My blog post title sounds like the name of a new indie duo. Or a Taylor Swift album. Or a short story collection short-listed for the National Book Award. Or names from a Larry McMurtry epic. All much more romantic ideas than the truth: my day job has been overwhelming and exhausting this year. Teaching a new class, assembling a huge cast and crew for a blow-out of a fall play, etc., has left little time for writing.
I suppose there are sneaky minutes here and there, even blocks of time when a novel could have been assembled between last summer and this midwinter. But I'm not a William Kent Krueger stalwart who can wake up early and plug away a little each day. I excel at working hard with focus on one project at a time, and I'm even better at collapsing into the evening or weekend, spent and gladly cocooning.
 |
| On my nightstand at the moment. |
From time to time, I admit, new project ideas slide themselves into my thoughts. My little iPhone is filled with random notes on this or that. I imagine it'll be summer again before they are considered and shuffled to stories where they belong.
Next fall will see a schedule of classes I've taught before (because I've taught pretty much everything we offer at this point), a new fall play director, and (hopefully) time of my own to devote to a new project. In passing the directing baton especially, I'm opening space for a new adventure, whatever that might be. I'm unbolting the door. We'll see what walks through.
In the meantime, I'm rethinking SPOTD's next move and reconsidering my jump into YA fiction. I suspect my heart may still lie with the little ones.
