Random Stuff

Our whole community has been on alert since July 24 because of a little boy who went missing in Boise. Thousands of people volunteered for the searches that went on, and it was all over the media. They finally found him floating in a canal, but the investigation into how he got there is ongoing. This sort of thing really hits home to a lot of parents and makes you want to go hug your babies, and then hug them all over again. That, and protect them from everyone and everything, even though ultimately, you can't. Someday they'll go out into the world entirely on their own and then there's really nothing more you can do but love them and trust them to keep themselves safe.

In the middle of all the chaos, life goes on. I've been in the community garden bean patch so often that my arms are extremely brown, especially for someone with Northern European skin tones. Even though the beans were at the tail end of production, we've still managed to glean enough that we've canned over thirty quarts--still not quite enough to get a family of four through the winter, although we're getting there. And I think they've decided to leave over-mature ones to dry in the field, so there may also be dried ones to get later.

On the 3rd, the Huz and I celebrated our 18th anniversary. I cannot figure out where the time went. Seems like it could not possibly be that long, but it is.

Writing-wise, I've been tweaking my 28,000 words on the spiritual nonfiction project and trying to get it organized into chapters and topics. I also started the first of the nine-novel series that relates somewhat to the spiritual nonfiction. I haven't done much on the urban fantasy lately, but there should be a new Brenna scene soon. And lastly, I still haven't heard back on the latest short story submission, but this coming Saturday marks the end of the reading period they asked for, so after that I guess I can query if necessary.

The main thing is figuring out how to schedule writing time in with all the basic survival things I've been having to do. I can think creatively while toiling in the bean patch in the hot sun, but the main thing I tend to think about is whether my water bottle is running low or whether the scorchy feeling on my arms means I'm getting a sunburn. Yet I'm not in the bean patch all day, so even though I'm on a mostly daytime schedule now, I should still be able to schedule a smidgen of regular writing time for the fiction projects. I was going on the principle that if I got a publishing contract, I'd restructure my life to fit the model of being a professional writer. But today I had the epiphany that I need to turn that around the other way. First, I'll restructure my schedule to allow time so that if I were to get a contract, I'd be easily able to accomodate the extra writing that would be necessary. Hopefully, if I make room in my life to be the professional writer, that's exactly what I'll become. We'll see what happens. If I build it, will they come?