My quiet journey of late…

I have some catching up to do as I haven’t blogged since April. I was actually sitting in the kitchen in my Madison, Indiana, rental house and was writing then about seeing the Northern Lights in Norway. Ironically during my visit there was a a great Northern Lights show in much of the country, including Indiana along the Ohio River, but I slept through it. 🙂 Still I was able to enjoy wildflowers and lunch at Pizza Uncommon and buying my favorite jewelry from 3 Bespoke Crows at the farmers market. It was a beautiful visit.

About this time, however, I was coming to grips with the realization that I was going to have to have eye surgery as the pterygium growths I have in both eyes was suddenly greatly impacting my vision in my left eye. I don’t know how much vision I had left but it wasn’t a lot. And I realized in one horrible moment in Indiana that driving at night was nearly impossible as all the lights were incredibly smeary and confusing. It was a very frightening experience.

To make a long story short and to gloss over some of the details such as not sleeping for weeks due to fear, I did have the surgery July 12 in Oxnard, California. This was a specialist who does this surgery a lot which is important because pterygium, while benign, frequently grows back and there is only so many times (twice, I’ve been told) that this surgery can be performed.

I made it through the surgery … awake but fortified with valium and a lot of meditation exercises and the kind well-wishes of friends and family. And, to my great joy, I think my eyesight is improving rapidly as the cornea is able to return to a more normal size after previously being pushed into an egg shape by the pterygium.

OK, so enough about that!

But as a result, I haven’t been writing much. I did attend the California Crime Writers conference in June and I have had several feedback sessions on my Work in Progress from established writers and editors. These have been inspiring and thought-provoking. And I’m currently taking a plotting classes from writers.com, which I think is going to be very helpful.

So now, as part of my recovery, I promise to be a bit more present here as well.

Thank you for listening!

Finally at a milestone

Manzanita Beach

We spent some time in August and September in Oregon including probably my favorite place in the world: Manzanita. I had lots of alone time to walk the beach, pick up shells, visit with sea stars and sea gulls and watch pelicans skirt above the waves. It was truly wonderful.

For some reason, though, I just stopped writing and I didn’t get back to the laptop until a few days ago. On the positive side, the plotting work I’ve been doing seems to be paying off and I feel like I’m moving forward again in a more productive way.

AND I just reached the 25,000-word mark which I’m going to pretend is half way even though it probably is quite a bit short of half way. At any rate, it’s as far as I’ve ever achieved on a novel Work in Progress, so I am definitely celebrating!