It’s Published…

After TWO YEARS I finally managed to spend some time going through all the Christmas photos I’ve taken over the years to come up with a cover photo and then finally work on a title for my Christmas Judge Story.

Christmas of Wonder was born last night! It’s a novella coming in just under 25,000 words and 109 pages. It will be a short read compared to all the others I’ve written! It’s also very simple… it’s not complicated in any way, just a cheery read… maybe that will bring joy in what will likely be a tumultuous Christmas the governments will be trying to control like the rest of our year (yes, I said that out loud and I’m not taking it back)!

Of course unlike the shortforms I tend to refer to my own novels as… HOS for Haven of Secrets for example… I will not be doing the same for this one! You can figure it out! LOL!

This leaves me now able to completely focus on my sequel to Haven of Secrets! I can give every part of NaNoWriMo to that novel… with a lot of luck I’ll have it done by the end of November!

Speaking of which, as every year, go check out NaNoWriMo if you’ve ever thought of writing a novel. Write 50,000 words in 30 days… join the challenge!

Happy Thanksgiving

I am writing this from the trailer… the last weekend here for what will be a very long six-and-a-half months before we can get back up here.

Who knows where I will be in my life at that point! I will still be enjoying time with the man but the job may, once again, be different as I’m only on contract.

Life is in constant flux and, I think, the virus has made that apparent. I will be taking pictures of some of the little trinkets that were left behind here by the previous owners as she was like minded.

Little sayings on all these trinkets go with many of my own beliefs and the last few years these things have become more apparent.

Do what makes you happy, be with those who make you smile, laugh as much as you breathe, love as long as you live.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Such beautiful advice don’t you think?

Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to remind ourselves that there must be gratitude in everything no matter who you are because whether it’s nothing more than the book you’re reading, a friend or a job there’s usually something to say thank you for. It’s hard, sometimes, with the frustrations of life, to remember the little good things.

Yesterday I had the chance to write the first 6,000 words of my sequel… I realize that I had already done 12 pages but I ended up editing those pages plus handwriting more pages and getting it all straight in order to get a starting point that I”m happier with than any of the others I’ve done.

It will change and morph once I get the story out but that’s okay… I’m used to that.

So this year my Thanksgiving note on Facebook was There is so much to be thankful for! My beautiful daughter! My family who loves me, laughs with me and supports me. My friends who are always there. My new job, of course. My home with my boys. Last, but not least, a man who supports my decisions, listens to me, and me up off the ground! I love you all!

So think about what you’re grateful for!

I think I’ve got it!

So after weeks and weeks of trying to figure out what my Haven of Secrets sequel will be built around I have finally figured it out and I’m feeling pretty good about where it’s going!

I won’t share a lot here right now but I have rewritten 8 pages plus I have the other pages in my notebook that I had written that was actually my restart number two… now that I have restart number three I feel confident that it’s now going to take off! We have an additional setting which is going to allow me great freedoms with where this one is going to go… I just don’t have my characters from the past yet so perhaps they will be all new for me rather than thinking I have to use some of the old.

I will leave it at that for now and let you wonder what it is the sequel will bring! I will be wondering too but as the characters come back to life in my head now that they have something to play with and a bit of a new setting… well, I can’t wait for them to let me tell their new story!

Crossroads…

Well the virus has taken a turn for the worse again which, once more, sets the anxiety levels to a higher level.

But that’s not all… I’ve got so much on my plate right now I’m feeling overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by life… consumed by work to the point where I’m not getting writing done, I’m barely reading my newspapers and turning on a DVD in the evening is a chore!

I’m not saying I don’t appreciate what I have, but I thought by now I’d have settled into it… now, granted, the addition of the trailer has created a bit of chaos because suddenly I’m finding myself always preparing to go there on a Saturday and not come home until Tuesday… and I love it so much I am even more desperate to be there longer than ever before… but the season is coming to an end.

The bottom line is that I may have settled into a better routine by now if it wouldn’t have happened this year and I would have maintained status quo. Unfortunately we have to close it up in less than two weeks and I’m positive I will shed a tear or two.

