The spouse and I spent a good chunk of August on the road, visiting friends in Atlanta and family in Florida. We stayed as safe as possible (even if we were the only ones wearing a mask in many, many gas stations), but had to treat ourselves to a trip to Kennedy Space Center while we were in the area. We are both space nerds, so this is the type of awesome we enjoy together. Now, I only have to visit Los Angeles, and I’ll have seen every space shuttle!

The rest of the month was spent on the usual rounds of working, writing, and reading. I’m already counting down to my next trip (another visit to Atlanta for a lake house weekend with friends), especially since I also made the sad decision to cancel my trip to FanX Salt Lake in September (too many flights, too many people, too many pandemic variants).


August Wrap-Up

  • Once again, I had all sorts of writing goals that I absolutely did not meet for making progress on Steel Legacy. A bit of a mental recalibration of how I approached this project was necessary.
  • I survived the solo road trip stretches thanks to an excellent audiobook and plenty of coffee.
  • The guest room has been expanded with more LEGO storage, but I haven’t built my Steel Justice publication celebration set yet…mostly because I spent too much money on awesome stands for my ships that I’m waiting to arrive first.

September Goals

  1. I had to stop thinking about Steel Legacy as the finale to a series because the self-imposed need to “measure up” was a huge mental block that kept me from writing. Now, I’ve acknowledged that this will not be the last time I visit this universe, even if this book will conclude the current storyline. To emphasize that final push, and because I’m no longer traveling this month, I’ve set myself the goal of 50,000 words or bust by September 30 (unless I finish the book first). I already met my word count goal for September 1, and you can follow my daily updates on Twitter to cheer me on!
  2. You think I’m going to do anything other than write this month? That’s adorable.

In Case You Missed It

Book Reviews


My mother-in-law’s cat Denali visited us for a week. My three were not impressed by the way he made himself at home.

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