Mandatory break

So, I'm pretty sure that anyone who reads this can already tell that I've been on a writing break for a while. It's kind of a huge "duh" at this point. But nonetheless, here I am making the announcement.

I didn't want to go on a break right now, but I didn't have a choice. Between various things in my personal life and the fun stress that comes with them, I was burning out pretty badly. I can tell you from experience that trying to force yourself to keep working on something while burned out is one of the worst mistakes you can make. So rather than ruin a book, I chose to back off for a while. And as it turns out, my brain is slowly beginning to rejuvenate (yay). 

I've had a number of ideas for story concepts, plot fragments, character profiles, and other things like that trickling through my head while on break. Imagine, if you will, the late night scene: We're finally getting to bed after a long day, the lights have been turned off, and then I pop up like a wild woman and grab my phone to make a note before it's gone from my head. I'm sure you can hear my puzzled husband's sleepy questions as to what in the world I'm doing, because we're finally going to bed.

It's not all been for Taloner:Wekthusia; much of it has been for other projects. With that being said, I plan to make time and sit down to go over a few things in the T:W plot and re-work a few details that have been bothering me. I'd like to resume working on this book before the year's out, and while right now it seems like I still have a whole six months to worry about that, that time does tend to disappear quickly. As the manuscript currently sits, I'm roughly 80% of the way through drafting it.

This story has been more challenging than I anticipated it would be, as a couple of the characters have really started feeling like empty cardboard cutouts. And that is something that I do not want. These characters are their own people, with unique personalities and strengths and flaws, and I want to convey that to anyone reading about them in the best way I can. My aim as a writer is very much to help transport you, the reader, into another world that you can experience and enjoy with me. Nobody enjoys staring at a cardboard box. Or reading about one.

As an aside, I'll also try to update this blog a little more, even if there's not much going on with my writing. I'd rather that it not just become a vacant outpost. 

When Things Must End

You know, I've been doing a lot of internal review and contemplation. I haven't posted here in a while due to some heavy personal things I've been dealing with. I haven't been able to write since July. It isn't writer's block. I just haven't had the energy to create.

I've been thinking a lot about what would happen if I was no longer present on the face of this earth, as grim as it sounds. I have been writing in my series for nearly twenty years. And what do I have to show for it? One revised book and a train wreck of projects waiting around to be written, completed, or overhauled and pulled from the limbo badlands. 

What would I leave behind as a writer if I only had two months left? Two years? Five years? What would happen if I could suddenly no longer write? There are so many stories I want to draft and have exist just for the sheer sake of knowing I wrote them and they're somewhere besides inside my own head.

In recent years, I've realized I need to get back to my roots and the original reason I started writing: for me. It was never to become rich or famous or cool or anything like that. I wanted to create my stories for me. For the simple yet complex and rich pleasure of picking up a story I know I could trust and enjoy. For reliving those raw wisps of energy and thought in a refined form and woven together more cohesively in a fashion that I could enjoy again and again, at my own discretion.

Now, I just hope I have the opportunity to continue to write and bring as many of these stories to life as I can before anything comes up that would prevent me from adding material to my list of accomplishments. I still intend to do as much as I can to achieve that goal. I have no idea when I'll be able to get another book published and available to the public, but I hope it isn't too far down the road. There is so much in my imagination that I don't want to let die. A trilogy must be completed yet again. A duology must join it in written form. A mini series yearns to grow its family. Standalone stories, new series, adventures with magic and machines and space and darkness and light and intrigue are all crying to be told. I will do my best to bring them to fruition. And all along the way, I just hope and pray that I have the strength to accomplish what I desire.

New Year, New Goals

You know, it occurred to me recently that my writing has been a serious hobby for about seventeen years, now. In that time, I've managed to draft and publish a trilogy and several additional books, but most of those are unavailable to the public due to my decision to go back and revise most all of my work up til now. I never really pressured myself to say, "I'm going to have X number of books published in ten years, and Y number in fifteen", because that kind of goal-setting seems to work against my grain. But, honestly, I've not made near the amount of progress in seventeen years that I would have liked.

By now, it's no secret that I've struggled to get back in the groove with my writing since finding out I was going to become a mother. Motherhood has been a colossal shift in my life, and I've not had nearly the same amount of energy or time that I had before to devote to writing. I'd imagine it's a challenge most every new parent faces, whether it be with their creative endeavors, balancing work and home life, or some other application. So I've been working on coming to terms with the fact that my life just isn't the same anymore, and finding new methods to accomplish my goals. Kind of like forging new paths across a landscape that you used to travel frequently, then had the scenery get obliterated by some natural disaster. The route you traveled before no longer exists, and now you have new obstacles to cross and understand.

