Wrapping Up

Actually, a new school year just started last week, so really it's a new beginning, but it feels like the summer is wrapping up, and I'm attempting to condense the summer's experience into a short space here.

What to say? It was an odd duck of a summer. It was a delight to have a summer without teaching and to be able to devote so much time to the writing. I got to go on more trips and spend more time with the family than in past years, so that was fantastic.

I was reminded, though, in rereading some of No Plot? No Problem!, that Chris Baty suggests that what we really need is a "friendly but firm" deadline to make writing go. With too much time, we simply poke about at the writing and make a thousand excuses to do other things. And he was right. I never set myself anything more stringent than, "Get a novel written over the summer." I gave myself all kinds of leeway and outs so that I didn't have to commit deeply, afraid I would muff it if I set a date in stone. And, of course, because I didn't have that deadline, I whiled away my time. I did get quite a bit done, which is gratifying, but much still remains and I'm trying to figure out how to work the writing into my schedule every day, because gol durn it, I still want this to be my labor, my "tent making," my vocation. Slater continues his invaluable service as cheerleader and taskmaster (though he kind of slacked off by not making me stick to that deadline; give the guy some massive project of his own—like building his own house—and he just runs off and leaves you flat...), and perhaps I'll be trying to work out a definite series of deadlines with him (or anyone else on here willing to take up that onerous task). And NaNoWriMo starts up again in just a few months: I want to see some of you onboard this year.

Speaking of writing, I got through King's Everything's Eventual and am happy to report that much of it was good. Some of the writing still felt like the man was just paying the bills, but a few stories were very good (including a few non-horror outings, like one about gangsters in the 1930's)—and not only was there a story in the early style of The Gunslinger, but, by golly, there was actually a story about Roland himself! Hallelujah! Good stuff.

On a last note, I've got a ton of pictures from the various camping and hiking expeditions this summer. Were I a good person, I'd have downloaded them and put them up here as they happened—but I'm not, so I didn't. Instead, I picked one or two from each outing and I'll put them up now:

First, from my desert hike back in May:



This was the huge dropoff I was not expecting because there's no sign it's coming up until you stumble on the edge and just about fall off and kill yourself. Though I wouldn't have suspected it, there are some starkly beautiful views from out there.

Next up, the Great Journey up to Thousand Island Lake in the Sierras:







The first image is of Legolas and Gandalf just in front of Thousand Island lake itself, at about 10,500 feet. It was a gorgeous day, though they didn't join me in my swim in the lake itself. The others are just two of almost a hundred photos I took during the 20 or so miles and 3 days we were there. It was just so beautiful that it made my heart hurt. For those of you who still think I'm crazy to want to do the Pacific Crest Trail, does this at least give you some idea of why I want to do it?

A week or two later, we were up in Mammoth with the family. We were in the condo much of the time (much nicer than sleeping next to Legolas in the wee tent... though he was cuddly...), but we went out into the wilds quite often, including a nearly five-mile hike with the kiddos.





The first image is of the family in front of Devil's Postpile (Joanna was taking the picture and could not add her beauty thereunto); the second is of Rainbow Falls, the goal of the journey. A fine time with the fam.

Last but not least comes our most recent foray, up to Sequoia National Monument with some friends and their kids:







Picture one of this set shows one of several cabins set right among the sequoias themselves; I wanted to get one of the eponymous trees in a photo, but they were all to big to fit into a single image. Awe-inspiring stuff.

Picture two, hard as it may be to make out, is all six of the older kids and their catch on our fishing day. They were all worn out and we were about to give up when the Forest Service men came down to stock the stream we were on; once they tossed three buckets of stunned trout into our pool, every kid caught at least one fish (as did Joanna, her first!). It was fantastic, though we've decided we can never go fishing again because we'll never have that kind of success.

Picture three is of our warrior princess, Born Dancin', who looked this way every second from the moment she woke until she got a bath and was carried into her sleeping bag for the night. The kid loves dirt, and there was not a thing we could do to stop her. She'll be my hiking buddy one day.

(I have, at a conservative estimate, a bazillion more photos of these events, should anyone be interested.)

To finish up, a couple of photos of our trip to Legoland for the boys' sixth birthday. (It wasn't camping, I know, but it was an epic journey, and I was just about as worn out at the end as I was after three days of Sierra hiking.) The first is another of Born Dancin', who may be the cutest child of any kind ever, and the second is of the three men of our family, doing what we do best: goofing off. Enjoy.