Monday Morning Reset [09/04].

It appears that it’ll be a chilly Labor Day out here by Chicago, which is fine by me, as I’ll be working today, anyway (gotta get that sweet, sweet holiday pay). Yesterday was gorgeous, though, the perfect day to finally make it out to one of my favorite places ever, the Bristol Renaissance Faire, right before it closes for the year. Every year, I keep telling myself I’d love to spend a summer working there. Last year, I actually checked it out, and, man, the application and audition process sounds exhausting. One of these years, though, maybe. For now, I think I’ve got more than enough on my plate!

In fact, holiday or not, it’s still Monday, so let’s have a look on exactly what it is on said plate:

Reading: I finally added another book to the “finished” pile, having slogged my way through the more dry and technical parts of The Pointe Book, which was a bit of a trip down memory lane to my dancer days, even if the book is probably not a strong recommendation for more recreational reading. Finishing up The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu will likely be the next one tackled; it’s been such a swift and fascinating and inspiring read! And this week, I cracked open Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt, a story of AIDS and loss in the 1980s with a wonderful title and a very pretty cover. It’s beautiful so far, so I’m really excited to see where it leads me.

Writing: I’ve finally gotten my focus together to start digging into submissions for this year’s World Unknown Review; I’m about 60 submissions away from beating last year’s numbers, so I really have to hit the streets and start spreading the word if I want to get to the same level. Even if it creates more work for myself, I always feel more accomplished if I snag more submissions than the year before! So please spread the word if you can as well. The more people I’m able to reach, the more diverse the review can be! Deadline is October 31st, so there’s still plenty of time!

I’m plugging away at transcribing “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Misplace.” I’ve had a bit of a crisis as my Microsoft Office subscription ran out and I don’t feel like renewing it (that’s $60 better spent paying my WUR authors!), but a lot of people on Facebook suggested good old Google Docs, and it’s been working very well, I think. One less thing to worry about! I started up a new story for a potential submission into Zimbell House‘s upcoming “Second Chances” anthology about angels, and I’m digging it so far. I’m really try to be better about finishing one story a week, but it never works out the way I hope. Today’s day one and I’m already three pages in, though, so that’s a good sign.

All quiet on the submission front, so I’m sitting at my 8 acceptances and 81 rejections for the year. I’m trying to be better about contacting publishers I haven’t heard back from in a while to do a bit of housekeeping, and I know there’s a few I should be hearing back from soon (fingers crossed!). I also noticed that Less Than Three Press (whose website I have not been stalking, shut up!) has started accepting pre orders for To the Victor, their tournament anthology that includes my short story “Pipsqueak,” to be released on November 15th! Finally! So that definitely puts a little pep in my writerly step. November 15th still seems so far away, though!

‘Rithmatic: I got my first schedule for next week, my first week as the new coffee supervisor and buyer at work, a nice, hefty 46-hour work spread over six days (meaning I’ll have just one day off). That’s going to be quite the jump from the 29-hour, four-day week I have this week, so I plan to fully enjoy it as best I can before the chaos hits. Just gotta keep that eye on that pay raise! Especially with apartment hunting looming on the horizon. Our lease isn’t out until December here, so we don’t really want to start looking until October, because even with the pay raises that both my boyfriend and I are getting now, juggling two apartments for more than a month or two would just be gross and stressful. But we’re anxious and excited. New jobs, new apartment, new perspective on everything. We’re just so ready for it, but we must be patient. Good thing I’ll probably be so busy next week that I won’t have time to be impatient!

And, hopefully, wherever we end up, we won’t have a downstairs neighbor like the one we have now, who is blasting very loud rap music to invade into my previously peaceful and quiet morning!

Happy reading!