It does sound kind of bleak when I put it that way, but I don't mean it to be that way. I'm just trying to understand and make peace with how my writing energy is different now. It's still there, I can still feel the core of that energy circling within me and waiting for new channels to flow through. The biggest challenge for me now is chipping out those channels and learning how to moderate the flow of energy so that I don't burn out or give up altogether during a drought.

So, that brings me to my goals for this year. Remember those notebooks I lost last year? I finally found them (YAY!!!) I am in the process of reviewing my notes and materials in order to resume work on Taloner: Wekthusia, and one of my goals will be to complete the first draft by the end of 2020 and begin prepping it for revision and eventual publication. I'm unsure yet if that publication will happen this year or the next, but I'm pushing to get it done ASAP. I really feel like my readers have waited long enough for something new from the Legends of Destiny universe.

The next order of business: revision of Nethbane will continue throughout this year, and I'd also like to get this back into publication as soon as is humanly possible. I've been pretty lax with assigning myself weekly quotas for writing, but now it feels like I've been too lax. When I was revising Wings of Fate, I was working on it at least every other day, if not daily, and logging massive sums of work each week. I can't realistically expect that same kind of workload to get accomplished now as a mother, but you'd better believe I'm going to do everything I can to get things rolling again!

In addition to these goals, I have decided that as soon as I finish either the first draft of Taloner: Wekthusia or the revision of Nethbane, it's time to resume the revision of Path of a Hero, the second book in my trilogy. I've been thinking about it more over the past few months and slowly working through ideas on how to reshape some of the messier, muddier spots in the original manuscript. I would really like to see this book refined, finished, and back into print by the end of 2021. Sooner would be excellent, but it took me about two years to revise Wings of Fate, and Path of a Hero was a larger book to begin with. I'm hoping it won't take more than two years, maximum, to finish reworking it and cleaning it up. There's also the matter of new cover art for the revised edition, but we'll cross that bridge later.

Last year, it had been my plan to finish drafting Taloner: Wekthusia and then move on to other short projects, such as future Taloner books (there are at least three others I've got summaries written for, at present) but after much reflection, I've decided that the rest of the Taloner Chronicles will have to wait. After I've gotten most of the above-mentioned workload done, I intend to resume work on the duology, which has been patiently waiting for me to return to it.

My brain is saturated with sooo many things I'm dying to share with readers through that duology. There is just so much of Gaia and the series that I'd love to give all of you to read, in the intimate detail with which it exists in my head. There are other stories, too, such as the loosely-connected series Foreign Lands that I hope to someday draft and publish.

I'll stop all my chattering there, though. I've learned by now that my energy seems to best remain self-sustaining if I don't give away too many details of the content I'm working on at any given time. It's strange. And, I'm burning precious time by writing this blog entry. I really need to grit my teeth, dig my heels in, and get to work.

Until next time. And as always, thank you for reading <3 p="">

Fall Update

Happy Fall, everyone! I hope you’re all staying comfortable and enjoying the season. We’ve been busy working over some of our fields in an attempt to clear out lots of nasty old greasewood and creosote brush so that we can plant wheat. Long story short – hard soil bad. Tractors good.

I’ve continued to work on what was supposed to be the final revision of Nethbane, but the more I dig into this, the more disgusted and disappointed I am with how sloppy some of it feels. I put a lot of time and effort into this book when originally drafting and revising it (a LOT) and to read through it now and think that I only wrote this about six years ago, I’ve begun reworking it in the same fashion that Wings of Fate was subjected to – IE, a complete re-write.

The core of everything will stay the same (with a few extra things) but I have no choice but to overhaul Nethbane before getting it back into print. I am a perfectionist by nature, and I will accept nothing but the best quality that I am capable of at any given time. This means that the revision may take longer than I’d first anticipated, but whatever. At least it will feel better to me, and hopefully flow better for readers.

