The novel is stalled — strike that, I’m stalled on writing the novel. I’ve been reading, though: I’m working on Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, and just finished Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Charles Stross’s Glasshouse. The Pollan books got me started thinking about growing vegetables; with the Siren’s patient mentoring, we spent the weekend setting up planters and, after a trip to the garden center, planting tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers, Italian peppers, and peas.
I’ve also been listening to the audio podcasts of the Long Now Foundation‘s Seminars About Long Term Thinking, which are fascinating. I recommend starting with Stewart Brandt on Rethinking Green and Niall Ferguson and Peter Schwarz on Historian vs. Futurist on Human Progress. The lectures cover a wide variety of topics and are great listening on a Sunday morning long run.
I ran the Soldier Field 10 Mile last week in 1:19:19, nearly 7 minutes slower than my PR but not a complete embarrassment.
As for the novel, it’s a source of a fair amount of frustration right now, but there’s so much competing for my mental real estate lately that I’m not surprised that I’ve put it on the back burner. I need to figure out a way to give it the concentrated effort I put in during NaNoWriMo without ignoring the rest of my life (although I just read that again, and realized it’s impossible). I know that there’s never a “good” time to write — there’s always something else competing for my attention — but the last three months have been … challenging. I keep thinking that it’s time to stop cutting myself so much slack but really, I kind of need it.
The Unfocused Life 