Still kicking

I am still here, though I got busy with lots of stuff and have neglected my poor LJ.In writing news, the novel rewrite is coming along, but slowly. I have done some editing of a few old stories and think if I can just make myself stick to it I should have some things ready to submit soon.Since leaving Odyssey, I have:- done rewrites of two chapters of The Willow Maiden and written lots of notes/brainstormed about how to go from here. The rewrite of chapter 1 has been critiqued by my novel group and I need to retweak a few things based on that.- read one of the revised chapters at Mythcon in August- researched and written a draft of a short story dealing with Dryads that I'm afraid sounds more like the first chapter of a novel unless I can figure out some other place to go with it. Right now it is called "The Dreaming Tree."- revised my short short "The True Story of How I Became Real" and think I am about a sentence or two away from submitting it to the places that may take something short and surreal.- revised an old story of mine called "Suicide Notes" and had it critiqued by my novel group. With another rewrite I think it will be ready to submit somewhere, but it is a non-genre story so I have to do some research. A teaser line for the story might read like this:Ernest Johnson couldn't figure out what to do with himself after he retired. Can planning your suicide and then convincing yourself out of it count as a hobby?In other news, Stephan and I just got back from a belated 10th wedding anniversary trip to Jamaica. I faithfully wrote in my journal for at least a half hour a day about the trip, and if I get around to it, I may post some of that here. For now let it suffice to say that we had a fabulous time and can't wait to go back!