Still no sign of my large writing binder or its companion notebook, unfortunately. And now my main sketchbook has gone missing, as well. I’ve not seen any of them in months and the only thing I can think is that I put all three of them somewhere very safe while moving – so safe, of course that I can’t locate them. I’ll continue to search, but if I can’t find them within the next little while here, I may just break down and rework some things in the outline for Taloner: Wekthusia so that I can at least finish the first draft. I really was hoping to have this book ready for print some time next year, and I’m not giving up on that goal. Of course, that leaves the matter of getting myself back into digital art, which I’ve not really done for about three years, but it has to happen at some point.

In other news, I’m still exhausted day and night, but by this point I’ve realized that this will never go away and I’ve begun to adjust mentally. It does create more frustration with trying to write and hold onto all sorts of different little details, but I guess that’s why I have a bunch of blank notebooks hoarded (and a plethora of digital notes) Time to fill everything up with work!

Being in a constant state of utter exhaustion also means art will be sparser (not like you didn’t notice that already, right?) But I am hoping to do a little art here and there, instead of lots of nothing.

PS - Is there a character or creature from Legends of Destiny that you would like to see drawn? Feel free to mention it in the comments!

What Once Was Lost...

Hello again, dear readers. Happy news: For the first time in more than five years, I have internet at home.

And, some not-so-happy news: I cannot locate the large binder (or its companion notebook) in which I have recorded a very significant amount of notes for my writing. Both have to be somewhere amongst the things that have been packed up for moving, but after scouring multiple places that these notebooks could and should be, I still cannot locate either of them. I am at a point in the manuscript of Taloner: Wekthusia where I cannot continue forward without being able to consult my notes for vital bits of information I have there, and I am unwilling to plow blindly ahead and create a large mess to come back and clean up later on. So, after much consideration and no small amount of regret, I am forced to take a temporary break from working on the manuscript. With luck, I will be able to find at least the binder or the notebook within the next little while. Once I do, work will resume. This is really the only problem with condensing so much of your thoughts, notes, and work into one central point.

This is really frustrating for me because the past several months have been full of progress, and this is the most productive I've felt with my writing since revising and re-releasing Wings of Fate. Waiting is not something I enjoy doing.

However, I've also come to the decision that while I am attempting to locate my lost notes, I will begin working on another project that has been weighing on my mind quite heavily for the last while; the final revision for Nethbane is overdue, and I will be applying myself to this project in the meantime. There are a couple of new chapters that need to be written and inserted, as well as something being modified near the end of the book.

While my large binder and notebook are missing, I did manage to unearth a single page of very important notes that I had lost while working on the original draft of Nethbane's manuscript. The last sixth or so of the book never did feel quite right to me, and I knew I was missing something, but I couldn't remember what. It was a relief to find this lonely little scrap of paper, which is now being kept in a safe place.

I think that's enough of an update here, for now. If you'll excuse me, I have a little over 215,000 words I need to read through and polish.

Resurfacing

Posting an update here to assure everyone that yes, I'm still alive. It wasn't intentional to have time lapse so long between updates, but I have been dealing with heavy Post Partum Depression since having my son. I went back and forth for a while on whether or not to really say anything here, but this blog has always been intended as a place where I can speak candidly about everything affecting the creative parts of my life, and that includes the obstacles that occasionally come out of nowhere and overwhelm me like a tidal wave.

I'm someone who's no stranger to depression, as I've had it all my life, but the past couple of years have been especially hard. It's only very recently that I've finally begun to resurface from what feels like a bottomless, dark lake that smothers everything else in life. And it's taken its toll - I have gotten absolutely no writing done for the past three months. This, on top of the extremely sparse work I was able to do during my pregnancy and for several months after the arrival of my son, has left me feeling somewhat of a sense of urgency to continue my work as a writer. I'm not sure yet whether that urgency is stemming from the load of work I've set up for myself to complete, or if it's the herald of some new challenge that is coming my direction. Either way, I have resolved to attack my hefty project list and do as much as I can before I either burn out again or some large and new hurdle appears on my path - whichever happens first, I guess.

So, obviously I'm not going to be able to pursue the Spring release for Taloner: Wekthusia that I was hoping for, but crap happens. I am back at work on the manuscript and have selected which projects I will be working on once T:W is written, revised, and in print. I'm really looking forward to knocking projects down one at a time and getting more books written and revised and back into the hands of readers.

And as an aside, I am in the laboriously slow process of helping my husband to fix up two houses and move from one to the other. I am also still a resident of No Internet Land, and now a resident of Poor Signal Land, as well. So updates here may continue to be far and few between for a little while.

Wishing you all well. Here goes nothin'.

