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Happy September!

Thank heavens August’s over! When September rolls around, it puts me in mind of Earth, Wind and Fire:

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It also makes me hopeful for cooler temperatures, since I have loathed every minute of the summer. One of my friends who was from the South Pacific and loved the heat liked to say, “Tropical fruits don’t like the cold.” My response? “Ice queens hate the heat.”

But enough about that. September means the fall semester is in full swing at the university where I teach, and so my Tuesdays don’t end until I roll back in the front door at home around nine fifteen at night. I do love teaching; it’s usually the highlight of my week, but this semester seems to be taking more out of me than I’m used to. I wonder if my age is finally catching up with me.

I’ve finally started working on my next writing project. It’s a queer holiday romcom about two strangers on a road trip from Kansas City to Colorado the week before Christmas. I haven’t figured out a title yet, but I have sort of sorted out my two main characters, Emmett and Greg. They don’t exactly hit it off from the get-go….

I’m still feeling my way through this one. I’ve got an outline, but I’m still looking for the right balance of funny and feelings, if that makes sense. Emmett’s a grumpy type (hopefully that came through in the above), and he has his reasons, but I’ll keep that to myself for now because

I’m also still working on some short stories. I have one ready to send out to a magazine — about a gay suburban couple contending with the damage to their garden wrought by a wayward armadillo — so fingers crossed that someone will like it. I’m revising two others and working on the first draft of one more.

There are times when I like having multiple projects in progress at once, because it gives me the chance to shift gears if I’m stalled on any one in particular. They also provide a helpful distraction from my less-than-fruitful search for an agent.

What I’m reading

Somewhat related to one of the stories I’m revising, I recently finished a fantastic story by Bethany C. Morrow in the recent issue of Fiyah literary magazine. “Moonrise” follows two friends who wake up one morning and find that the only people who woke up are Black women. Check out the issue of Fiyah with Bethany’s story here.

It inspired me to revisit a story I wrote several years ago, where the world ends and everyone vanishes while the main character is in the basement doing laundry after getting a text from his sort-of boyfriend that ends with we need to talk. And no conversation that starts like that ends well.

I’m also reading Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders, one of my favorite writers. It’s about a woman who teaches her mother magic to help her get through her grief, but I think (I’m only about thirty pages in) that it’s also going to be about a lot more than that.

Now that the teaching semester is in full swing, reading for my own enjoyment/interest is going to slow down, but I hope not to let it fall completely by the wayside. Writer David R. Slayton’s next book, Redneck Revenant, is coming out in October, and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on that. I’ll let you know how it’s going next month!