Yes, did some spring cleaning here on the website.’Bout time.

Now to get to the news.

I must have been having too much fun. I’ve missed two months of posts now and it’s time for a third one. Well, fun maybe wasn’t the exact reason. I began a small business, had two friends die and begin writing the sequel to Down Cellar. There was more but those are the highlights.

The Small Business

The small business will, eventually, give me some financial freedom without a lot of worry. If you honestly want to know more, click here. The majority of startup work is done, and the rest is about forming manageable habits to keep it going. Key word: manageable. If you are like me, ‘obsessive’ is the key word most of the time, that ‘all-or-nothing’ devotion to doing what’s in front of you? I’m working on that. Seems like a ‘schedule of habits’ is the immediate solution. It works, so far. I forgot to put ‘write blog post’ on the schedule, however, and now here I am. Catching up.

The Novel

The sequel  to Down Cellar is well underway. I am behind a very steep schedule I set for “UpStairs”, but I’m grateful for the progress. I didn’t outline the whole thing ahead of time. I’ve done that in the past, but this one I tried something else. You probably saw the ‘one sentence story’. I went from there to a 100 Word Story, then to a 500 Word Story, a 1000, a 1500, and finally a 2000 Word Story.

From there, I was stuck. I needed actual dialogue and scenes. So I began to write. The 2000 word story has become the outline in this way: copy a few lines of text, paste them on a clean page and expand them with scenes and dialogue. it works out the same for me, and I don’t have to do the outlining that (most of the time) I dislike doing.  Eventually I will outline what I have, during first revision, and see what else needs putting in. I already have stuff to leave out!

The Deaths– and Life

The deaths of friends, I’ll spare you the details. I’ve come to an age where my older friends are beginning to die. Yes, at this age it becomes somewhat routine. The sadness becomes part of wisdom: 1) Stay in touch while you actually can. 2) Value your friends while they are around. 3) Remind yourself that YOU are someone’s friend and they need you.

One last bit of wisdom: don’t let your so-called life get so busy that you forget the ones who love you. They might be digital contacts or in-your-face family. Both are valuable, both require you to honor and respect their needs as well as your own. It’s what relationships—and life—are all about.