Progress is Progress

Well, work has been very slow for the past four months. My son has always struggled with sleeping well, and if you've never gone for a long time without much REM, let me tell you - it wipes you out. You stumble through the day like a zombie, and then you wonder how it got to be nighttime again so that the cycle repeats. Housework is drudgery. Exercise is torture, if you even achieve that much. And the ability to function like a sane person is almost non-existent.

But enough of that.

I have selected which book will be my main writing project for the year. I'd rather not say which book it is just yet, as that seems to knock the wind out of my sails. But, I can say that it is not either of the following titles: Taloner: Blue, nor Taloner: Dio. Both of these titles need a significant amount of work to their plotlines and development before I can really start working on them.

So, that being said, I'm trying very hard to devote all of the spare time I have to working on my book for the year ..... which isn't much. I'm still holding out hope that that changes soon, but at this point, I've just decided that tired or not, I'll be sacrificing some much-needed sleep time to work on writing. Worth a shot, right?

I was hoping to have a character sketch up with this post, but alas, I need to find the installation software again for my scanner. Le sigh.

Until next time, readers. Stay sharp (and rested!)

It calls to me ...

Well, well. It has certainly been another while since my last update here. In that time, I’ve been experiencing the very incredible task of becoming a mother. To sum things up, I am still recovering in some regards and have next to no time for myself, but I love being home with my little one. What’s more is that at long last, my energy reserves for creative endeavors are returning – and demanding to be set loose. So, here I am, attempting to gather together my thoughts and notes on what projects face me for the next decade (wow).

I actually bothered to make a New Year’s resolution this year. My goal is to complete the first draft of any one of the writing projects that I have in progress at present. It’s going to be a pressing goal under my current time constraints, especially since I’m still adjusting to caring for another person and the term “sleep deprived” is only mildly describing my state of consciousness. But, I need to write. After more than a year long dry spell, the drive to complete and publish more of my stories is strong.

So, cut the chatter. Here’s a list of the items vying for my attention. And reader beware, there are spoilers ahead!

Path of a Hero (revision)

My current progress on this is sitting at a scant 3,100 words – which leaves about 197,000 words for me to read through and revise, yet. Like Wings of Fate, I am revising Path of a Hero by completely rewriting the manuscript as I read through it. Very, very few sentences are left just the way they are, if any. It’s a grueling task, but very much worth it to me. I am still enormously pleased with the rewrite of Wings of Fate and hope to find similar satisfaction with this book, despite the fact that there are a couple of particularly messy hang-ups I know I’m going to have to contend with in the manuscript.

Book 9

Sitting at a little over 67,000 words, Book 9 is still a project I’m very much looking forward to completing … when I can devote enough time and attention to it. Becoming a mother was not something I had planned on just yet. Be that as it may, I know that this is a project I will return to, most probably within the next few years. I really don’t have a choice – the story is burning in my soul and begs to be finished.

This book is the first half of a duology. In the very early stages of conception, this was planned as an installment in another trilogy, but due to story concepts and symbolism that has to do with the over all plot of the books, this was better suited as a duology. In the past year or so, I’ve been able to gather my thoughts and plan out a lot more detail for the second half of the duology than I had since completing the original drafts of The Rebirth Trilogy. So, here’s a little blurb for you:

Roughly a year after the events of the Rebirth War, the world of Gaia is still feeling the cooling effects of an evil god’s return. While the issue of war is nothing new, other problems are cropping up – one of which is particularly alarming: For reasons unknown, the Nethbane is once more roving the lands, though his presence is far from that of a god-sent savior. Leaving a trail of death and confusion, his name is quickly turning to a curse on the lips of Gaia’s inhabitants.

When news of her friend’s strange shift in behavior reaches the paladin Lotus, she sets out to find her friend and stop him, if possible. Despite all that she’s heard, Lotus knows in her heart that Kuma could never truly turn evil, but the disturbing question must be asked: If this is not the work of the Nethbane … then who?

Taloner: Reima (revision)

Revision work for this book has already been started, but I’m not quite 6% of the way through the first rewrite. However, this manuscript is much smaller than Path of a Hero, so it feels more doable at the moment.

Taloner: Moa

An unassuming and quiet researcher finds her peace disturbed and herself the target of a dangerous creature when she unearths an ancient weapon in the ruins of Godrealm.

