What I Did on Summer Vacation

I'm back to work.

It's been a long, strange summer. I haven't had one like this since I was still in my teens (maybe early twenties -- those summers in college have a way of being a big blur nearly twenty years after the fact).

I managed to get quite a bit done -- edited the Impossibly Funky book trailer, did a lot of proof-reading/correcting for the follow-up book, wrote an article that will hopefully make it into the next Paracinema magazine, wrote a piece that I submitted to the BOOKGASM Bigfoot Anthology, wrote another that I'm going to play around with, and more.

I also joined a gym and have been working out like a fiend. I've tried to work out twice a day most days (since I knew I couldn't when I went back to work) and only missed one day over the ten weeks I was out. I haven't lost a ton of weight but I've definitely gotten a lot more energy out of the deal.

Of course, I did a lot of reading. I've been working my way through a lot of the nominees and winners of the Hugo and Nebula awards. Along the way I had to take the occasional break to read something a little more current like Mike Faloon's Hanging Gardens of Split Rock and Wred Fright's Pornographic Flabbergasted Emus. On my phone this summer I listened to three of William Shatner's autobiographies, So Far, Star Trek Memories and Star Trek Movie Memories. I tried to give Leonard Nimoy the time of day by listening to I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock but, truthfully, he doesn't hold a candle to Shatner (at least Shatner never wasted pages having imaginary conversations with TJ Hooker and Captain Kirk).

The best part of the summer had to be spending so much time with my wife and kids. Just about every afternoon the kids would follow me outside and keep me company while I wrote, swam, sunned, or gardened. Before my time off we'd still crate Cady during the day so she took to this new found freedom with gusto. She and Nova also proved to be quite the good swimmers.

But now the time has come to put away childish things and get back to work.