And as of Monday, I’ll be heading into a third week. Some things are easing up as far as adjusting to all of this goes, so that is a good thing. I’m still not where I want to be on a creative level. I will have an assignment due for my Creative Writing class (yes, I am in one to fulfill my degree requirements, and yes, it does feel weird), by the end of the upcoming week, so at least that will push me. As it’s a personal essay and I have, for the past few years, tried to identify what exactly is the definition of “Home”, I think I have my work cut out for me in getting that down on paper. Or, in this case: on the computer.  (And side note: I have recently determined what “Home” is to me, have figured out where that is, and am taking steps to get there. It’s quite exciting, to say the least!)

I just finished reading through “The Merry Widow of Frankenstein”, and after I clean a few bits of that up, I will start to format it for publication. I wish I had a good audio recording program so I could put it (and the rest of my work) out in that format, but I don’t and I make too many mistakes reading out loud to offer raw content. Not a priority right now, but it’s still on a warm burner.

I’m hoping my being able to get through the editing of the poem means I’m adjusting enough to this new “norm” to be able to get back into other projects with more gusto. At the very least, the stuff needing edited. I forgot to mention it in the last post, but Darling Orphan is STILL hanging out there. While it would be a great book to plunge my concentration into, I’m afraid it’s going to require far more than a survival mode mood will allow for. I’m trying to just let it be for now. It’s time will come. If memory serves, I’ve hit such walls before with other books, and they still got done. If only I could blaze through ALL of my projects like I do with some of them. Speaking of which: I don’t think I mentioned that, a few months back, I started a sequel to In the Clothing of Wolves. Again, it will be a novella, though this one will be in epistolary form. Something new I wanted to test out. I have several pages of it written, though by no means close to the majority of it. I never intended to write a sequel to that one–I kind of liked where it ended–but sadly, when a muse misbehaves to detrimental proportions, we creators do what we must to clean up the internal damage. For more details on that, you’re just going to have to read it. I have no predicted release date on that one at this time.

One last thing before I end this post: A few nights ago, I participated in a Zoom session with my Creative Writing class to discuss the upcoming personal essay assignment, as well as creative non-fiction in general. One of the things we were directed to was Brevity Magazine. I so love that format of storytelling, that one of my immediate goals is to see what stories I might have in my archives (memory) to tell in that fashion–and I do have hundreds of them. Not only could it be a great place to start as far as getting more of my work out into the world, but short reflections like that might be the perfect composition style for a time like this, and to help me feel like I’m actually being productive. All good things.

Take care, everyone, and be well.