Running Behind and Looking Ahead

I'm running behind. 

In my "entity" as M.A. Lee, my current mystery The Hazard of Secrets was supposed to be finished on the last day of June. Here it is 25 days later, and I'm still not finished.

For HoS, I have 5 to 7 more chapters to write. My expected word count was 55,000. I am currently at 50,000-plus.

When I look at the scenes that are necessary to finish the mystery and solve the crime and close the other threads, I think that word count is going to be closer to 70,000 than 65,000. Those extra words are part of the problem.

However, the main problem is TIME.

What's Inspiring

When you've got a ton of things ahead of you before you can pick back up something you absolutely love, you need a little inspiration to keep going.

Summer requires a little Wonderland (untouched by Disney, please).

Here's Alice in Through the Looking Glass.

"Can you do addition?" the White Queen asked.  "What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?"

"I don't know," said Alice.  "I lost count."

What have you lost count of?

What I'm Reading Now

One of my favorite authors is Mary Stewart.

My mother loved Mary Stewart's books, and I can remember so wanting to read Stewart when I could barely handle chapter books. I had to wait--though I remember peeking inside several of the books on the shelf.  The vocabulary defeated me--I was only in third grade!

My first Mary Stewart was This Rough Magic, and it remains in my Top 5 Books of all time.  (Top 1 & 2, which remain neck and neck, constantly shifting position, are also Mary Stewart books: My Brother Michael and The Moonspinners.)

By the time I glommed all of Stewart's books, she started putting out her Arthurian saga, the first of which was The Crystal Cave.  This is the cover I remember, before I replaced the mass market paperback with the hardcover.

I haven't read The Crystal Cave in years.  I was looking for a good comfort read while my back was messed up--yes, I strained my lower back and had spasms and great pain every time I breathed.  It's gradually getting better--and I remembered this book.

The protagonist is Merlin, and Stewart's take combines history and myth with her great story-telling capabilities.

The link is to Amazon only because I'm lazy.  If you're intrigued by the Romans in ancient Britain, by the Celts and the earliest of the Pendragon kings, by the origins of the King Arthur myth (which modern scholars think was a Roman descendent helping the Celts fight off the invading Angles and Saxons), then this book is for you.