Busy. I was busy leading up to our vacation, and then crazy busy when I got back to work last week. People! I was only gone five working days!

But school is about to start at Major U (the quarter system means they’re calendar is all effed up, compared to everyone else’s). School already started at Alma Mater (Adjunct U?), so today was the day that I dedicated to getting caught up for that class. I’m still a student at Gotham U for another week or so, and can I just say? Thank Jebus that’s almost over, because it’s just one more thing I have to do. I’ve enjoyed it, but now it is time for it to be done.

That time, I have dog-eared for the writing I haven’t been doing.

Nothing like teaching a creative writing class for sucking all the desire to write right out of your bloodstream.

Reading: yes, I’ve done some.

44. The Creative Writer’s Survival Guide: Advice from an Unrepentant Novelist– John McNally
If you’re a writer and you’ve never ever ever read a book about writing and publishing before, there might be something in this one you’d like to read. But if you’re up on the industry and how hard it is to be a writer these days, you’re probably cool. Read his novel about writing, After the Workshop, instead. It’s funny, with the same basic theme: being a writer is hard.

45. The Order of the Odd-Fish-James Kennedy
Hi, James Kennedy and his Google Alert! I know you’ll be reading this, and that did give me a few moments of nerves when I started reading the book. What would I say if I didn’t like it? I did, thankfully, enjoy it. Whew. What a RELIEF.

It took me a while to get into it—people were weird for the sake of them being weird, etc., and then a giant bug walked in—I don’t tend to read books where giant bugs walk around. Unless you count giant Kafka bugs that can’t get out of bed. Which I also don’t read much of.

By the end of Odd-Fish, though, I was totally bought in. I like it when authors let bad things happen to their characters and then figure it out from there.

46. I’d Know You Anywhere– Laura Lippman
I found an Advanced Reader Copy at my local Half Price Books and was very excited. Finally got around to reading it just as it was widely released, so I finally knew what it was like to be able to talk about Lost or Grey’s Anatomy around the water cooler. Except no one else I knew had read it.

I had a little trouble with some of the protagonist’s motivations in this one. Apparently, that’s the point. I read someone else’s review, and that’s what they thought. I’m not sure. I have liked several other of her books.

In book-related news, I have my class reading the first chapter of Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places to talk about characterization. If Gillian Flynn has a Google Alert on her name, HI GILLIAN. I LOVE YOUR BOOK.