Dear Alice,

So I did a reading with the other winners from the writing contest I finaled in. I was the youngest person there by a good 15 years. Other than the poetry everyone else read MUCH too long. We were suppose to keep it to no more than 8 minutes but I'm sure some were closer to 15 as I zoned out on most of them. I am amazed I even placed in this contest as so much of what won was terrible. I have no idea what they were looking for but apparently it was heavy, depressing stuff. The memoirs weren't bad but the essays and fiction were awful. On the other hand, I see this stuff populating the bookstore and library which may be why I've been sticking with Janet Evanovich lately. Even the other children's story was a global warming rip-off of The Night Before Christmas. I read half of mine and left them wanting more. I thought that not only would I keep them from being bored but maybe sell a few of the anthologies as well. Turns out, those have already sold out. I suppose that's a good thing, but I wish there were more floating around out there in the hopes than an agent or someone would have a good chance of stumbling across it and look me up. Sigh. I've still got one more reading scheduled but at least I know what to expect and can zone out from the beginning.

On the writing front, I've still been procrastinating my current WIP. I've got a few more scenes blocked out. I figured out Angela's playlist and have been listening to it which has helped tons. I'd probably be writing more if I didn't have Epic Mickey to distract me. And my thriller class 3rd project that keeps creeping into my thoughts when I'm doing things like taking a shower. I seem to do a lot of blocking in there for some reason. Then I have to jump out and write down what I'm thinking about before it slips away. I've decided that procrastination isn't all that bad as it took me years to write my first two completed works. But I'd feel guilty spending all that money on New York and then not have anything to show my husband for it.

I'm going to continue to procrastinate tonight, even though I'm the only one home, and do something more constructive - like finally watch Vanity Fair (I bought it about nine months ago and it still has the wrapper on it). Nah. I'm off to fight Splatters on Skull Island. What can I say? I'm addicted.