But maybe then I’ll get a chance to work on my manuscript! I have a notebook that now contains the first three or four chapters to my Haven of Secrets sequel! I have the crew finding another little box and I’m pretty sure that a key will be the key to unlocking more tales from the past… I think I will make it a trilogy with Little Leroy’s story bringing up the rear… if I can figure out his entire story… all in good time!

So, yes, I’m getting tiny bits of time to write but not enough! But at least my mind is now at work on it when I can’t write!

Last long weekend…

Summer seems to be short-lived, like everything else this summer! 2020 has been quite the year hasn’t it?

I have written a fair bit about the virus, about writing, about new beginnings and yet there are times, like now, that I still feel like I’m spinning my wheels! I still need to find that new balance and feel, sometimes, like I never will. Everything is always in flux. When I just settle into a new routine, something else comes along to turn the apple cart over again!

This weekend hasn’t been what I was hoping for with the weather… I haven’t been to the trailer in a few weeks where I have done what I wanted to do because of the weather… the last glorious weather we had was two weeks ago and that was after several unpleasant weekends. I haven’t had the chance to spend any time at the beach since July.

As for writing, that’s another story entirely. I’m stuck in two ways… little time to write but also every time I think of writing I’m stuck on what I was writing and can’t seem to move past that like an obsession. Maybe the virus just hasn’t allowed me to mourn Haven and company properly to move on? Or maybe there really is another story in there… I was kind of hoping for a trilogy out of it but the storyline just continues to fail me… here she is expecting a baby, living in this gorgeous little town with a new husband, partnership and job and I can’t expand on that to find yet another mystery. I even read an entire book of Canadian Ghost Love stories to try to find just a hint of what I’m looking for and it didn’t work… Nothing jumped off the page… and I don’t want to write a ghost story but I thought about it as stories about the past and an incident might trigger something!

NOPE!

So I will continue to work at it but I feel really stuck!

A year in review

On this, the eve of my birthday, I have been looking back over the last twelve months because it has ended up being one of the happiest years of my life.

From finishing and publishing one of my most popular (and author’s favourite) novels to finding myself embarking on a new relationship and finally a new job start, it has left me sleeping at night and feeling less ongoing discomfort in my neck and shoulders (the back pain will forever be with me).

As I turn another year older I am finally finding myself wanting to sit and evaluate certain aspects of my life because I can finally define some boundaries and I can determine what I want to keep (my writing obviously) and what I need to shed…

I can’t write this without mentioning a certain virus and I think, despite being unemployed but for twelve hours a week for however long it forced some positive, and necessary, changes.

I am where I need to be at this time.. and I’m loving it. I’m at peace. When someone asks me “how are you?” I’m actually replying with “good” or “okay” instead of “hanging in” which was my reply for a very long time.

I’m happy. I’m thrilled and look forward to what is on the horizon.

Too long!

It’s been so long since I pushed the button to come to WordPress let alone press the button to write a post… it doesn’t feel good writers! It feels awful to go that long.

Where have I been? Well a LOT has happened this month! Probably the most fulfilling, but busiest, month I’ve ever had! Started off the month working a full-time week in the practice while my counterpart took vacation. The week following I worked my usual day and a half and I bid them farewell.

However, the weekend before those last days, the love of my life decided to buy a little retreat. Let’s just say that I no longer need permission or a key to my parents’ trailer! But… that created a whirlwind of its own as it found us quickly shopping for kitchen items, bedroom items, etc… to find out that the previous owner was generous enough to leave all their kitchen stuff behind!

Anyway, there is beautiful view of the lake from the top deck and this past week I worked from there on Monday and half of Tuesday. That my friends… nothing beats that! Here is the view (sorry I took it with my phone so I couldn’t get the zoom I can with my camera)…

For the remainder of the month… I started the new job full time and have done my best to adapt to that and my daughter turned 22 a week ago and we still need to celebrate that with a cake… I DID do dinner for her!

