Hey awesome,

How's your August going? So far, ours has been spent in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Northern Georgia. The mountains older than bones - did you catch that twitter thread? A twitterer (I'm sure that's the technical term) @AlexPetrovnia went deep into the history of Appalachia - once about the mountains themselves, and once about the people who live along this ancient mountain spine of the world, and that line sticks. Older than bones.

Every day so far, I've looked out at one of those mountains and that line has come to mind. May we all write something so evocative one day!

The picture above is the view from our RV. Definitely a peaceful vibe for getting lots of writing done.

And I am! Remember my aggressive calendar I told you about a few months ago? I have an even more aggressive version for August. The bright side is, if I follow my own goals, I'll have two short stories and 1.75 novels done by the end of the month.

Those will be my last short stories of the year, leaving the end of 2021 to focus entirely on novels! Well, ok, novels and adventures.

For the rest of this month, given these aggressive goals, there's not a ton of room for adventures, but spending time in nature always gives me inspiration.

For instance, there was a trail in Helen, Georgia that took us past the forest reclaiming an old mine, and if that doesn't fire up the old post-apocalyptic juices (also totally a thing), then what could?

This week, Kacey and I are making some fantastic progress through Ally - I can't wait for you to see what we're up to!

Speaking of can't wait, DragonCon is coming up quick, and I've seen a draft of my schedule. Y'all, we're going to have so much fun, and I'll share it with you as soon as I can. In the meantime - last week I shared some pictures of our RV renovation on my blog. Did you see all the hard work Jeremy has put into our traveling home? If so, what did you think?

Stay safe and cool out there, and let me know if you have any tips to do so!

Til next time,

Marisa