I did have a good time at Lisette's, though not as academically productive as I would have liked. I did very little grading -- that was mostly because the weather was miserably hot. What work I did do, I did in an air-conditioned cafe...when I was in Lisette's apartment and the temperature was over 90 degrees (!), I wasn't much inclined to do anything other than doze and read Foxtrot comics (she has a lot of comic books). It was wonderful spending time with her, as always.
I am a bit excited because I wrote a very rough sketch of a new story in the Indian stories series. It's a little odd calling it one of those, since both the characters in it are old Jewish men...but one of them has a son sort of marrying into an Indian family, so it's close enough, yes? I think this might actually be the last story in the collection...a little hard to say right now, though. It's tricky not putting preachy words in his mouth -- it's tempting to make my point very explicitly with him, and it would be easy to do so, but it wouldn't be fair to him (and it wouldn't be as good a story). Subtlety. Not my strong point. Must work on subtlety. :-)
But the real reason I'm excited is that it's the first new story I've written in...well, forever. I'm trying to remember when, actually -- I don't think I wrote anything this summer. Hopefully it was no further back than spring. I suppose I could check the journal and find out, but it's not that important. I have been revising, but going more than a month or two without writing something new is scary. I start wondering if I've lost it. If I'll ever be able to write a story again. I don't get as far into the nasty downward spiral of that kind of thinking as some writers do -- usually my good sense kicks in long before it's truly depressing. But it does mean that there's a nagging little voice in the back of my head saying, "You should be writing, you know." Now that voice will be silenced for a bit, and I just have to listen to the one that says, "You should be grading, you know."
I did actually have an idea for another story, too. The Melcher people think I should include a story of mine in Aqua Erotica, which I hadn't planned on, but which I gather from them is reasonably standard. I'd like it to be one of the Indian ones, but none of those are particularly water-related. I don't think I have any water-related unpublished stories (even of the published ones, only "Season of Marriage" jumps to mind), so I'm just going to have to write something. And I should probably stop talking to y'all and go poke at that idea and see if it turns into anything. :-) Hope you had a good weekend too...