Fun When the Manuscript Draft is Done

I finally finished a draft of my YA urban fantasy, clocking in at nine months (almost a real baby!), and a wordy 93K, or about 350 pages. Decided not to show it to my agent until it’s been combed-through by a professional editor, which is a first for me, and quite a luxury.

I have also just finished teaching the spring lit semester, so I suddenly have some real time to play around with new story ideas, to clean up the piles of books and paper on my desk, my shelves, and well, everywhere. Oh, and I have some time for FUN.

The first thing I did, was to go to the auto show at the Javits Center in NYC. This has turned into a yearly ritual for me. There is something about climbing into the latest model Mustang, or BMW and imagining tearing down the highway in it that really appeals to me. Of late, I most love to check out the latest hybrids, from the Nissan Leaf, which runs totally on electric, to the Chevy Volt, which runs on a combination of gas and electric, and boasts a total mileage of around 350 miles! (See image above)

This was the first year you could climb into a Volt; there were two on-site. I sorta, kinda fell in love with it. It looks like a sexy sedan with a tinge of racing car in it, but not too hot rod that a “grown-*ss woman” couldn’t own one without looking ridiculous.
BTW, the Chevy Cruz boasts a MPG of 40, but still, it’s all gas. And the Nissan Leaf needs to up its battery-span to at least 160 miles before it's a realistic choice. Right now, it's 100 tops.

But then… in the Volkswagen section, I found… drum roll… the BULLI.
What the heck is a Bulli, you ask? It’s a super-compact crazy-good reinvention of the old Volkswagen van. Think what one of those old buses would look like cut in half, and then smoothed out to a futuristic cube-y shape a la the Nissan Cube, and then run through a smokin’ design studio to add two-tone color reminiscent of a surfer van. You know the ones with the wood panels? Check out the Bulli above, and on this website.

The catch? It’s still only a concept car! That means that Volkswagen folks may never actually manufacture it to sell. In the meantime, I may have to buy another Subaru, a car that has lasted me an incredible 15 years.

So, tell me, what do you do for fun after you’ve finished a novel draft, or a teaching gig, or simply need a long break from your computer? And what’s your dream car?