either way, nine weeks (closer to eight, technically, but it’s the first quarter) are in the books and I’ve got a week of no school!

I’ve already started my celebration of freedom by reading, commenting on, and voting for the stories in the Codex Halloween Short Story Contest.  There were 23 entries which gave me 22 to read (plus my own entry).  Time consuming.  I expected it to take me into next week, but I am finished.  I voted earlier this weekend and delayed this post a bit to avoid tipping my hand as to my identity since the contest is conducted blind.  Not that anyone is lining up to guess my identity.  I’m still fairly anonymous there.  My name is known and people engage me in discussions, but my style isn’t easily recognized.  Maybe my style just isn’t that defined?  Ah, who cares.

There are some very talented writers at Codex — award-winning types as well as those getting published regularly and those (not unlike me) who are still refining their talent into something that can be dubbed “success”.  It was tough to narrow the voting to the top 3.  That makes it extra nice to see that my story did indeed get some top-three votes.  It’s not about winning (since I don’t see that happening) but about creating a product that is viewed with pleasure.  I reached some readers and that’s something.  Now to distill the comments down into something usable so I can reach some editors.

Beyond the Codex bit, I hope to get some new writing done during my week of freedom.  To do so, I’ll have to squeeze it into a family trip to the mountains.  Don’t get me wrong, I love family trips to the mountains.  Fresh air, a nice cabin, food, Dollywood, a little hiking, food, possible bear sightings, beautiful scenery, and food.  What’s not to love?  But I want to get a barrel full of new words written and I may well be looking at a bucket-full of time.  I really want to get my fairytale rewrite written (rewritten?) and I’d also like to get some momentum on my novel project…heck, any novel project.

So my week off is a week on for writing.  Plus I have a small mountain (more a large hill) of papers to grade and a lesson plan to rewrite for personal edification.  And all the family bonding stuff.  And I think I wanted to squeeze some eating in there.

Nothing like a little down time.  :^)