We just made it through a blizzard—a classic New England Nor’easter. The storm spun up from the south then curved north then east—over and over. And over. These storms produce a lot of snow (2 to 3 feet) and high winds. I heard they clocked 75 mph gusts on Nantucket. This one spun from 2:00 pm Monday and kept on spinning until Wednesday morning. It’s the first big storm of the season down here where I live. Time will tell, but it might just be the only one all year. Some years you get 2 feet of snow over the course of a few storms and other years you get 2 feet all at once.
When winter begins, you just don’t know how it’s gonna fall out.
All the stuff we didn’t need since the power—much to my children's disappointment—did NOT go out. Took about 2 collective hours of waiting in lines for all of it. With 3 kids. SIGH.
Something like the manuscript I’m working on right now. However, it’s been more a matter of twelve or thirteen winters with the accumulation of 27 feet of snow. Some big storms, some little. A blizzard of words or minor flurries.
This book—Talking Underwater—has been a long time coming.
I started writing it when I was in graduate school in Colorado. It has a simple beginning: I missed my sister and I missed my favorite beach. (Well, all beaches since Colorado runs short on them, but especially my beach.) I wrote some little pieces and my peers really liked the work. I kept building on it and used it as part of my Master’s Thesis. I kept writing until it was something pretty much whole. So this novel is the first I ever wrote and first novels are too often like first pancakes: you usually screw up the first pancake. I have gone through so many drafts on this novel. So many people have read it and given me feedback. I have given up on it numerous times. But it keeps calling to me. And many of the good people who have read it keep asking when it will be published.
Well, we have a date! July 2015!
That’s how the window looked during the storm. (This is definitely the best photo caption of this blog post.)
Which means I officially have to finish writing it. Which means I officially have to stop procrastinating. Or, as I like to call it, cleaning. Organizing and reorganizing, decluttering, tidying, a little DIY-ing. (Checking the thesaurus for as many synonyms for “cleaning” as I can find.) Pretty much anything that can be cleaned up, put away, put somewhere else, purged or scrubbed is getting some kind of treatment. Also blogging. Another great way to procrastinate. I should write a post about all the best ways to procrastinate ...
Why am I procrastinating? Isn’t writing something I love? I never claimed to be uncomplicated, people. That’s why. Exactly. Okay, I am officially stopping all this and any unnecessary cleaning and I am getting back to editing Talking Underwater. I truly am so excited to share this story with you. I will be doling out details here and there in the next few months as I bring this book to life and into your hands!
That’s about halfway through the storm. (This photo caption is also pretty good. But not as good as the last one.)
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