An Update

I see that it has been three months since I last posted, but I have an excuse. We have been in the process of finding a new place to live, one that will better serve us as we enter our seventh decade. Living in a small rural town of 2,000 people has its advantages, but as one grows older, things like family and health care closer at hand, as well as yard work, snow shoveling, etc, began to weigh on one's mind. That being the case, we set out to find a condo in the nice sized city of Eau Claire Wisconsin this spring.

I hate to travel, so luckily I only had to make one 400 mile round trip to view a possible condo, which, as it turned out was just about perfect. We had an offer drawn up right after leaving the viewing, which was accepted the next day. In the current house market, you don't have the luxury of "sleeping on it."

Of course, that was only the beginning. I had been working all spring to get our house spruced up and de-cluttered and yard trimmed, so has to be ready to put our property on the market. However, since we did not dare to put our house on the market until we had actually closed on the Eau Claire condo -- so as not to find ourselves homeless if the wheels should come off the deal -- we only put it on in the middle of June. Luckily it was a good time to sell a house, and it sold within 10 days. Next up was moving...

All spring we had been "downsizing", taking car loads of junk to the charity stores and the dump. However, once I started packing, it became clear that we had not been ruthless enough. Plus, I have too many books and paintings, both of which get too heavy fast. Still, in the end, we had everything boxed and ready for the movers when the came in July. They loaded up one day, and unloaded the next. And then the process went in reverse -- figuring out where to put everything in the new place. After which there is the process of opening new bank accounts, setting up phone and the internet, and just finding our way around our new hometown while we waited for the sale of our house to be finalized. After one last 400 mile round trip a week or so ago, we closed on the house and had finished the big move.

All of which is to say, that I've been far too busy to write anything. While I have been thinking about the next story since I finished up Sailing to Redoubt, I've not been able to come up with anything more than a couple of opening scenes or two. The actual story has so far eluded me. Part of the problem is that I'm fussy about the stories I write. Not only do I want a story that I will enjoy daydreaming up for months on end, but I also need a story that falls within the rather narrow limits of my talent. This has never been easy for me. However, once I get a story in hand, I can write it fairly fast. I started Sailing to Redoubt in October and published it in March, so that there's still plenty of time for me to come up with my 2020 novel. And well, I do have two characters and how they fit together in mind, which is a start. Hopefully, I can find a story for them. I'll update you when I know more.