I feel I should be able to make some clever quote about the season, but I can't. Epic English Major Fail. Maybe.

At any rate, this time of year is really my best season. New England is at its most beautiful, and the weather is turning cold and wet fast. That is a good thing. And, of course, there's Halloween.

But it's also crunch time for my writing. There are a bunch of writing contests the school holds, and I'm starting to work on my entry. I'm just starting research for a story about Burke and Hare, a pair of murderers and grave robbers working in Edinburgh in the 1820's.

They're having a special Halloween writing contest, too, which I'll certainly enter. And I also have a few pieces from last year that I'm hoping to revise and enter in some of the other contests.

I'm not sure how much I'll actually manage, but the deadlines aren't until December 2.

And then there's Kidney Pie, which hasn't been forgotten, and a handful of ideas for more Ripper-stories and fanfics for Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera.

It'll be a challenge. But that's the plan.