The Process vs The Practical.

  The month of March had me out of commission; I spent 3/4 of it in downstate Michigan helping my mother to recover from some back surgery, hence the lag in blog posts. I had considered posting but I was really too tired to put more than a few sentences together so decided to hold off- I'm sure none of you wanted to read that!

  And now it's almost May and, I have to say, this has been one hella disjointed winter! I was in New Orleans for about 6 weeks just into the new year, then to my mother's, then a week with my brother at his new place in South Carolina. I flew home from there, with Jack going back to New Orleans for some work.  Throughout it all, I managed to finish the manuscript of Book 3 in the Faerie Tale Chronicles series and will begin editing on Monday. 

  Regarding the writing; it's a struggle between my head and my heart every day. Every. Day. I had never ever planned on being an author and had never written fiction. That being said, there are these stories that I feel compelled to write down; they are already there, just waiting for me to get the words out. That process is personal, amazing, and almost spiritual; these characters that speak and have lives that they want other people to know about. The physical books make the ethereal material, so says my heart. 

  My head, however, says things like How much is this costing? Can you recoup the money? Where are these books going? Is anyone but you interested in these stories? Perhaps it'd be best to just keep them as digital ebooks which are essentially free and you won't be using family resources for this ego-trip. You must promote these to sell these but don't promote too much or you'll look pathetic. 

  I try to walk the line between head and heart by simply writing and enjoying the process but there are the downtimes when it's a battle between the two and I have to just walk away and wait for the storm to calm down. This is one of those times... it gets better and I doubt that I'm not the only creative human that battles the process vs the practical but sometimes it seems like it.

  Anyway, Book 3 is almost a physical reality and the restaurant will be starting up again in about 3 weeks for the summer season which means I will be running so fast that none of those internal debates will matter for a bit. :-) The hyper-focus of the summer months is almost a respite from the internal monologues of the off-season! 

  And Spring is really almost here- so says the calendar! Ha! The temperature hasn't yet received that memo and it's been COLD, like midwinter cold! Last night was in the low 20s but the sun is out this morning so at least it's bright. I'm going to my daughter's for dinner this evening and out with some friends tomorrow night in a concentrated effort to get out of my cave mentality - obviously too much time in my own head isn't a good thing for me! 
Spring is always a slightly dangerous time; it's a liminal space within the Wheel of the Year. And while the overriding cultural idea is that it's all about new beginnings and rebirth it has also shown itself to be a time of clearing away and removal of what no longer serves... Summer? Summer is full-on abundance and activity and energy and I welcome it every year.