In July I…

• Celebrated my twenty-eighth anniversary.
• Critiqued two picture books and one chapter book.

• Read through The Burning Season a couple of times in preparation for edits. This ended up being a 21+ hour endeavor that showed me a lot of areas where the manuscript is lacking. I tossed and rewrote sections fully knowing they might end up gone in some future version. But writing is always a learning experience and no effort is ever wasted.

• Made Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake, which was very tasty but a little dry. (If I make it again, I’ll soak the coconut in water first.)
• Thinned the apple trees (probably later than I should have, but apple trees are new to me).

• Chased deer from my backyard dozens of times. (They’re fond of the apple trees. Above is one of the crew heading to my backyard.)
• Played plenty of Scrabble.
• Watched plenty of Yellowstone.
• Sent Song of the Raven to my critique partners. Cut out the aimless “to-ing and fro-ing” and the cogitating that slowed the last third down. Sent it on to my agent — fingers crossed!

• Made a compost bin out of a storage tub.
• Covered my garden after discovering eggplants and tomatoes missing.

• Spotted this dastardly thief.
• Read some books like John Adams and The Five Impossible Tasks of Eden Smith (more on both at a later date).
• Weathered the weather, like the rest of you!