2013

Happy new year!
I took a few days off from writing to celebrate the new year.

Brenda and I went to a wonderful concert New Year's Eve featuring my friend Jim Shaw (at far right) and his roots music group Three Cats and a Dog. They performed an eclectic mix of bluegrass, folk, Celtic and popular music on guitar, bass, fiddle, banjo and Irish accordion. They played at the Cataumet Center for the Arts, a wonderful little place I had never visited before. It was a great way to end the old year.

Then we got up early and watched the sunrise over the Atlantic from the top of Fort Hill in Eastham in the Cape Cod National Seashore. About 20 or 25 friends joined us there, and 13 of us rang in 2013 with breakfast at the Hearth and Kettle in Orleans.

Now on with my writing. Today I plan to work on my letter to an agent and also begin a new, shorter draft of I Just Want To Be Happy. Now even the title sounds too long. Also, I would like to devote some time each morning to new writing on my new projects, Wither the Revolution and Mindfulness of the Mass Media.

Afternoon update:
 I did send off a pitch to an agent. I got an automatic response saying that if I do not hear back in one month, I should assume my book does not fit their needs. Then I worked on trimming down I Just Want to Be Happy. I went through the first seven chapters (our of 23). The length dropped from 31,474 words to 31,186. That's small, but at least moving in the right direction.