Weekend reads and going silent...

Apologies to all for the lack of interaction -- my sabbatical started last week and it was a bit hectic leading up to it! I was in a wedding last weekend (congrats Tracy and Matt!) and I spent most of this week doing errands in anticipation of leaving! Tomorrow my wife and I drive about two hours northwest to the small Berkshire-ish town where I'll be living for five weeks. (This will be the longest stretch in almost a decade that I'll be living alone!) I'm excited and a bit anxious (will I get work done? will it suck the worst? will I be lonely and waste time on Facebook? etc.) but really eager to practice some intentional quiet time -- and of course, get novel writing. My weekend reads are, needless to say, a bit in flux. I'll be doing more research reading but will settle down with Avery Hays' The Sixth when I need something not related to 1850s Kansas. I owe many comments and emails and I'm sorry again for being so inconsistent -- once I'