Am I the only one who finds it incredible that we are already more than two thirds of the way through summer? I confess to spending quite a lot of time watching lawn tennis and reading the pile of books I acquired at the last book group picnic I attended. However, I contend that I haven't been lazing around.
Tennis tournaments have a gladiatorial aspect with heroes and villains; past favourites against newcomers, athleticism versus experience, wiliness versus strength. How do the players cope with triumph or adversity? How do the spectators? What about the court officials and the ball girls and boys? If you are looking for characters for your latest masterpiece, there is plenty of inspiration to be found watching tennis.
As for the reading: I've written before about how essential it is for any writer to read as widely as they can if they want to learn about what works, what doesn't and why. One of the results of my reading lately is a clutch of reviews that I've put on Goodreads. The books concerned are Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Cunning Women by Elizabeth Lee, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown.
I've also had some good news to celebrate with my story 'Waking the Legend' chosen as runner-up in the Bacopa Short Story Contest. I wrote it some time ago, which proves that there is a home out there for every decent story if you don't give up on it. There should be an anthology of the winning and shortlisted stories later this year. I'll keep you posted when I know more. Another story, 'An Endangered Species', is now available on the Upbeat Tales podcast at http://www.upbeattales.com 
* A word of warning if you're interested in my novels. I recently found a site offering a used paperback copy of Discord's Child for sale at $15.49. The cheek! Brand new copies are available for $10.99 on Amazon at http://www.tinyurl.com/exiles-of-ondd.