Coming out of my blog break makes me realize there is a connection between writing in my blog and working a “real” job. It appears that one does not go well with the other. Many changes have occurred during the break–with the most challenging being in the last six months (relocation, COVID, graduation, college transfer, job hunting, etc, etc).

My most impactful change was the death of my mom. She brought a brightness and joy to my life that I miss daily and monumentally. I cherish the memories that live in my heart and reveal themselves in the shimmering of the sun, in the whispers in the wind, in the sparkles of the stars, in the coolness of the rain, in the beauty of the birds and animals and in the greens of nature. She was a true nature lover and I am blessed to have her gift. I will likely be including more nature in my writings. Though my mom admitted, she did not enjoy reading books, she did like to hear about my blog, excerpts of my stories and gave me words of encouragement to continue this journey. I could relate to her as she was also a vivid dreamer and story teller.

Here are some general updates on my writing life. My musings did continue in the non-blog formats. I have several scrawlings in pretty little notebooks, ugly little notebooks and in many, many saved word documents. I have even typed story segments and ideas into the notes on my phone. I continued to write Medicine City and did finish it–although in my opinion, it was not my greatest writing. I have not pursued editing. I also took part in “The International 3 Day Novel Writing Contest” in 2018 and did make the Long List with a book called “The Dream Catcher”. For those of you that know me, I am a vivid dreamer and there is a lot of dream content in this fantasy fiction story. Who knows, maybe I’ll edit that little gem and try and send it off to the publishing guru’s. Honestly the book is a blur–that was quite an experience to write a novel in three days– several hours in, I had doubts, but I persevered to made it happen and was able to say “The End”–and yes, it was a happy ending. I have more ideas in mind, but have learned to let the stories simmer and when they start to boil I will do something with them.

In wrapping this up, I will leave you with this. As the girls go off to college and I have an “empty nest”, I hope to blog more. I hope to include writings about life, nature, art, food, stress management, explorations and adventures–but I also hope to include my little escapes and breaks from reality and give you glimpses into my storytelling. I am trying some new things with this blog and redesigning this site. I have been trying to pray and lean on God to give me faith, hope and peace and I know that this is why he has me back to blogging and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.