On the Lull.

The last update to the blog was in October. October. 

This isn't October. Neither November, nor even December. It's January, and only barely that anymore. So, the assignment here before me is to update you on the glorious whirlwinds of these months past.

October was damn fantastic. After toying with the notion that I could allow myself time away from the Asylum work-in-progress, I took to the rest of the month with great enjoyment. Absolutely spectacular memories were made here with my little family, and as Sprout had just turned 2 in September, everyday was a new and exciting event of exploration and adventure. She dressed up as a 'Butter-vi' (Butterfly wings, black and white striped pants, purple dress, bear-ear hat – she picked it all.) for Halloween, I rocked kitty ears, & Mike was adorable. We strolled about downtown Nashville, GA … drank in the sweet community: the love, smiles, cheer. Visited with my family before and dear friends after. Halloween was pretty great. Sprout made friends with a gargantuan chicken.

November was its own beautiful monster. I was honored to participate in Downtown Nashville's 'First Thursday' event in November. The first Thursday of each month has a fine festival to promote local love and support, arts and business. So there I was: seven days removed from the beginning of NaNoWriMo's start pistol, and doing my absolute best to keep it out of the mind for the evening. My distracted psyche aside, it was really cool and I got to hang out with my youngest sister, Syd, as well as some of my favorite ladies of Nashville. Later in the month (much later, nearly the end) I had an author event at the library of Nashville. Standard readings, Q & A, light refreshments, reconnecting with an incredibly important person to my life, terror, terror, terror, & terror. I was told that I came off as 'charming and engaging' which is the best evidence of my excellent acting ability... as I was as frantic as a kitty dangling over a full bathtub. I was so giddy and grateful for the event and the kindness of the attendants, that I went a little loopy. It's alright, no one got hurt.

And in November, Iona... More on that later.

December was sickness. The three of us were passing some nefarious virus thing back and forth for the bulk of the month. As it eased, we had travel on the horizon and ventured out to the great icy mid-west to spend sometime with Mike's side. It was beautiful there to the end of the month, but the virus was a devourer of time and mind. It was grueling.

I have no excuse or explanation for January. I just realized January is now... a few days ago. That's going to be my bad. That's on me. My fault.

Now, about November's Iona & the aftermath Asylum:
November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – I participated this year because I needed a vacation from the Asylum novel & because I promised involvement to a few pallies.

That first week of November (First Thursday Event) – I had no idea what I was going to do. I lie, I had an idea: I had a rough idea of a thing and the direction of the thing and the direction I didn't want the thing to take and blahblah... I was winging it.

'Winging it' started to pay off and things took shape in a nice fortuitously organic way. By the time the library event happened, (November 25), I had a plump head o' steam. I wanted to finish the story. I did, and I'm very proud of the results. Iona is now available for your own library.

January is being addressed by the Asylum. Progress has been made. More on that later.