Wet Hot Canadian Summer

Well, we're in the middle of July now. Forest fires are raging in northern Ontario (though the smoke has passed by Ottawa for the most part) and we've had some nasty heatwaves with some mid-30s highs. Fortunately, it's looking like we'll be seeing 25C and below for the rest of the month. We had a crazy Canada Day here, with a brutal storm dropping 5 inches of rain and causing major flooding, and naturally a cancellation of celebration events and fireworks. Here's a fun sample of the storm from the safety of my apartment:

For writing stuff, I've banged out a new fantasy story, my longest yet at 6200 words. The plan is to include this one in a "Fellowship of the Indie Author" anthology, which will likely be published this fall. No release date established yet; the contributors are still in the sharing and editing process.

I wrote another flash piece for a monthly forum contest, and was pleased to have the judges award me first place. They also gave me some useful feedback that I'll use to expand the piece before I try selling it. I'd recently placed second and third a couple of times in this contest, but it was nice to get a gold medal after more than a year since the last one.

I've been submitting my newer stories to magazines this month, though I haven't sold anything just yet. I did get a long, personalized rejection, which is always a nice boost to a writer's confidence. Speaking of which, I received a very solid review last week for Chester and the Sex Robot vs the Woke Mind Virus:

You simply love to see it. Plenty of folks are enjoying this book and the commentary is resonating with them! It's a great feeling knowing that readers are being entertained and are appreciating the satire and messaging.

As for personal stuff, the new job is still going great as I finish my 6th week. It's always a little scary getting into something new, and some of the more complex cases I've been assigned had me feeling a bit anxious, but I'm still confident that I'll be successful in this position and will have plenty of opportunities to grow.

Old Queen Mittens has had an excellent July, eating and drinking plenty, and seems quite content despite her hips limiting her mobility. She's been active and engaged, and always starts purring when I pick her up. Hoping she'll be around for a good long while yet.

​Thanks for reading, pals. See you next month !