I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels like this summer was a blur. How have we reached September already? In a bid to slow things down, I’ve begun engaging in some routine-breaking. This time of year, I try to savor the outdoors in particular, before it gets too cold again. Sitting or walking under some trees for a while really seems to clear the junk out of my brain.

Writing Updates

With 80,000 words in 15 chapters, my Book 3 draft has officially cracked into “novel-length” territory! I’m not sure exactly how much longer I’ll need, but I’m hoping around 1-2 more chapters and 15K words will do it. At that point, I’ll have a complete first draft. It’ll be a mess, but a complete mess! LOL. Once that happens, I’m gonna give it another pass, starting from Chapter One, to smooth things out as much as I can. I’ll also officially document the outline, character arcs, and other pertinent info that will aid my editor in her unenviable task of trying to make this thing as interesting and coherent as possible.

Current Goals

Well-rounded Latin practice. Still reading and practicing flashcards daily or nearly so. I recently stumbled across the work of Phaedrus, who translated Aesop’s fables into Latin poetry that I find much easier to read than, say, Horace (although I like Horace, sometimes I have to spend a whole afternoon to figure out three stanzas).

Being a good Stoic. The Stoics cautioned against chasing after fame and wealth, and here’s a good example of why. I don’t really need help there—I’m not much of a fame- or fortune-chaser—but I do need help with my chronic worry problem. I have a strong imagination (as you might guess), and it continually invents the worst what-if scenarios to torment me with. This is called fortune-telling and catastrophizing, and they are habitual cognitive distortions that I very much need to work on unlearning. Unexpectedly, I found some great advice about this in the last chapter of Gavin de Becker’s The Gift of Fear. The whole book is a must-read (you can find it for free here). The last chapter especially makes interesting distinctions between a real, involuntary, useful fear response versus manufactured, voluntary, useless worry. It also provides strategies for constructively dealing with worry. For instance, if my imagination insists on springing into action, why can’t I turn it around and use it for good? Why can’t I imagine positive what-if scenarios? People don’t often predict that something good will come from a mishap, but it happens all the time! If the matter is out of my control, and all I can do is wait and see what happens, then I’m better off assuming things will be fine, or even more than fine.

Here’s a nice bit of relevant Seneca: “I may become a poor man; I shall then be one among many. I may be exiled; I shall then regard myself as born in the place to which I shall be sent. They may put me in chains. What then? Am I free from bonds now? Behold this clogging burden of a body to which Nature has fettered me! ‘I shall die,’ you say. You mean to say, ‘I shall cease to run the risk of sickness. I shall cease to run the risk of imprisonment. I shall cease to run the risk of death.’”

Listening to German. Still haven’t gotten around to Dark yet (LOL) but I did get introduced to a show called Die Sendung mit der Maus, which is a kids’ show that has some good segments explaining how various technologies (like cell phones) work. I’ll keep looking for those segments on YouTube. There’s also a show called Wissen Macht Ah! that is supposed to be similarly good. Finally, I got some inadvertent German practice when my husband started playing a video game called 11-11: Memories Retold. You play alternately as characters on the Allied and German fronts of World War I. It’s quite compelling for how simple it is.

Civic Engagement. I’m set to volunteer with registering voters in September, and possibly October depending if they need me. I’ve also been sending quite a few emails and calls to my representatives regarding issues of concern, such as the shameful way asylum seekers are being treated. If you’re American, you should also contact your reps about the things that matter to you. Keep in mind that a phone call or an email that you composed yourself make more of an impression than simply using an automatic form letter provided to you by a website. And signing online petitions is just a waste of time!

Have a great month! I’ll check back in with you soon! :)