As for the to-do list moving forward… I now need to move double-time on getting that title completed for my Christmas judge story and begin the process of publishing so it’s out in adequate time ahead of Christmas… I just have to find where I wrote down all the amazing titles my friends came up with! I also need to start fitting writing back in around my fuller-than-I’m-used-to schedule and I have some editing that I promised to someone.

I had also hoped to be a little further along on my Haven of Secrets sequel by now! I bought, and I’m reading, a book of haunted stories from around Canada… with the hopes that something will give me that last little piece of the puzzle to get going fully on the sequel.

Another month is on the horizon and hopefully it will be more settled! I can’t say I don’t appreciate the excitement but now I just want to sit on that deck, enjoy the view and, well, maybe get some writing done!

Thoughts…

Sometimes the thoughts run away and leave me trying to catch up. This morning a great Facebook writing group that I follow (one of the best I follow) posted that we should share our blogs so we can follow each other. This is a great idea and I will go on and follow links and hit the follow button but it started to make me wonder what people think at times when they follow my link to Writer’s Path but there’s nothing here about writing!

I know that on one of the few pages on this site I do state why but I thought I’d share that again…

I am a writer/author/blogger. I went to school and became a nurse and the desire for writing came later. For almost 20 years I have been piecing writing in around the day job that I require because there are bills to pay. However, life often gets in the way of writing like it often gets in the way of other things.

My Writer’s Path blog veers off course because of those other things and that’s the point of my blog… it’s not just about writing which I share lots of frustrations and my celebrations combined but it’s also about life and how it impacts this writer’s life!

Of course I must also admit that the new job… I’m loving it and I do hope that it will allow things on all levels to settle down and let me get back to my love of writing!

Week One

has come to an end.

I have to admit that Monday morning after two hours of video conferences I was so overwhelmed I was ready to quit! I was asking myself what I had gotten myself into!

I had a long lunch and got on another call at 2:00 and thing became clearer and we got down to the bar bones and dove in.

After two and a half days I’m loving it! It’s probably something that could get boring over time but I actually printed one out to bring to work this morning to keep my head in it. I did ask for more work to pick at while I’m off from there to wrap up at the office. Yes, I’m a sucker for punishment! I can’t wait to start full-time.

This weekend I’m going to the trailer and though the forecast doesn’t look great I’m hooping it changes a bit for the better! It will be good to get away because even though I am still at the other office all next week I think it will be a good turning point for me.

It would be great to go up the weekend I’m done at the office before starting full-time but not sure that will happen.

At least my feet are wet and my boss can’t wait for me to be full-time!

Firsts…

Today was a day of firsts for me. It was the first day of my new job and it’s a first anniversary!

It’s like new beginnings. A year and two days ago I posted an ominous message about how life can change in a heartbeat and how, no matter what, at that moment, everything HAD to change no matter how hard it would be.

It changed very quickly, faster than I ever thought it would and here I am celebrating a first anniversary, something I really haven’t celebrated in a really long time.

We made it to one year and our hope now is for many more!

May we continue to treat each other with the same respect as we have been and may we continue to keep the romance alive as much of the time that’s what happens in relationships. The romance, respect and communication breaks down because couples start to assume that feelings won’t change. They start to take advantage of the other one.

So may the music continue to play, may we continue to dance spontaneously in the grass and may the love continue to lift the other.

I seem to have veered off and focused solely on the anniversary yet work today was interesting… this morning I was so overwhelmed during the video conferences I wanted to quit by the time they wrapped up. However, I followed through with the meeting at 2:00 which significantly calmed me down and I think I will really enjoy the work once I get into it!

I know a couple of people (I believe) who have applied to this company and I wish them luck because I think it’s going to be a really great company to work for!

As for the writing, well, I do hope that some of my words above might be of inspiration to me. I know I wrote a couple of songs that I haven’t shared yet but I guess it’s up to me to write the music too which is FAR from my strong suit. Maybe I’ll have to post the words and maybe someone can help me out! I actually have scratched out a basic melody but it could use some beefing up with a guitar and drums and probably a tempo change… maybe I’ll post it sometime!

It’s past my bedtime! Goodnight Neverland!