July passed in a haze of stories. Seriously, a haze. I can’t even begin to tell you what most of them were about, and I’m still recovering from the onslaught so I haven’t gone back to look at any of them yet. I know there were food puns, destructive fairies, pop culture references, and about half of them will end up being much, much longer than they are at the moment.

I had a blast doing my first Write Like You’re Alive challenge and will definitely do it again next year. I managed 27 stories in July, which is not quite 31 in 31, but is enough to guarantee me a spot in the anthology that Zoetic Press puts together. Woot!

My other good news for July is that my story I was feeling down about in June was accepted by Speculative City! “Too Good, At Least” will appear sometime this month in their second issue. I’m thrilled that someone liked my weird little story enough to publish it!

Book-wise, I’m having a hard time even remembering what I read. That hazy July full of stories thing again. I know I discovered Bitch Planet, and that was a goddamn delight. Satire, feminism, poop jokes, the best advertising since Coke taught the world to sing… it’s so good. Check it out.

My to-read pile was also blessed with the fourth volume of Paper Girls, and while I still love it, this one felt like a lot of info-dumping to prepare us for the next one. Curious to see where that goes.

Finally, knitting:

I finished these socks! (They are not for me, as I’m sure you can tell by how they don’t fit my feet at all)

I am super pleased with how the self-striping came out, and that I was able to line them up pretty perfectly. Not bad at all. This month I have another pair of socks on the needles (because my husband always gets socks for his birthday and this pair was technically a late anniversary pair) and a shawl that I just started.

Because it’s August–everyone wants to wear a wool shawl right now.

Writing goals for August are to revise and submit at least three of the stories that I wrote in July, and possibly start plotting the novella that’s been kicking around my brain. I also need to begin lesson planning for this year’s (K)indred Experiment.

Maybe someday I’ll start that blog series that I’ve also been thinking about for ages.

How’s it coming with that more hours in a day thing, science?

Here’s some clouds from the other night with no filter to keep you company until the next post: