.

I have been absent from most online activities because I took a week and a half off from my day job and just used the time to do mostly nothing. I wrote nothing. The past weekend was the Southern California Writers Conference here in San Diego and I did attend that for the first time since the damnable pandemic. Because I was and still to some degree was inflicted with a barking hacking cough, I did not stay late into the morning hours taking part in the rouge read-and-critique session, something I truly adore, but I still had a good time and enjoyed myself.

Thursday, amid threats of rain, my sweetie-wife took the day off to share with me and we did our usual Sunday Trip to the zoo on that morning. Then a second on Monday, President’s day. Both days saw pretty high attendance.

Feedback from my WIP, The Wolves of Wallace Point, have been trickling in and, so far, nothing is indicating that I should kill the book. Soon query letters will be heading out to prospective agents. My next project combined the structure of a 70s disaster movie with a story filled with ghosts. I actually started that one but now realized it’s on the wrong first foot and I need to rethink a bit.

I had hoped to go out and see a few films during the at home vacation, but the persistent cough made that a non-starter as I refuse to be that inconsiderate to my fellow cinephiles.

My vacation ended yesterday with a trip to the dentist for the next steps in the long procedure of getting some implants to replace a couple of teeth. I was in the chair for about 2 hours, and I am ever thankful for both the skill and consideration of the team as well as for the podcasts that kept me from losing my mind to boredom.