Back from hiatus

It feels right to come back now.

I did not get everything done that I would have liked to while I was out, but things did get caught up at the day job, and that is a big relief. Even when the length of time you spend at work is the same, some time takes a lot more out of you.

I am not finished with the one hundred pages of self-examination that I am referring to as "Everything Else", though some good progress has been made. I really meant to be finished with that.

I have told these stories before, but it's been a while. Everything Else has a counterpart, "Everything", that I felt similarly moved to work on once upon a time. When I finished it I had a dream that became my first screenplay. When I finished the very long fan fiction writing, I had a dream that became what initially looked like just my seventh screenplay, except I hadn't written a new feature length screenplay for a while at that point, and now we know it was the foundation for a series of novels.

Based on that, I have been hoping that finishing Everything Else would send me forward again, and this time it would be to the project that would sell. I'm eager for that. However, even without finishing, I have had another dream that's sticking with me.

I do love having something I am excited to work on. Currently, that's actually four things that I am excited about.

The next two books are going to have to wait. I had sort of wanted to get Lisa out by Valentine's Day, but I am not really positioned as a romance writer now, so that's not a huge lost opportunity.  Nonetheless, for that series it will be the first one based in Portland instead of Eugene (there are a couple of OHSU students in it), and I am looking forward to working on it.

I never get the Family Blood books out at their corresponding times. Set from October 31st through November 3rd, Family Blood came out in mid-December. Covering November 3rd through the day after Thanksgiving, Family Ghosts went out on March 31st. And set in June, Family Reunion was published on November 18th. Therefore, with the next installment happening over spring break, it seems very unlikely that it could come out in March, no matter how perfect that might be. (But it will go back to Spruce Cove, and introduce a multi-novel arc that will take us to other countries.)

That's okay. Right now I have one feature screenplay to write, and one television pilot. Doing that means working out characters and fictional communities. For one setting up the rules of magic for this particular setting, but I am also looking at the workings of colleges, and the habits of suburban fathers and rock stars, plus maintaining the daily blogging again and remaining civic-minded.

When I started the daily blogging initially, it was intended to meet a need in terms of covering all of the things I wanted to write about, but it was also to see that I could do it. That was important to see, but this time it was important to see that it is okay to take a break. I'm glad I did it. Nothing broke because of it.

I am going to be really busy for the next couple of months, but I am feeling energized again, and it's a nice change.