Time still feels like it’s flying, but I’ve been filling that time in good ways, so I can’t complain. Also, no major health issues this year, which is a big improvement over last. A lot of time and money has been going into our house lately. It’s been worthwhile so far!

Writing Updates

October was a good, productive month. I finished drafting the last couple of chapters, and now I’m giving the draft of Book 3 one final pass before submitting to my editor, also compiling notes about characters, plot, etc. as I go. Currently, the Book 3 draft is 94K words spread over 17 chapters. I managed to review 40K words so far, which leaves 54K that I hope to finish over November and December. It will be slower going from here out, though: the front half of the draft was already more polished than the back half, so I anticipate needing to do more and more rewrites the deeper I get. The work needs to be done, though, and the end result is always better than what I start with.

Current Goals

Well-rounded Latin practice. Still at it, trying to read and listen and speak whenever there are opportunities. If nothing else, I’ll read out loud to my cat sometimes! LOL

Being a good Stoic. This is the time of year when it gets harder and harder for me to go outside, owing to the cold. That then adds an extra layer of difficulty to everything I want to do away from home. The Stoic solution is to keep exposing myself to the discomfort as much as possible. I’ve long relied on copious layering to deal with winter, but you know what really helped me adjust to the cold last year? Applying ice-packs to myself post-surgery! (Holy shit, it’s been a year since surgery.) It almost makes me want to hug bags of frozen peas again … almost.

Listening to German. I’ve been dropping the ball on German practice lately, I’m sorry to say. I think that means I need to change my approach. There’s a group that meets to speak German twice a month at a library nearby; I may go drop in on them and see how that works out.

Civic Engagement. Fellow Americans: if there’s an election in your state this month, PLEASE GO VOTE. You can look up candidates and issues on your ballot at vote411.org.

Take care and see you next month! :)