Taloner: Dio

A seafaring Taloner stumbles upon a stranded ally, one connected intimately with an issue of the empire’s safety. Time is limited, and there are details that run deeper than they first appear on the surface.

Taloner: Blue

Someone is laying lethal traps for the Laiune in southern Kura-Cora, and the design appears to be that of an ally. When a mechanically-minded scout tries to find out why, she finds herself suddenly entangled with the military and a sinister truth that threatens a friend.

Taloner: Wekthusia

So this is an older one I had started to write years ago out of boredom, and it now requires an overhaul before completion. For anyone who’s familiar with the stories in Wayside Tales, a certain sassy young Illismonah also makes an appearance in this one.

Wekthusia is a decent sort of guy who believes in honesty and being responsible first and foremost. So when a brash young maiden shows up and drags him into a personal dispute with a sorcerer, it’s bound to cause some issues.

Predecessor

An exotic new race calling itself the Neth has appeared in Gaia, and its foremost goal is the destruction of the Laiuna people. With a sudden shift in the very powers that created the world, once-faithful followers are now left anchorless and confused. Heeding the will of his master and going in the face of hopelessness, a lowly warrior named Meng chooses to undertake a seemingly impossible task – destroy the god Zemose.

Nethbane

Surprised to see this one on the list? I’ve hinted (rather obviously) that this was going to go through some more work in the future. I mainly just need to do a little more revision and add in a crucial detail toward the end of the book – a detail that was scribbled down on a scrap of paper and then got lost and forgotten in the early stages of the book. Nethbane never did feel quite right when I was trying to wrap up the first draft, and when I rediscovered this scrap of paper, I felt like an idiot for having forgotten what was written on it. Of course … isn’t that why we write things down?

Foreign Lands

Here’s one that’s a little different than the rest. Why? Because while it is connected with the Legends of Destiny series, this is actually a series all its own. For about a decade, now, I’ve been plotting out details for a fantasy-scifi crossover that I’d like to write. Foreign Lands began with a dream I had one night where I saw a fairly detailed map of a new continent. When I woke up, I recorded as much as I could remember, then began to develop the story behind this land. As things stand now, the series will contain five books total, a number that’s symbolic with some elements in the story. It will be a big shift for me from the usual material in Legends of Destiny, but the more time goes on, the more I’m able to develop the plotlines in this series and the more eager I am to make it my main project.

One item that did not make it to this list is Sovereign Soul, which I still do not feel I am ready to complete – much to my frustration. With that being said, I fear that if I do not force myself to at least attempt to churn out a sizeable portion of this book within the next four to five years, I may lose my drive to work on it, altogether. This is totally unacceptable. But, I have to be realistic here and weigh my options for the year, given the sparse time available to me to work.

Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that any of the larger projects will make it to the finish line this year. This means that one of the Taloner books will almost certainly be my winner for being completed in draft form, if I am able to actually pull off this goal. But, that doesn’t mean that I can’t sneak in a little work here and there on one of the larger projects. Wish me luck. I’m going to need it.

And while we’re talking about book details, don’t forget the Legends of Destiny wiki at http://legends-of-destiny.wikia.com/wiki/Legends_of_Destiny_Wiki. I’m still updating it periodically as the need arises. Until next time, happy reading!

Not dead, just kinda

So yeah, I went pretty dead for the last while. I guess being pregnant will do that to you. Between work and horrid morning sickness, I have had almost no energy for writing and very little for art. Things have been improving much more over the last month, however, for which I am exceedingly grateful. I now only have nausea bad enough to make me really sick every few days or so, and it's nowhere near as bad as it was when I last updated this site. I'm sitting at about six and a half months, so I still have three months to go before I have a cute new little baby to take care of. Lemme tell ya, it was quite a surprise to find out about.

Alright, anyway - So I do have a few doodles that I need to post here at some point. It would help if my laptop wasn't slowly dying.....ahem...... I'm hoping to be able to start doing some digital art again, especially since one of my projects that's been sitting in limbo really needs a new cover image. The current cover art I have on hand for Taloner: Reima was fine and great almost ten years ago (gads, has it been that long?) but I'd really like to create something that looks a little more professional for the revised book.

And speaking of TR, I'd very much like to get some more revision work done on it while I'm trying to retrieve the most recently updated file for the revision of Path of a Hero from my other dying laptop. It's always something fun, right? I'm reeeeally glad my external drive is still kicking, even after a decade (knock on wood) But yeah, I figure that with my energies still recovering from the demands of creating a baby, a smaller project like TR is a good place for me to start and get back in the saddle.

