We write to taste life twice

A sure sign that I've bitten off more than I can chew? I no longer have time for leisure reading.

I've been reading The Thirteeth Tale for weeks (perhaps even 2 months). I don't think I'm even halfway through it yet. And it's not because I don't like the story, because the story is great. I just haven't had the time.

And I'm trying to finish up another book that I need to review. I'm about 30 or 40 pages from done. This is a non-fiction book about house decorating, so it's not the most riveting read, but it has a few kernels of wisdom that I can take away for our own house. I always find that mileage varies with these types of books because everyone's house is different.

I just got another book from my editor a couple days ago - Emily Arsenault's The Broken Teaglass. It seems to be a literary mystery, and I've been getting into those lately. I'm looking forward to reading it.

I just sent my resume and a small excerpt from an undergraduate literature essay to an academic company that is looking for writers to do book summaries of canonical and popular fiction and nonfiction. They specifically asked for a sample from a literary analysis and they want people with teaching backgrounds. So I seem to fit the bill perfectly. They pay for the reviews too...not much, but I don't get paid for the reviews I do now (I get free books, which is why I do it...because I mostly spend my disposable income on books anyway. Well, that, and I sometimes get the chance to interview an author I really admire, like Susan Vreeland).

ETA: I just got an email from the editor for this academic website. It's eNotes. And I'm already an approved editor with them, so he says I can go forth and start writing reviews! I didn't realize they had these assignments open.

Anyway...I have some stuff to do this morning for class tonight. I have to edit part of the group project that hit my inbox a couple days ago. And I need to look for clipart having to do with airline travel. And I still need to do my day job stuff. I was just given a new assignment to work on yesterday, so the article format is different and I'm trying to get used to it.

Oh...I got through the peer review last night. We had a class chatroom session on Blackboard, since my document design class is entirely online. It went well. Honestly, I thought my poster was the most boring of the bunch, but I was mostly focused on accomplishing the 4 required design elements to make the poster easy to understand. I didn't give it much flair (as my instructor likes to call it). I got mostly positive feedback. So I'm happy with it. As the instructor said, it's our first assignment anyway, so she didn't expect perfection.

I have to leave early today for campus because I have a meeting with my academic advisor. We're going to discuss what electives I might take and what direction I might take this program to fit in with my goals.

Back to the grind...