It's Halloweeeen Week!
“…All Saint’s Day Month!”
I love the fall and I love October and I love Halloween, but despite all the spookiness, the chill and chimney smells, spices and la-la-la’s of the annual Gilmore Girls rewatch, saying “It’s Halloween” will forever remind me of Community. I’m sorry, my favorite holiday, but that’s just the way it is now.
It’s been a busy month and a half. Productive? Oh no, I didn’t say that. Just lots of doctor and vet appointments, a never-ending house maintenance list, and ill cats. I redecorated my bathroom and it’s gone from “spooky” to “unsettling,” which is what I was going for. Our closet got a makeover that should be finished by tonight. I spent a whole day making burritos for the month (that’s a long story). And a hundred other things.
Maybe Sweden broke me. Maybe I went there and spent almost three weeks walking an average of 18,000 steps a day, eating amazing food, being social and spending time with friends, going on adventures and generally loving life, only to come back to the States and its…drama. I’ve never felt more crushed by the gears of capitalism than having an immediate comparison to Scandinavia, and I don’t even have a job!
But at least I got to a good point in one writing-related project: I realized that the RPG campaign I’ve been working on isn’t just a quick one-shot, and isn’t something I can make up as I go along, but is actually a huge beast of a story, and one that deserves my dedicated attention. Meaning I would have to commit to it as though it were another novel. Under certain circumstances, this wouldn’t be a problem, but doing it for fun, instead of working on something that I can sell, just isn’t a good choice right now.
I’ve been brainstorming my next series, another contemporary queer romance, and I think it has the potential to be at least eight books. An ensemble story, and every couple gets their own novel. But as Jacqueline Carey says, “Writing = Butt In Chair,” and I have to get my butt back in my chair. Day-to-day, I’m frustrated that I haven’t been able to find the block of time I need to sit down and really get into it, but when I look up and back at what I’ve done this year, I know I should be proud of what I’ve accomplished. I finished book 3 of the first series, got it all edited and read by a sensitivity reader. I literally published two poetry collections that have been sitting around for almost a decade. I traveled more than any other year, to places that have been on my list for as long as I knew they existed. It’s been a good year! I shouldn’t feel so bad about not jumping right in to a new series.
Believe it or not, I’m traveling again next week. Unsure if I’ll get any new series work done, but I’ll be sure to enjoy myself. Sometimes you just need sea air, even if it is in Maine in October.