Happy 1st of July!

I know, I know. When I read the title of this post, I thought I had written '4th of July', as well. I'm too American. But we can celebrate the beginning of July, too, right? July is a lovely month -- kind of purple-y, and really hot, and June's afternoon thunderstorms start to head off.

Of course, it signals the beginning of our annual drought here in VA, but it's not really so bad as droughts go -- it barely affects me, actually. And anyways, I generally consider July to be the bulk of summers, because half of June is spent in school and August is when you prepare for next school year. So, really, July is my summer vacation.

Anyways...

In case you couldn't tell, I am REALLY excited today, guys. I finished the second draft of my novel, Wretched Roads. (I almost feel comfortable with sharing my title. Almost.) I feel a lot more comfortable with the plot now, but I'm going to leave it be for the entirety of this month. In the meantime, I'll write the first draft of its sequel. (Because I really want this to be a quartet, even though I haven't done so much as edit it myself, let alone something like peer-reading or querying agents. Not yet at least.)

I'm almost too excited to write. But I'm going to calm myself down with some music. Well, "calm" is relative... I'm listening to Blackmore's Night, which is a medieval-y Renaissance music group. ("Under a Violet Moon" sounds perfect for Halloween, but it's pretty freakin' awesome in July, as well.) Celtic Woman and Blackmore's Night and Heather Dale help me get back into that fantasy mood.

I'm reading Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell -- a verse novel about Native American sisters. Definitely a good read so far. (It's amazing what you find in a library as compared to a bookstore -- this book is from 2005, and I've never really seen it elsewhere, but I picked it randomly off a library shelf and couldn't resist reading. Real lovely novel.)

Now I almost feel like doing my AP Lit summer assignment, but it feels like it's too early in the summer. But I know I should, because it's a lot of work, and a lot of reading, and it probably won't even be nearly so bad as I think. After all, I can choose my own book to answer questions about plot and theme and character and so forth. (I'm thinking Sherlock Holmes or Gulliver's Travels. Or maybe even the Picture of Dorian Gray.)

How about you? How's your summer going? Have a blessed Monday (if such a thing exists)!