Was way early for the bus this morning, so I read two chapters in Caitlin Kiernan's new novel Low Red Moon before class. (It's an ARC I snagged at Trinoc-con from Warren Lapine; the real version will appear in November.) So far, it's even better than Threshold, literary and empathetic and creepy. Though while I was reading this morning, I was shivering in my seat. The brilliant powers-that-be decided to crank the air conditioning in the English building (Tompkins Hall) down to the low sixties, producing fog and condensation on all the outside windows. Since it's supposed to be in the upper eighties here today, I was wearing shorts and a short-sleeved knit shirt.

Got to the classroom five minutes early, and it was even colder in there, plus the fans were emitting this teeth-grinding, ear-splitting, migraine-inducing whine, like a dentist's drill bit squealing against the enamel of your teeth. Dr. Thompson walked in, tried to adjust the thermostat (which had been jiggled already by my classmates, to no effect), then said, "Right. Class outside today."

So we tromped outside to the small teaching amphitheatre in the Court of the Carolinas right next to the building. We finished talking about Beckett, and tried to listen to the professor's lecture over the constant din of leafblowers, locusts, police sirens, conversations, the hissing wind in the trees, and the hourly gonging of the bell tower nearby. I wonder if we wouldn't have heard better inside. But it was nice sitting outside; the area was shaded, making the temperature somewhere in the mid-seventies, and there was a fairly constant breeze. We just had to avoid needles dropping like missiles from the pine trees above us, and the occasional bug snacking on bare ankles.

***

It was great having a three-day weekend for Labor Day, though it made me miss my lady even more. But I did get a few things done. My review of Nick Mamatas's 3000 MPH in Every Direction at Once went up on Sunday, and Nick was fairly happy with it. I emailed the PrattShaw team "Watersnake, Firesnake" for Flytrap #2 last night. I started and finished a little non-fiction piece for Guideposts (an inspirational magazine), that is basically an enhanced version of this journal entry.

Finished Diary by Chuck Palahniuk and read the entirety of Jeffrey Thomas's Punktown. Toldja I'd do some reading. I'm caught up through this week on the readings for classes, so I'm attempting to finish Low Red Moon by this coming weekend, which I think I'll manage.

Tonight, if I'm not absolutely wiped after my fiction writing class with the young Doctor K, I'm going to start a music review, and attempt to start my paper on Jonathan Carroll.

And in the midst of all this, I'm still looking for a job. I had a good interview last week with a small structural engineering firm that is literally down the street from where I catch the bus into campus, so it would be really close. Hopefully I'll hear on that front this week.

"In Jurong" has momentarily stalled, so I've decided to turn in "Last Fare" as my first writing assigment in Kessel's class. I've written the introduction where we see our old buddy Dane, waking up under a banyan tree inside the Jurong Birdpark, naked and bereft of his memory, wondering how the hell he got there, and who exactly he is. Fun fun fun.

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Now Reading:
Low Red Moon by Caitlin R. Kiernan

Stories Out to Publishers:
7

Books Read This Year:
32

Zines/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
32