1. It's helpful to have multiple writing projects to work on, so that when you are stuck on one, you can move to another, rather than continuing to spin your wheels. I was stuck on a poem for my summer collection yesterday and finally gave up and moved on to The Grove. But later in the day, I came back and made some progress on the same poem.

2. Setting up some physical routine helps you keep in a writing routine. This fall I'm going with: Walk on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Yoga on Tuesday. Massage Thursday. This week it was scrambled, but I got in something physical 3 of the 4 days and the writing has also been going well. Some work on summer poems, some work on The Grove.

3. The weather has a taste for what some (Alanis Morissette) might call irony. Summer vacation starts on a week in June that is cool and rainy, while the new school year opens during a spell of hot, humid weather. It happens so often, and this year is no exception.

4. In the world of the yearning to be published, agents are assuming the role of El Dorado formerly held by editors. It's perfectly understandable, with so many houses now closed to unsolicited submissions. But in each case I think we pre-published writers need to remember that while the writer-agent relationship is like looking for The Right One on both our parts, it's not so much like dating as it is like the business world. We pre-published are a small business with a product, one looking to go public, and we need an investor who gets what we are doing and will act in the best interest of that product, to both our profit. Not to dismiss the emotional aspect of the writer-agent relationship, but sometimes I think we (including me) get a bit hung up on it. 

All that's a pep talk, because I need to get back into the submissions process with SPIDER FINGERS. 

5. If we don't watch out, tomatoes will take over the world. Proof:

  This is what I picked yesterday afternoon, from a mere half-dozen plants, one of which is a cherry tomato. (The zucchini is in there because it was jealous--they're supposed to be the ones that take over the world.) That shot doesn't include the twenty or so tomatoes I still had in the house. 4 more quarts are now on the shelf for winter, and there's at least another quart in the fridge. Plus there were BLTs for supper last night, on some of the best bread ever, from Great Harvest bakery in Burlington. (If you're ever in the area, definitely try their loaves!).