Like Frosty says, I’ll be back again someday.
Not blogging has its advantages. I don’t have to wonder whether the people who send me their blog-related press releases and promotion requests actually read my site. When someone emails me suggesting that I plug their $20 PDF book (!) in my next post, I know right away that they’ve never laid eyes on this page because surely they would have noticed the tumbleweeds and packs of feral dogs roaming around, yes? If my blog was a mall, nothing would be open except a Hallmark store and a Chinese buffet. It won’t always be like that, but until this draft of the new book is done I can only offer you egg rolls and Precious Moments.
The disadvantage to not blogging, of course, is that I miss it. I miss putting words out here in the internet world (which is all bright and colorful and blinky) instead of being stuck inside a long messy MS Word document (which is lots of monochrome sadness). Don’t get me wrong, I also love the book work, making paragraphs stick together, or whatever it is I have been doing nearly every day for nearly a year. After a while it doesn’t feel like writing. My chapters tend to start with all these scattered bits—notes, and quotes transcribed from books, and scraps left over from other chapters, and putting them all together and tidying up the page feels more like playing some kind of really texty Tetris. Except slower. A lot slower.
Somehow amidst all this, the apartment got clean (OK, I paid someone to clean it) and we put up our little tree and hauled out the Christmas records (our new favorite this year is this one, because I mean, LOOK AT IT, but also it’s really a jam), and got ready for the end of the year (almost, we’re almost there), and the writing will continue to happen somewhere in between (I swear), until sometime around the end of the week when I’ll get to relax, and everything will stand still. And that will be good.
I wish my methodical Tetris-brain was quick enough tonight to tell you more about the past year, which was amazing and strange and both incredibly trying and deeply satisfying. All I’ll say is that it’s a good thing I took notes. Anyway, Merry Christmas!
I think I speak for everyone who ever reads your blog when I say “We truly miss it!”. I love your satisfying little sentences. I miss the imagery of things like a comparison to a mall with only a Hallmark and a Chinese Buffet. Who thinks of that? Only you. So I cruise by this semi-abandoned mall on occasion, hoping that I might find a cool store might have popped up.
It’s nice to have you, even if only sporadically! Merry Christmas.
I second those emotions! Can’t wait for the new book and can’t wait until you have time to blog regularly. Merry Christmas!
Count me in too. Looking forward to purchasing the finished product.
You’ve finally posted! We sure have missed you…Godspeed with the new book.
We have missed you and are looking forward to the new book; as Lezlee says, I drive by periodically to see if anything is open. Happy New Year!
Good luck with the new book! Can’t wait to read it.
Take Care.
Your posting breaks make me feel better about my lack of posting mojo, though I am looking forward to your return (and the next book)!
When my “Wendy” jones gets really bad, I pull out my mackerel pudding plan copy. I must live in the past (your past) until you bring me out of my funk with the new book. Can you throw us a blog bit to tide us over? I’ll go hunt down Almanzo for you and take pictures, if you will:)
New entry this week!