I'm considering giving up my writing metrics posts, as I don't seem to be doing much writing that isn't a legal brief or opinion letter. I'm stubborn, though, and I still want to develop that habit, and I still have things to say, so I think I'll at least take it through the end of the year and see what happens. And today I'll submit my essay, "The Summer Nixon Resigned" to a second potential publisher (it got kicked by the first place I submitted it to, and has been sitting around gathering dust since -- a violation of one of the first rules of writing for publication!). I need a kick in the butt to get some real writing done.

I wrote 725 words last Sunday, so at least I met my 250 word/day requirement once this week.

I've been reading more than usual, which means I've been working less than I should be. I read the September/October issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which will be the subject of tomorrow's Magazine Monday column over at Fantasy Literature. I tore through Duane Swierczynski's Hell and Gone, the sequel to Fun and Games, and found it outlandish but still quite a ride. I read about half of Vincent McCaffrey's Hound, a mystery in which the "hound" is a bookhound, a buyer and seller of secondhand books -- the book lore is such great fun, and I've always enjoyed books set in this sort of world. I've also started Cemetery Girl by David Bell, and am working on figuring out why it seems so compelling, as the main character is not someone I'm really interested in getting to know -- yet here I am, working my way through his mind. Sitting at the Sacramento Book Fair yesterday waiting for my husband to finish his browsing (having already finished mine), I started reading one of my purchases, Last Exit for the Lost, a collection of short stories that promises plenty of thrills. And I'm still working on Storm Front, the first of the Dresden Files urban fantasies by Jim Butcher.

Bit and pieces of other books also adhered to my eyeballs for small bits of time this week. Quite a number of new books have come into the house over the past couple of weeks, and I'm really chomping at the bit for some serious reading time. Fortunately, before long I'll have a few days in Hawaii (on Kauai) to spend lounging in the sun and reading. Hooray!