Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)
– ee cummings from Spring is like a perhaps hand
Hello dear readers!!! You may have noticed that my posts have been MIA for some time now. My sincerest apologies in this regard. I’ve thought of posting often but in my personal life the beginning months of the year are VERY busy for me. So for better or worse I am just not able to do much writing during that time – whether it be for this humble little website or for my own fiction and poetry and such. However now as spring emerges in 2019 and the green grasses begin to crawl across the dry mountainsides, so too are my creative spirits beginning to peek their eyes and ears out from behind the hills and dales in my mind. And I am grateful. In fact I think I like this cycle to my life. The winter months are a sort of hibernation for me and my creative endeavors. I am like a cowboy hunkering down for the harsh winter, playing cards, sharpening knives, and eating beef stews by the fire. All things have a season and so too does creativity. It is okay to rest, to recline, at least for a time in order to nourish new growth, to replenish ones stock of worthy metaphors, images, visions, and ideas. Thoughts and feelings never cease to churn within us, made available to us for observation, for report, and more careful inspection. It is good to live life on its own terms with nothing but the most fundamental urges impressing themselves upon us. The need to survive, to work and labor, to engage and interact with people simply and directly. These are blessings that accumulate in our bodies, hearts, and minds. They are like mulch and compost, fodder for the artist in future days to come.
It appears I am back again and writing. I hope to return to post more regularly now. In fact it appears I have another new novel I am now only beginning to work on. Along with springtime, a new story with new characters has emerged strong within me. If you’ve been following my past posts you’ll recall I was working on a novel for much of last year. And yes it’s true that it’s still in rough draft form. Originally it was my intention this year to finish that rough draft, however it appears I may be choosing to write a first draft of this new novel now in lieu of fully completing the first one! Of course I don’t know for sure – we shall see. This is all new to me so I am working as I go and of course will be keeping you all posted of my progress. Indeed there are pros and cons to either decision and as economists will tell us, we only have finite resources available to us at any given time. There is only so much I can do in a given day, month, or year. And so there is always sacrifice. For me to buckle down and slowly work my way through the rough draft of the first novel is certainly necessary and a worthy task to be sure. One I am eager to complete. But I am also aware of a new story strongly impressing itself upon me as of late. And so to divert my attention to that feels most appropriate. A unique opportunity to capture an ember burning within me now. Perhaps in months to come it may not burn the same. It could be lost. And so this is the landscape I find myself in this springtime. I am charting my course like a captain on the seas as best I see fit. I’d love to complete my novel, and I’d also love to get this other story more down on the page too. Perhaps I can do both. We shall see. As I say this is all new to me, and frankly I’m just simply grateful for having the options and choices available to me in the first place, and that I can share them all here with you. There is much to be grateful for. Truly spring has come.