Monday Morning Reset [05/15].

I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day! I’m not a mother (yet), but I certainly have an appreciation for all the strong women who have been there for me as I grew up, and supported me as I continue to do so, especially my mother, my grandmothers, my stepmother, and my aunts. They’re all crazy ladies whom I’ve been very luck to know! Me, I spent the majority of the day with a terrible head cold and having to forge through a really boring shift at work. I’m not good with holidays, they tend to give me anxiety, so part of me is usually just glad that we’re back to it being just another old Monday.

Mondays are also my reset days, which always makes me a feel a little better, to sort of look at what I’ve done through the week and get started on some new things for next week. Let’s have a look:

Reading: I finished up The Throne of Tara by John Desjarlais, an old book from a local author that I found in a Goodwill. It was a really interesting idea, taking an old Celtic figure and attempting a juxtaposition between the old pagan world and the new Christian one. It started out strongly with a good balance of that line, but, as Colum’s life progressed, it just kind of got dry and dull and lost touch with its beginning, I felt. I also had some major issues with the handling of female characters in the book, but that’s something to be saved for a dedicated post. Either way, I’m clearing through a good chuck of the unfinished books from last year (only three more left!).

This morning, I picked up Sir Walter Scott‘s Ivanhoe for a reread. It’s one of my dad’s favorites, and I’ve only read it once, so I figured it would be a good one to revisit.

In case you missed it, we’ve got May’s Featured Story, “The Scrimshawed Ostrich Egg,” all posted for your reading pleasure, and an interview with author Robert Allen Lupton will be landing sometime this week!

Writing: Still searching for that Fearless notebook, but, to be fair, I haven’t really had time to do an extensive search. Wednesday is my next day off, so I plan to do a proper scouring of the notebooks. Also, I think I might go back to trying to finish a story every week, because I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve completed something new, the Fearless draft excepted. I did only receive one rejection this week, though, putting me at 51, and I found the file for an old story I thought I’d lost that I brushed up and sent out into the ether.

The latest edition of Pulp Modern, which includes my story, “The Lady of the Masks,” also hit the Amazon shelves this week. They’re dong a special promotion for the first 25 people who review it on Amazon, too, so if you get a chance to pick up a copy and devour it, I know the publishers will really appreciate some kind words and stars.

‘Rithmatic: I managed to get in an art day last Thursday, where I go and just hang out at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of my favorite places in the world, to get all inspired and stuff. It was such a beautiful day, though, that I ended up leaving after a few hours to walk around Millenium Park, the new Maggie Daley park, over to Buckingham Fountain and then to the Museum Campus, where the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium are located. It was great, and, really, it doesn’t take that long to hit up all those spots. That, plus wandering the Art Institute, got me nearly 10 miles of walking in. I was feeling it the next day, but I felt awesome.

They’ve finally hired on another person for our department at work, too, which means that I might finally start getting my part-time hours back, which means finally more time to write! They realized how necessary it was the moment me and the other should-be-part-time-stuck-working-full-time employee asked for the same weekend off. That’s hard to manage when you’ve only got three people, ya’know?

Other than that, though, nothing left to report. Fandom High is distracting me nicely and getting me creatively energized, and I’m really looking forward to a Sunday off later this week. How’s everyone else’s week treating them? I’m hoping for plenty more of this great weather and getting a lot of stuff done, but I’m always hoping for the latter.