Summer

Hello from summerland! The girls have started swimming lessons and are loving it. Tuesdays they clean the pool so there are no lessons, so we went to the beach. PMB had a nice time until the water touched his feet, and then he cried and I had to cart him off to the sand. But it was okay, because he likes to sit on my lap, too. We saw half a dozen dolphins and a sea lion! It was nice. Tomorrow we're making Indian food for our cooking turn, and in a week DH will be done done done with his book. Yay! (Well, unless there are copyedits--but the hardest part will be done.)

Still looking for housing. I'm wondering if my e-mail is cursed? I've inquired about a variety of houses off of Craigslist, property management places, etc., and gotten not a single reply. Hopefully more things come up soon and we can find something good. Or something, at least!

The library here is sadly underfunded when it comes to acquisitions, but they do have a different collection than other libraries I've been to, so there are still new books to read. I'm looking forward to the one I have up next (it's originally Dutch and I'm pretty sure I saw it in Germany), but I'm frustrated by the one I stayed up to read last night. Interesting premise, major publisher and agent, all tell and no show. I don't have this reaction very often, but I'm sad because I can think of numerous excellent books I've read that are as yet unpublished that were simply better, craftwise. I'm not saying it shouldn't have been published, but if that was, why not all these others? 

Overall, the break between driving is restful, but I'm restless about writing. I find I'm really influenced by setting, and since southern California is so very different from Idaho, I know as soon as I get settled into something here, I'm going to have a radical change of setting, and it's going to throw things off. The book I have been wrestling with has more of a midwestern setting, so it's going to take extra concentration to work on it wherever I am.

PMB is asleep! Shh...