On the Horizon
Currently reading:
King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
New Orleans Noir: The Classics, edited by Julie Smith
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas
Books finished this week: 1
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: Pre-ordered from Kew & Willow!
Why this book: For better or for worse, I will continue to read Megan Abbott.
Thoughts: The good news is, I enjoyed this one far more than Beware the Woman. I hovered between three and four stars, so this probably actually sits around a 3.25 or 3.5. I was talking to a friend (hi, Sabrina!) and explaining what I like about Abbott: her expiration of girlhood, womanhood, sisterhood, the spaces where women come together and how secrets warp those spaces. There’s plenty of that in El Dorado——and also murder, which is always fun!——but there was also a lot of repetitive prose. Though I can imagine people in a sticky situation would think in circles, that doesn’t necessarily mean we need to see that on the page. I also didn’t totally love the finale.
Library updates:
Not too much to report this week, on the reading, writing, or personal fronts. (Though is there perhaps news on the horizon? You’ll have to wait and see . . . ) I started working on a new short story, and I hope to dig into edits on the two stories I brought to my workshop in May and June. I missed my goal of submitting one story for consideration last month, but am also hoping to get back on track with that this month.
My other two goals for the month are to 1) finish edits on the Amp hard copy and incorporate any new changes into the digital version, and 2) start . . . querying?? I started my literary agent research in earnest a couple weeks back and have a good starting list of folks to email, though I do also want to expand the list, to make sure I cast a wide enough net to find the right person for me. I’m not super nervous about all of that yet, though I know when the day comes later this month to actually start hitting send on emails, I’ll be a puddle of goo.
Anyway! I also realized this week that I haven’t been to a bookstore in a while, and that’s sad! I need to change that. Add that to the list of goals.
Closing thoughts:
Go to a bookstore and buy a new book to read outside.
