An Anthology for a Great Cause, Two Awards, and Summer Sluggishness

As you can tell from the title, this post is a bit of a hodgepodge. Maybe more than a bit.

First off, I visited Cherie Reich's Surrounded by Books today, and learned of a great anthology that is now available for purchase. It's called Stories for Sendai, and all proceeds will be donated to Global Giving for the continuing earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan. The book is available on Amazon here.

Twenty authors, including Cherie, contributed their inspirational stories to the book. This seems like a great opportunity to discover some wonderful writers and read great stories, while also helping a very worthwhile cause.

Second, I want to thank Brenda Sills and Lisa at Diary of a Square Toothed Girl for awarding me with the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award!

I've been fortunate enough to receive this award two weeks in a row thanks to Brenda, who was kind enough to pass it on to me last week, and Lisa, who gave me the award just yesterday. I just met Lisa last weekend through the Media Mayhem hop, and it was so thoughtful of her to give me this award. I am so grateful to both of these ladies, and I really appreciate the awards!

Finally, I've been struggling with terrible laziness so far this summer, and I can't seem to get focused to write or even to visit blogs. I've been working on catching up with my blog visits and I'm almost there, but the writing is not coming back as easily.

For most of June I was totally focused on writing my article for publication in Cat Fancy, as it had to be submitted by July 1, and this was the first time I was working with a writing deadline. I finished the article with time to spare, but my other writing has definitely suffered.

I was at Bards and Prophets today and LG wrote a post about summer doldrums, and that seems to be what I am experiencing. Maybe it's just the time of year, those "lazy days of summer," but I do hope to get more focused and disciplined for the next few months. Lately I seem to just be in a fog when I sit down with the laptop to write.

Another part of my problem might be that I have become obsessed with the show Game of Thrones. Did anyone else watch this? I did not watch as the season aired, but just watched a marathon On Demand. Wow is all I can say. I loved the show and can't wait for next season. But watching the whole season in little more than a week may have contributed to my overall laziness! Now that I'm finished I may have more inspiration to turn off the tv and get back to the laptop.

I think it's time to wrap this hodgepodge up before I end up going off on too many ramblings. I hope everyone  is having a fun and happy summer so far! (And to my southern hemisphere friends, happy winter!) I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a productive July and August for me. I really want to get out of these summer doldrums.