suddenly, summer

The trees outside my office window are in full leaf seemingly overnight, the air is warm when I wake up at 6am, and the cats are shedding all over the place.

Yeah, it's summer. I'll be over in the shady corner, feeling overheated and grumpy.

Riding, Week 8, and sundry other things a writer does.

Excitement today: installing the new a/c unit. Woo.

But yay, there was also riding. Carrying forward from last week, this lesson was all about sinking me deeper into the saddle, and thereby having a better seat. So... started with longer stirrups, and ended with no stirrups, forcing me to work more on my lower-body balance. On the plus side, when left alone my hands and shoulders seem to be doing the right things. Still working on trot-canter-trot-walk transitions, over and over until muscles aren't relying on the brain to tell them what to do. Owww. But we're seeing progress, so it's aches in a good way.

The trick is, as always, keeping the hands steady, the body centered and back, and the legs on, while also keeping the horse engaged and thinking forward. Neat trick, that. Soon as I get it right I'll let you know.

Meanwhile, am taking a break between novella and going back to the novel to work on a short story that's been thumbing its nose at me for far too long. I will beat it into submission. Maybe.

( a sampling )

And when that is done, 100% back into HARD MAGIC and downward toward deadline...