Last week I started interning for two literary agencies that share office space. Everyone who works there is odd in a good way, has unique tastes and areas of expertise when it comes to books, and is really nice and fun to work with. Even the other interns (there are 6 of us total) are totally fun. Especially when we’re sitting together reading query letters, passing around the ones with the most ridiculous contents, getting second opinions on the ones that seem like they might be worthwhile projects. I wish I could share with you all some of the amazingly stupid things I’ve read over the past two weeks, but unfortunately, I cannot. Not on the interwebz anyway.

Every time I go in there I know more and more that it’s what I want to be doing with my life. Reading manuscripts, talking about books, meeting new people… I’m even “required” to go to an industry schmooze fest with a bunch of Tor/Forge employees next week. At DBA. With Laura. Seriously. How could this non-job get any better? The long and short of it is that it couldn’t (well, I guess if I was getting paid, that might be an improvement, but I’ll take resume-improvement and school credit all the same).

Joe’s visit was a blast. Did some touristy stuff, some not-so-touristy stuff, and some stuff I don’t remember (so it could be touristy or not, I have no idea).

Went to BookExpo America, which was held in NYC this year for the first time in a few years, and will be held here for the next few. Basically it’s a professional conference for the book publishing industry, where lots of publishers hand out advanced copies of yet-to-be-pubbed books; I got at least 30 free books.

Started my internship with Caren Johnson Literary Agency. Both Elana and Caren are super nice, and are probably not that much older than I am. I’ve been reading manuscripts and advanced galleys of the books/authors that they represent, or are looking to represent. I’ve read some good, some bad, and some kinda ugly stuff.  More on this to follow, in a not-already-bloated post.

Between the internship (for which most of my reading is on the computer. How I wish I had some sort of e-book reader) and the advanced books from the book expo, I’ve read 6 books in the past two and a half weeks; i’m in the middle of three more, plus trying to read the first three chapters of about 3 more books. I’ve got 5 critiques to write by Tuesday, so I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I think I’ll manage. I’ve been nothing but productive since Wednesday. It helps that I have only like 15 hours at work (wish i had at least 10 more…), and no summer courses.