It may be summer break for most people, but I’ve never felt so close to my school days as I have during the past few weeks, preparing for my upcoming Latin seminar. There are several readings from Ovid, Cicero, etc. that will be discussed, so I’ve had to spend hours each day on those, because I’m still at a stage where I’m looking up tons of words and frowning over each sentence to decode its meaning. It doesn’t help that Latin allows you to arrange the words in a sentence in whatever order you like, or that Cicero was the Latin equivalent of Yoda in this regard. (The liberties of the Republic, preserve you must!) English translations are only sometimes available for these things! I think it’ll be quite some time yet before I’m reading non-textbook Latin with ease, let alone speaking it.

Did I mention I need to speak Latin for six days straight?

While part of me is excited, of course part of me is freaked out. Traveling alone, not knowing the place I’m going or anyone who’ll be there, having an unknown roommate, and having to rely on weak skills in a language that doesn’t even natively have words like “coffee” or “car.” (Multiple people have made up words for modern things; I’m not sure yet whose are more generally accepted.) It’s times like these that I have to Feel the Fear … And Do It Anyway, like the Susan Jeffers’ book of the same name. While not all of her suggestions may work for you or for me (like repeating affirmations in front of a mirror), overall I recommend reading it if your anxiety has ever hindered you from leaving your comfort zone and becoming a better person.

Writing Updates

I’ve had some success this month playing with new ideas and implications that should make for a more interesting last-third-or-so of Book 3. I had to go back and do some rewriting to facilitate those changes, which my word count doesn’t reflect, but I’ve ended up with some stronger scenes as a result. As I won’t be writing during the seminar, that should give me more time to chew on ideas, if only in my subconscious. The Book 3 draft is up to 14 chapters, 66K words; I’d like to finish around 90-100K.

Current Goals

Well-rounded Latin practice. LMAO Latin has been tōta vīta mea lately. Can we talk about something else? ;)

Being a good Stoic. I’ve been breaking out all of my anxiety-reduction tricks lately. I do lots of planning, contingency planning, and familiarization with where I’m going (looking at places in Google Maps, for instance) in hopes of making travel less scary. Any time my imagination fires up on the side of evil—“Hey, what if this [super horrible and unlikely thing] happens?!”—I try to switch it back to the side of good by brainstorming about my writing, or thinking about Skyrim, or something like that. Just yesterday, I found this wonderful example of someone else turning their imagination around from foe to friend. This changing of perspective, being in control of how we view and respond to a given situation, is a key component of Stoicism!

Listening to German. When I don’t have so much Latin on my plate, my husband and I will begin watching a German sci-fi series called Dark. We’ll have the German audio on with English subtitles. I look forward to spending more time with my strongest foreign language!

Travel? After the seminar, I’ll devote some time to figuring out whatever our next adventure should be. I like the idea of traveling near my birthday, since February is an off-season in so many places. We’ll see!

I hope summer is treating you well! Stay cool and best wishes!