That's all for now. With luck, I'll be able to get some kind of art update on here within the next month. Have a lovely day.

The journey continues...

If barely. Bleh, sorry. I've been sick for over a month straight, and it's taking its toll. Yes, I know what's going on. No, I'd rather not talk about it right now. I'm just hoping it gets better soon.

Anyway, revision on Path of a Hero has officially started. It's going to be slow for a while, I'm afraid, but I'm doing what I can when I can. My creative energy for writing and drawing has been all but nuked, thanks to the aforementioned sickness. I'm really struggling to pull much of anything out of my hat. This means that I haven't been able to work on any projects, not even Taloner: Moa (and right when I was getting warmed up with it, dang it) I'm really tired of being dead in the water with everything.

Still working on getting the kindle version of Wings of Fate so that it's available on Amazon. The tools that I've been given to do this keep directing me in a maddeningly endless loop of the inability to do anything with the files, and I'm honestly getting very irritated with it all. I may have to contact support and see just why the page is being so stupid.

So that's about it from my corner right now. I wish I had more stuff going and more updates to post here. I have several half-finished pieces of art that I was hoping to post weeks ago, but again ..... nuked. :/ Hoping for better days soon here.

The computer ..... she LIVES!!!

Hello any and all readers. I am very relieved to say that after some serious problems, my computer is back up and running! Yay! All thanks (and there's plenty of it) goes to my incredible dad for fixing my art- and writing-machine. Thanks Dad!


I'm still working on re-installing the programs I normally use for art projects, but I'm hoping to have another art post up soon. I have been working on more trading cards and am dying to get the results uploaded and colored. And hopefully, I don't have to dismantle another laptop to clean out the dust and grit that's bothering it :/ Bleh.


If you will excuse me, I need to go track down the software for my scanner......

You dirty --

If I ever meet Cupid, I'm gonna punch him in the mouth .......... or .... something.

Just venting a bit. I've been feeling pretty upset about certain aspects of Life lately. Can you guess what they are?

Like really upset.

What I see

Want to know something? Some of my scariest dreams involve sea creatures. This is the best I could do of a part of what I saw in a dream last night. These are mostly prehistoric sea things, so far as I can tell. I would paint up some pictures of the more detailed things, if I could do them justice.

Last night, I saw things like biomechanical octopi that could use short bursts of magnetic forcefields to grab prey. Other times, I have seen some of the scariest, darkest waters you can imagine with creatures to match them. I'll see fish, eels, and monsters who are slimy and deformed. They'll be impossibly huge with glowing points or bristle with teeth, fins, and spines. And often times, I'll feel as if they're sucking me toward them and I have to vacate the area very quickly.

I'm not sure why I have fish in my nightmares. I was never scarred by sea creatures as a child. I never watched the movie Jaws, and I never had a tragic incident with pet fish. But it never fails that if I see murky water choked with algae or shadows in a dream, I feel very inspired to run.

Happy New Year!

Well, 2011 came in snowy and cold, and I'm glad that I now have Spring to look forward to. There's something rejuvenating and calming to me about the first four or five months of the year.

Anyway, I wanted to stick something really cool on here for New Year's Day, but the picture I'm working on isn't ready yet. I tried to do something else that was spiffy, but it didn't work out, either. So, I now present you with my latest masterpiece, complete with erm.....bragging ;) I know, I know, I'm so talented, aren't I?

(If you're only interested in the artsy stuff, you can stop reading here)

Man I have been so tired lately. I've tried vitamins, iron supplements, different amounts of sleep, and I am always tired. It's kind of discouraging when you want to do so many things and you can't because you're feeling drained, especially when you don't know why. Some days are better than others, thankfully. My mom is pretty convinced I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. At this point, I wouldn't doubt it, but I don't know for sure. I just felt I had to whine a little, since there's so much I'd like to be doing artistically and with my writing .... seriously, I am so behind on the current book. It's going to be a battle to get it done, but I'm far from giving up, huzzah!

I was very fortunate to get some soap making supplies for Christmas, too. I'm looking forward to trying them out (I love making things with my hands) but I need to get some kitchen equipment, first. I'll post a picture as soon as I get an end result, but in the meantime, I hope everyone has had a happy and safe New Year. Here's to another 365 days full of family, friends, personal growth and, of course, fun!