This past month I’ve been immersed in a writing workshop taught by Dean Wesley Smith that took up a lot of my spare time. Because of that I decided to sacrifice my normal writing time to television viewing instead. Had to watch The Following, Survivor, Under the Gunn, The Amazing Race, NCIS, Face Off, Hawaii Five-O and all the rest.

It’s been a nice learning session (and vacation from writing). Hopefully I can apply what I learned from his course.

If you’re unfamiliar with Mr. Smith, check out http://deanwesleysmith.com , he’s got a lot of experience to impart.

So, I’ve been coasting. I could have finished my second mystery novel this month, but now it will be next month.

I also did a lot of reading.

WHAT I FINALLY FINISHED READING THIS WEEK:  Shadows in the Sun by Chad Oliver. Unearthly Neighbors by Chad Oliver. The Shores of Another Sea by Chad Oliver. (All contained in an omnibus edition called From Other Shores). And WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  Eye Spy by Tahir Shah.

Photos by Roxanne Rix. You can find my published fiction at http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix.

DARWIN’S CORNER–

By now it seems like we’ve had this little bulldog forever. She takes walks, but she’s like no other dog we’ve ever owned. She doesn’t meander from one side of the road to the other, she doesn’t smell things, she doesn’t mark her territory, she doesn’t poop on other people’s lawns, and she doesn’t happily launch herself at the people and dogs we pass. She just walks. I”m not complaining. This is the first dog I’ve been able to walk  faster than.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK: Hawaii by James Michener.  Born Rich by Janet Christian.

Books and stories by G. Rix at http://amazon.com/author/gretchenrix

DARWIN’S CORNER

This week as I was putting on my shoes in the kitchen, Darwin calmly picked up the one still  lying on the floor and marched away with it in her mouth just as pretty as you please. Thankfully I was able to rescue it before she took her first bite.

We’ve been feeding her that high-priced stew-like dog food in order to get some medicine down her. Now she doesn’t like her dry food. One day instead of writing about Boo Radley I’m going to write about the little bulldog we’ve started calling Dar.

Photos by Roxanne Rix.

WHAT I READ THIS WEEK:  A Clean Kill in Tokyo by Barry Eisler.  Grave Indulgence by William Doonan.

DARWIN’S CORNER

Well, we found out a couple of new things about Darwin this past week. She will chew up leather shoes. Took care of a whole pair. And yes, we shouldn’t have left them lying out on the floor to tempt her. Another thing is that she thinks the right side of the couch is her spot now. Gets real frisky if anyone else is sitting there. One more thing. She makes absolutely everyone smile who sees her. She also grunts like a little pig.