Goddamn it. I hate newsletter day. Let’s get it over with.

What’s going on in my world? Honestly a lot of chaos. Chaos in my business, Writing Heights Writers Association, where I’m tasked with taking on a few extra roles and constantly navigating in stormy seas to keep this ship afloat. Chaos in my projects, where my distracted and depression-soaked mind bounces from one to the next and back again without any real progress. Chaos in my heart and mind over new and conflicting feelings for things I cannot have. Things I cannot change. Chaos in my physical space where all my converging roles make haphazard piles on my desk.

Let’s sort it out a bit.

GARDEN NEWS:

What can I say, we’re winding down. Something has happened to our corn, and the grasshoppers have taken to gnawing on the leaves, so I don’t expect much from them, but I am going to try to harvest the seeds for next year. Speaking of harvesting…

Squirrels love squash, and if it’s anything that Harvest Community has in plenty? It’s squirrels. I don’t mind. I mean, I would have liked to eat a couple but, I also know that food and water supply is pretty weird these days, and I’m not gonna NOT feed something that’s hungry.

The nasturtium are beautiful

and the tomatoes are starting to slow in their ripening with the shorter days. So, we may not get too many more but I’m looking forward to making some fried green tomatoes. Which makes me think of Fannie Flagg’s book and the incomparable movie with Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates (get yourself some hormones, girl), Mary Stuart Masterson (my first girl crush) and Mary Louise Parker. And that makes me think of good food, recompense for nasty men, and women standing up for one another. Check it out HERE.

The dog and cats are good. Assholes sometimes, but also sometimes stupidly wonderful.

READING:

I finished Cinder and I’m on to Scarlet from Melissa Meyer. They’re good, but not so heavy that I can’t sleep at night after reading them. I like the twist of fairytales into the fantasy world and the way the storylines are converging.

I finished and read the newly-out Songs of Good Cheer from Lauren Lipp. Its a sweet and warm-hearted, holiday sapphic romance with good character development and a second-chance romance worth the read.

Carter Wilson’s When They Find Me is an excellent thriller, set in Colorado. I have to read it out of bed though, during the day, because it ramps up my anxiety too much before trying to sleep. The sure sign its a great book. I’m almost through it.

Existentialism is Humanism by Jean-Paul Satre is an interesting little journey and I’m making lots of notes in the margins. It’s a little escape from my own thoughts and delving into someone else’s. To something bigger beyond my own little troubles.

No Words After I Love You by me. Yeah, I know. It’s mine. I also know I reread it when my heart is heavy. Because sometimes I really need a Charlie in my life. And a ballsy ex-journalist, and a love that was written in the stars. When, my heart is hurt I need to be in an alternate world where things can somehow work out. And that kiss…everyone should be kissed like that at least once in their miserable little lives. Part of that Chaos of Wanting.

WRITING:

*takes a deep breath and sighs it out* Thanks to upcoming critique groups, I’m trying to push out some work. And work, if you can manage it, helps distract the heart. The problem is that I’m not sure it’s necessarily good work.

I’m through edits on FaeSpawn, my first in the trilogy set in the Ornkey Islands, north of Scotland. I’m handing it over, a few chapters at a time, to my new critique group to see what comes up and I’ll go back through when the trilogy is complete to fix and refine anything that may come up in the process. I’m now working through the second book, SeaSpawn. I forget that I wrote this first draft in my neophyte days, but boy does the writing remind me. Its sometimes good to read through older work and realize how much you’ve grown and improved, but there’s quite a bit more rewriting that comes along with that. I suspect it will take a bit longer to edit then I had first thought.

I’m working this month on character sheets and a short outline for a new and different project (see last week’s post). Set in Aberystwyth, Wales, it follows the convergence of two souls, scarred by life and teetering on the edge of their own kind of chaos. It has everything, insanity, murder, Munchausen’s Syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, cutting, abuse…a real light-hearted tale….

On the other side of all of that, there is also the power and resilience of the human heart, interesting interweaving of magical realism, soul-searching, love, friendship, acceptance, letting go, redemption and healing. I’m at about 15,000 words in, and plan to use Novel-in-a-month November to finish the first draft. If I can pull my heart out of its current self-pitying tailspin.

What else? Still working through the poetry anthology, and as it turns out I’ll be taking over the Poetry Critique group for Writing Heights so it will be helpful in starting to go through some of them, with some talented poets whose help I could really use. So far, the document is about 120 pages. Not all the poems will make it.

Also–oddly, I have about 9000 words on a strange little comedy of errors, about two people who try to erase their lives, and start over. Only to find that the past wants them back, just as they’re finding each other.

EVENTS

I have a book coming out. October 20th, my holiday novella “Eight Nights in Everpine Valley” will be released. If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at the Hallmark Channel but still like a good romance, this book is for you. Subversive and snarky, this little book puts the reality of all kinds of love (familial, self, romantic) in the context of a world gone mad for the season. Check it out and leave a review, if you can. If you do read it and you’re interested in the ‘deleted’ spicy scene, let me know. I’ll send you the missing, toe-curling chapter.

I will be speaking at Arapaho Community College on October 21st for their National Novel Writing Month Panel. You can find out more here: ACC PANEL . I’m super excited to work with Jomil Ebro and David Slayton and Rachel Weaver, to talk about writing, answer some questions, have a few conversations, and encouraging writers in next month’s endeavor.

I’ll be teaching a class at the end of November on how to write a series, through Writing Heights Writers Association (she plays all the roles in this place). I’ll be using my current series in progress as an example and we’ll talk about common pitfalls, how to create that beautiful, total-series arc, how to keep every novel strong on its own, and how to not lose your damn mind in the process (suggestions welcome). Check us out HERE.

In addition to all of those things… I also run four critique groups a month, host all of the classes, have two regular, in-person write ins (more in November for National Novel Writing Month) and teach the youth class. I’ll now be responsible for the newsletter, and if you’re a member or subscriber I thank you in advance for your grace as I navigate that world (we all know how much I LOVE writing newsletters). I try to schedule one team meeting in a month, and individual check is with each of my team. There’s also my daughter’s therapy appointments, pick up and drop off, the occasional cleaning when I am not beset by the other more demanding things. Pet care, garden try-to-care

…people ask me why I don’t do more “self-care”. I said I could probably hire it out. But I don’t have the time or money. So until then…I’ll just keep pouring out of this empty cup and see how far I can go. As Noah wrote “If my engine works perfect on empty, I guess I’ll drive”

Until next month.