Yes...I'm still here

I’ve successfully completed the first semester of my Master of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program. Lots of reading and lots of writing. I enjoy reading, and try to make time for it normally but for the Writings in Genre class we were forced to make time to read. This past semester was all about fantasy, which I enjoy, but it’s not really my bread and butter. The next semester is focused on science fiction, which is in my wheelhouse.  I’m looking forward to it and having experienced one semester I feel more confident knowing what to expect.

I’ve also been developing a new novel. I have a new support system for this in my assigned writing partners and mentor. It’s going well, and I’m going to go into more detail in another post.

There is another big thing that I’ve been dealing with -- the multiple processes of moving, which include: finding a new house that met our needs, fixing things that I’d put off on the current house to get it ready to sell, putting it on the market, wrangling with the banking system and the VA, closing on the new house, actually moving stuff from one house to the other, finishing the few minor things that make a house a home (like internet/ LAN setup,) cleaning the old house thoroughly, closing on the old house(after multiple delays.) I’m left with a fabulous new house that has a lot more room for my large family, whom has grown by one adult, and trying to grow grass so that my yard stops getting washed away in the heavy rains we’ve had. I am actually envious of my neighbors that have lush beautiful lawns. I’m not missing the mowing exactly, but I still really really want to have a yard again.

Buying and selling houses has consumed a great deal of my time and my available neurons and kept the stress level ratcheted up, which isn’t the best environment to be creative, at least for me. Additional stress was added by having two of our female chicks out of the nest in other countries until mid-June. Both my girls are world travelers now, and while I’m proud of them, their mother and I can’t wait to get them back in the nest for the second half of the summer.

I enjoy keeping this blog but it has been a thorn in my conscience because I’ve neglected it. Life happens and I refused to be a slave to the blog just for the sake of having something on here. Knock on wood, but I think the worst is in the rearview. The new semester starts in about four weeks, so I have some time to write and work on the blog. I have a few posts already lining up. It’s my intention to keep this thing running full steam, but I still look at is as not so much a platform as merely an avenue where I can communicate with people of like mind.

I hope you are having a great Spring and good fortune in your writing and reading.

Clear Ether!