Writing Update, February 2015

It’s been awhile since I’ve been posting here regularly. The dog’s health and other family matters, along with my own writing, have been great distractions from this place. I hope that I’m safe in saying I’m back to more regular blogging here. Cross your fingers for me on this?

While I haven’t been here, I have been busy. In five weeks I’ve managed to write six supposedly-flash stories. “Supposedly” because, while I shoe-horned them into 750 words or less (as the contest required), my feedback was regularly that the stories “need more words.” Proof of two things: my utter distraction, and my struggle to write good, solid flash fiction. (If you write flash well and easily, I admire and slightly envy you!)

These stories will be edited and lengthened in the coming weeks, and with luck will be making submission rounds shortly thereafter. That, too, will be a good thing. My current submissions have fallen to an embarrassingly low number. I needed to restock that well.

I have not been writing on the novel. I know, I know! But let me assure you that I’m back at it now, and it feels really, really good to be there again. While the new dog was having surgery and seizures and such, the novel became too much for my sleep-deprived brain to deal with. Ergo, flash fiction writing. Fast, fun and quick writing–all things my brain craved.

In addition, I’ve been spending more time both outdoors, doing piddly bits of gardening as the weather allows, and in the kitchen. Dasher the dog enjoys being around me when I’m doing either. In the garden, he can chew pine bark mulch and chase tiny lizards into hiding. In the kitchen, as food is prepared he dreams and hopes for bits to come his way, and it sometimes does. We’ve discovered that he thinks ice cubes are like gifts from the gods, all crunchy and cool and fantastically fun. Um, okay–really cheap treats. Also, I’ve started dehydrating sweet potatoes slices and storing them in the freezer, and he thinks these are even better than ice cubes, if perhaps eaten quicker. At farm market prices, these are a great bargain, too.

Just after the new year, I purchased one of those small foam pads for kitchen use. This one is just large enough for a person to stand on, and is intended for those at a standing desk. Well, my kitchen has a raised bar, just the right height. With this padding my feet from the hard tile-over-concrete floor, I now have a “standing desk” in my kitchen that disappears in a flash. Except…the dog likes the pad, too, and tries to curl onto it around my feet. Sigh. Don’t even try coming back after a bathroom break–he’ll have taken it over. Then I clean up and go back to the “sitting desk” in the other room. Ah, well. I did want canine companionship; I’m getting it in spades! (And–really–loving it.)

Wait, what was that sound? Ah, it’s the novel, calling me. Whispering a sweet, come-hither song into my ear. I’m off now, into another world. One day, I hope I can share it with you. Until then, happy reading, and happy writing.