Summer is dying. Soon enough I’ll be back in boots and flannel, and feel at ease with the world. This month has been another busy one, especially the last week or so, but the words are coming. That’s the best any of us can hope for.

The final edits for my short story collection are almost done, and at the moment I’m only waiting on the last few stories before my editor and I go through the entire manuscript a final time.

Once again, after much back and forth, the title of the book has changed. When the collection was originally accepted by Foxhead Books it was titled The Geography of Love, and composed of four different sections (north, south, east, and west) each containing four stories. When my editor and I began breaking down the manuscript we threw out that title in addition to one of the stories. The working title then became See How Much I Love You; a line taken from one of the stories. After much debate with my editor, who felt that that title didn’t do the collection justice since the stories were more complex than just love stories, I’ve changed the title for good. When my book comes out late this year it will be called Romance for Delinquents. This title better suits the book, and I’m happy with it. Lastly, the cover Ryan Bradley has done for the book is awesome, and I couldn’t be more stoked.

Besides editing the collection, I’ve spent a lot of time turning my chapbook Bad Kids from Good Schools, which was published earlier this year by Winged City Chapbook Press, into a novel. My friend Erin Keane suggested that I do so after I read a few stories from it at Spalding University’s homecoming. I took her advice and sent out the chapbook to agents to see if any could sell it as a partial, or would be interested in it as a novel. Thankfully, the second agent I contacted loved the stories and wants to see it in novel form when it’s finished. I’ve written 21,000 words of it in the last ten days, and hope to have a completed first draft to shape and cut into by the end of the month. With any luck the entire novel will be completed by November 1st.

Other than editing stories and working on the novel this month, I completed two book reviews. One will appear in Necessary Fiction at the end of September, and the other is forthcoming in Atticus Review. Currently I’m working on my first review for Fjords Review which is due in six weeks. I only hope that my reviews help these authors find readers. In the lit world we have to rep our own, and hope for the best.

I’m worn through at the moment, and listening to old Dylan to let the night go. But I’m still in the fight.