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Fall writing update

 It's been about three months since my last update post, and I feel like so much has happened. In terms of reading, I don't have anything new to share -- in July I re-read Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, and cried over it a lot more than I usually do at the positive, supportive models of friendship -- Neal, Clean, Lalasa, Owen!! Why have I never really noticed Owen before? 

Anyway, after finishing those I went into a bit of a reading slump. My grandma lent me a 21-book romance series that I hate-read (ask me my opinions on how conservative-propaganda small-town romances actually link back to socialism). In all, I read a ton but nothing that I want to write about here. 

Since June, I got halfway into revisions of my Brigadoon-inspired WIP before losing steam. For a couple weeks, writing felt like pulling teeth, and I wasn't happy with any of the results. Because of that, I switched back to my monster-girl WIP. I did a 3-week cut pass and am feeling pretty positive about it, especially after feedback from my (!) new critique group. 

That's right, this summer I was invited to join a fantasy-writer critique group, and I am over the moon about it. I feel so lucky to have fallen in with such a supportive group of humans -- and through that group I also had an opportunity to join a second critique group, which means even more friends, and more opportunity to learn from people with much more experience than I have. Every time I think about how wonderful the two groups are I just want to push myself through the internet and throw hugs at them all. 

Then, at the beginning of this month I started a new WIP as part of #20kin5days. I didn't quite make the goal (thanks asthma) but I did write 19,000 words in 5 days. My goal is to push through to the end of my outline by the pitchwars deadline. I'm not going to submit this, of course (I'm submitting my monster-girls) but I want to finish this fast, and a week from now is about as fast as I can go right now. 

And after that, we'll see -- I'm hoping I can dredge up some enthusiasm for continuing to rewrite my Brigadoon-WIP. If not, I can always jump right into editing the draft I'm working on now! I'm also aiming to spend some time focusing on reading more fantasy over the next couple months. 

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