I'm Back!

​The last blog I posted was on March 27th.  What have I been doing?  Sold the country house in 1 day.  Moved out in 30 days to live in an 800 square foot apartment while our brand-new downsized house was being built.  Moved a lot of stuff into storage.  Move as little as possible to the apartment.  Lived without the stuff in storage for 5 ½ months and wondered why we needed it at all.
Moved into our downsized dreamhouse on September 3rd.  Had all the stuff in storage delivered to the house and stored in the basement on September 18th.  Sorted through all the stuff in the basement by September 25th making many trips to St. Vinny’s and recycling a ton of cardboard.  Bought new bedroom furniture for the master bedroom and all new living room furniture.
Then there is the artwork.  In our former 3000 square foot house we had a lot of art on the walls.  For years my guiding principle has been I must shake the hand of the artist to have it in my home.  I was successful.  Too successful with 26 pieces to hang.  I could use a curator.
During my absence folks continued to visit my website – an average of 2105 visits a month and an average of 80 visits per day.  The number of visits did decline as the months passed from a high of 2413 in April to 1891 in September.  I am surprised by the number of visits without posting.
In those six months I didn’t write a word – not a single one.  It was odd.  My life was so consumed by the move and building that I didn’t miss writing.  That is terrible to admit but true.
We did take a week trip to eastern Kentucky to research my next novel about pack horse librarians.  My publicist and dear friend Valerie Biel learned that Elizabeth Gilbert is coming out with a book on pack horse librarians this fall, scheduled for the holidays I’m sure.  I consulted with my writing friends and we agreed that unless I was writing a romance I should stick to my guns and write my novel.  No problem there.
To kick start my writing I’m attending an intense “weekender” the last weekend of October.  I have changed the name of the protagonist and made her Irish, I couldn’t help myself.  I learned in my visit to eastern Kentucky that the Irish are prominent there.  I also completely re-wrote the first chapter to scratch out backstory, add action and detail.  We’ll see how it goes at the end of the month.
During my hiatus I did ask myself – why do you write.  I write because the cosmos expresses creativity through me.  I believe the universe is conscious because I am conscious and sentient.