morning after the summer solstice

Two years ago, I began a new career teaching at a public high school arts academy. I enjoy my job very much; however, as many can attest, teaching, especially English Lit and Creative Writing, especially these days, especially for a newbie, takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. And while I have a Master's Degree in English, I am not (yet; working on it) certified to teach in public school. All this to say that I haven't had time or energy to write for quite a while.

Until now. I'm on summer break. I need to work on the novel I began several years ago. So what do I do? Start a blog. Join GoodReads. Iron all the clothes that have been hanging in the guest room for months. Make a year's worth of doctors and dentist appointments. Read. For pleasure!

Yes, in case you missed the tagline above, I am a procrastinator. Or do I have writer's block? But what is writer's block? Does it even exist?

An interesting new book on the subject explores the neurology of the urge to write--or not: Midnight Madness by Alice Weaver Flaherty. I haven't read it, so I'm not plugging it per se, but this stuff fascinates me.

So, anyway (did someone say ADD?), for today's photos I present my cats, Zoe (left) and Lola (right), aka, Zee-cat and Little:


And here's my insane-but-sweet-natured dog, Lucy: