This. Is. Hot.

Bread, as weird metaphor of me.

Dallas, Texas.  I walk outside and I feel like a bun in the oven.  Not pregnant, no.

Really like a bun. Baking. In. An. Oven. Ugh, it's so hot. Our pool is like a giant cup of tepid tea.  The only way to enjoy it is to sit on the steps with the water hose turned on, perched right over my head.

Have I whined enough?  Because now I'm going to gloat: I'm ditching this hot popstand and heading to Michigan tomorrow.  Whoop!

This morning, I realized I hadn't written any posts for a while, and felt I really needed to post before I hit the road, Jack, and don't come back until I'm good and ready.  But I have been a good girl.  I have been writing.

Actually, when it occurs to me that I haven't posted in my blog for a while, that's a good sign that I'm being productive in the fiction world.  I'm in the middle of my next novel manuscript, a Young Adult novel, and I'm SO EXCITED.  I get all jittery inside when I'm sitting in front of the computer.  It does take a while to crank out the pages (they don't write themselves, you know), but a lot of the scenes are flowing pretty easily, and my Beta Reader keeps me up to speed: I send her a chapter every evening, and she is also SO EXCITED.  (Can you hear my voice getting all thrill-y and eager?)

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Back of the Book Reviews, who held a Read-a-Thon over the Independence weekend and a contest tied to my manuscript, I now have several characters named after real people. The names are perfect. Perfecto. Couldn't have imagined better names!

Is it bad luck to get so excited about a manuscript?  I don't care!  I feel like I'm nesting on this fantastic mysterious egg, and I can't wait to see it crack open.

I hope you all find a way to escape the heat that has descended on the U.S.  I'd invite you to our little cabin by the lake if I could.  Cheers!