So once again a month has passed without my writing a post, even though I have thought about doing so dozens of times. I am not sure where this reluctance to share my life seeps from...but it is there, and real, and I have become so selfish about my personal experiences, wanting to keep all of it to myself that even when I start to share I stop and think nah, no reason to share all that. Still, I do love jotting things down, as it gives me a kick now and then to look at the early months of this lj or my old lj I shared with Nick (twisting_path) and well, just reminiscing about all the fun in the past.

The last month has been full of wondrous and amazing events, as well as some sad and frustrating ones. The good - sharing an experience with someone special we'd both been looking forward to for years and years... Done now! And I am so glad to have been a part of that. Meant so much. The bad - watching some friendships explode and disintegrate (my old crit group), though in the end, I believe where the cards have fallen is a good thing. I adore my Team Awesome, and believe we're all in a good place now. I certainly feel a lot less EEEK now, and have lost the feeling I'd had of not belonging. Friendships lost, but friendships strengthened, and I am glad of that.

So cryptic, Cee!

Not much else going on - my daughter and son are doing well, about to start into school again - Tiff called me today and we talked a good half hour during my lunch about how happy she is now in Orlando. She loves what she is studying, she loves her new Starbucks she has moved to, she loves her roomies (in a house and there is a dog, a darling Golden I got to meet last month), and life is just so HAPPY for her. She likes Orlando now that she is settled there, and knowing she can fly home cheaply and easily helps. Thank goodness for cheapo airfare to Orlando!

Work is going very well - I love working for my boss, love my little firm, I feel in control and settled and I just buzz happily away all day, every day. There is a lot of stress but for some reason I am handling it better than I did. Living alone is kinda weird but kinda nice too... I get home from work, feed the dogs, play with the dogs, cuddle the dogs. Maddox has become like glue on me during the evenings. I spend a lot of time with him curled up with me. Weekends are relaxing - I try to meet Suz at least once a week on weekends to write, and oh I have my Gingerman writing group - we meet Monday nights at The Gingerman, a cute little bar near my work. Am getting to know that crew better and better and just really adore them all. Plus, it is a huggy group. I like hugs. :)

I need to get a dog door put in but this will also entail a massive overhaul of the fence (i.e., electrifying it!) because Maddox is an escape artist and we very nearly lost him a few weeks ago while I was gone, but my neighbor saved him. Whew! He pulls planks off and wiggles through. So frustrating that I can't trust him in his own backyard. :(

Writing...have to say I was and am disappointed with how my last book has done. I have several ideas of why that is so, what contributed to it not doing well (while my other books DO continue to sell well), but such is the way of things, right? Not going to stress over it, it is what it is and hey what I have received in royalties definitely paid a bill that needed paying so that is good.

I've been working on my sci fi, expanding it - about ten scenes to go on that - and am falling hard for the brilliance of Scrivener as it is helping me sort out my fantasy mess, which I have needed to for about oh a decade, I suppose? More later on that, and on writing in general (I say that and then another month will go by, oops). The happy is I found, buried deep in my email, the outline I'd written ages and ages and I do mean more than 9 years ago for this fantasy story, and rereading it now, I can see clearly what will work and what needs to be changed. All in all though? I think it will be a go. It always makes me so happy to visit with these characters! I miss them!

All for now. It is bedtime - haven't been sleeping well since the weekend because dork me burned the roof of my mouth on too-hot pizza. The burns were pretty much agony - last night I finally was able to tolerate warm food. Horrifically painful. :(

This ended up longer than I thought. I do ramble!