Tumbleweeding.

Sometimes I just don't like epigraphs. But I also don't wear jewelry, so what do I know. I've noticed an epigraph-y trend in some of the manuscripts I've read this year. As in: a lot of epigraphs. I have a brief description of Saint Monica (the original saint) in Saint Monica, but it's not an epigraph, it's more like a preliminary note. I used to wear jewelry, sometimes a lot of it. I'm not sure what happened. And I do believe at one point I had some epigraphs in a book manuscript, but then I took them out and renamed it Prairie Fever.

Is an epigraph more like a charm bracelet, or an epi-pen? Or maybe it's the opposite of an epi-pen. Yikes.

My paper clip bins are all teeming with paper clips of yesteryear, which means only one thing: I've cleaned my English department office because I'll be away from it for a while. In the next few weeks I'm making the transition to being home with the kids most of the time, with a few exceptions (Press work, etc), until August. So far I've been surprised by how busy I am, despite not teaching. My house is probably about 25% cleaner, too. I'd like to raise that percentage a little.

The sleeping...wow. Not having to wake up at 5:30 every morning? Awesome. However, I have noticed that by sleeping until 7:30, I somehow lose several hours of daytime. How is this possible? To compensate, I occasionally stay up until 1:00 am reading. Must discontinue that. Anyway, that's how things have been going so far this summer.

I am incredibly happy that Saint Monica is selling like a little hotcake. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has bought a copy. You RULE! The only other tidbit is that I have an interview up at Midwestern Gothic. Do you know about this journal? It's really cool. The first-ever litmag I've read as an e-book, too, which was scary for about 1/18th of a second, and then it was really, really awesome.

Okay, back to counting epigraphs, maybe writing some of my own.