Writing? Don't ask.

A friend wrote me a note the other day mentioning that the blog tells only of my travels and she asked where she could learn about my writing. This is my writing, for now anyway. I have several short stories in a shared mystery anthology with some friends (Valley Fever, Where Murder is Contagious), another short story in a German anthology (good news is it’s been in print for over 10 years bad news is it doesn’t do you any good unless you read German), one unpublished novel, and some short shorts out of print now (sounds like a familiar Christmas song).

The past few years, I kind of burned out on writing and submitting; so little pay for so much work--but really, teaching had exhausted me and I just couldn't put on my creative writing cap. Berated by my writing friends for not writing, I'd avoided mentioning writing at all when I could get away with it. This blog keeps my mind working—even though it’s been quite a few months since the last entry, I have been writing down ideas, doing a memoir and working on some ancestry stories—and, as I do regularly, writing a journal.

Then, there it was again the other day, the dreaded, “Are you working on your manuscript?” “No, but I’ve started a new short story—sci-fi.” I’m superstitious when it comes to talking about writing. Either you're doing it or you are not and talking about it takes the wind right out of your sails—or sucks the ideas right out of your head. “What’s it about,” can be deadly to your ideas until you’ve got them all down.

So, send me good energy and maybe I'll get published again this year, just don’t ask if I’m

writing.

I'm still dwelling on October in Hawaii. First night on Kauai

and sunrise next morning.

Kauai was our first island this trip, which we hadn't been to in over 30 years. LOVED it, again.

more to come. . .