Spring Break and Needing to Write

 Writing has been slow lately because so many other things in my life have been keeping me busy, and then when I have had time, I just wanted to turn my mind of and read someone else's books instead of working on mine.

Amazon Author Page link:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004458ES2

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard 

 But spring has arrived and my husband had his spring break 2 weeks ago, so this week when my school is on our break, I haven't got a lot distracting me, and delving back into the active word generating is appealing again.  It is something many other writers share with me, that the ideas seem to blossom when you are away from the keyboard and yet when you sit down to write you struggle to find one or two words at a time.  My theory is that my story generating state is a lot like my pre-sleep state, because I come up with the best ideas just as I am drifting off to sleep and I have to get up right then and write them down or all I will remember in the morning is that I have forgotten a great idea.

Spring here is generating new growth and encouraging me to get outside, even though there is pollen everywhere stinging my eyes and making my skin irritated, the beauty makes me want to create as well.

Usually I work about three days a week as a substitute teacher and the rest of the week I can write, do chores and try to sell my books. Now I have started a long term class of 4/5th grade students, so I am busy all the time, but getting to do some really cool things.  We are gong on a three hour sail on a tall ship, and I get to actually reach my Double time on the Oregon Trail book as part of the curriculum here for both American History and reading.  When Del Norte County Schools Director of curriculum approved the use of my novel, I had no dream that I would actually be in a 5th grade class to teach it.

So along with writing, and trying to lesson plan, and spring clean and get ready to be a grandma soon, I am also going to the beach and to the drive-in movie and puttering in the yard.  Life is good, and if you care to read one of my books check out the links above, and please, add a review if you have time.

Spring Blooming All Around Me

 I have been really busy, and writing has taken a back seat to working with a Special Education class that I was hired to teach for the last 9 weeks of the year as a long term substitute.  When I get home the dog and cat are waiting attention and exercise. The Springtime burst into bloom all around me, so instead of chaining myself to the keyboard I have given myself permission to get out and enjoy.

 I hope that you will enjoy the fact that I usually remember to take my camera with me.

 Even when I'm at home the view outside the window has mesmerized me while I sit and pet the dog or read stories to a cute little 2 year old.

 Life is good.  I plan to write more soon but today, Nature is abundantly beautiful and a picture is worth my normal word count anyway.

October is a Season of Steadfast Change

 In october you can feel the change in the air.  Every day is different than the one before.  Every Friday night gets dark quite a bit earlier than the one before it. It can be over 100 degrees where one member of the family lives while another is telling you that the temperatures dropped 65 degrees overnight and they have snow.

 Spring flowers get confused and sneak in a few new blooms while fall flowers start to show their glory and the leaves begin to outshine them all.  Fruits are plentiful and free in their abundance but already beginning to over-ripen.  The warm blackberry scented air starts to carry the smell of decaying leaves and fermentation.

"I - L- Y combined in sign language says, I Love You"

 Days that are cold and foggy in the morning leave you sweaty and breathless in the afternoon heat. Kids are back in school but the sense of summer lingers and yet Christmas things are already popping up in the stores.

For months I seem to not sell any of my books.  I carry them with me and chat about them, I write about them and tweet about them and work on the next ones but very little happens.  Then that too, changes.  I have a copy with me and don't mention it, and someone asks me if he can look at it.  Then a week later he tells me, "Well, I have bad news.  I can't give your book back" but that is because he gave it to the school district with the directions to order him a set of 36 for his class and the suggestion that it should be taught by all the 5th grade teachers in the district.  Then while I'm still smiling over that, a teacher from another school mentions that she is using the same book as a read-aloud to her class.  I know it is still baby steps, but that is perfect for Double Time on The Oregon Trail because this huge continent was crossed one baby step at a time.

 So while I welcome fall with jars of home canned blackberry jam and stacks of firewood stored up in the hope of defeating the cold ahead. While I stock up on candles for the inevitable dark, and stroll on the beach in a last celebration of warmth and light - I think about change and progress.  I think that the old, "the more things change the more they stay the same," is proven true once again.

 Every October I feel the same changes happening, new but steadfastly familiar as the earth repeats a pattern ancient and sure.  Every October I turn nostalgic and compare where I am to where I was and where I hope to go.  I work with the kids at school and realize I once taught their parents.  I write my stories and take my pictures and tell the people in my life that I adore them.  I know each October finds a few new people in my life and a few old ones missing, but I carry them in my heart and take the baby steps toward the day when i get to hold them in my arms once more.