What I Did This Summer

 A scene from my summer adventures
in the high Talamanca of Costa Rica.

If I had any lingering doubts about summer drawing to a close, they were obliterated this past week in back-to-back faculty and staff meetings at Avila.  Classes start on Wednesday, and though my week of meetings has left me in a rather unpleasant mood, I'm looking forward to seeing my students and getting started with fall semester.

I was trying to think of what to write on HoF this week, when I remembered that way back when I was in grade school, our first homework assignment often consisted of an essay about what we did over the summer.  Wow, those were painful to write.  Even on the few occasions that I actually had something interesting to say.  Now, having graded a fair number of student essays over the years, I wonder just how painful they were for my teachers to read. 

In any case, that little memory sparked the idea for this week's post.  Don't worry!  I won't subject you to an essay about what I did over the summer.  Though I do have interesting stories to tell, and if you want to read more about my adventures as a field ecologist in the rain forests of Central America, I invite you to visit my blog for Eolyn. 

What I will do on HoF is share with you a product of the summer:  an audio recording of an excerpt from the near-final (I hope!) draft of High Maga, the companion novel to Eolyn.

Those of you who read Eolyn will recognize only two characters in this scene:  Eolyn, and the South Woods.  There is a third character, Sir Borten, a loyal knight of King Akmael, who appeared in Eolyn, but his role was minor enough that few probably remember him.  Everyone else is new:  Delric, also a knight of the King, and two of Eolyn's young students in magic, Melanie and Sirena. 

A disclaimer before you listen to the recording, and an apology.  The disclaimer is that the manuscript has yet to undergo an editor's redpen, so what you hear may be significantly altered -- or even deleted -- before the novel goes to press. 

My apology?  Well, I've been getting over a very bad cold, so that might affect the quality of my reading. 

'Nuf said.  Here's the recording, and when you're done listening (or even if you decide not to listen), I'd love to hear about what you did over the summer, too.

Posted by Karin Rita Gastreich