…so, I’ll keep this short and save the rest for later in October.

Living

September went faster than I anticipated. It is already gonegonegone.

It has been a month of unsettledness in my soul and it seems to be continuing into October. Some of it is just personal issues, some of it day-job issues. But some of it is merely trying to adjust to Dallas after being in Chicago for the best part of three years. I got used to the straightforward attitude there, versus the ‘Dallitude’ I’m rediscovering here. Not liking the difference, to be honest.

Writing

The first draft of  UpStairs is finally coming to a close.  The chase is on, the trap is closing, and the Hero is hot on the Bad Guy’s trail. Not everyone who wanted to be kidnapped got kidnapped. (Characters don’t always get their own way!)

I still think that whole kidnapping department is overpopulated. But there are revisions ahead… Overall, I am satisfied with the story line if not the pacing of the story. Lots of details to add even as the story stands.

Future

The move that began in May is finished, and I have settled in for a year.  I still need more bookshelves and a comfortable chair to read in. Beyond that, I’m as settled as I will probably ever be in an apartment I rent with someone else. The goal is buy a condo and eventually a house of my own. Savings are a constant battle to keep vs spend (does that ever change?) income is part of the problem: if I can’t sell my writing I can’t give it the time and attention I want to. Which makes it lower quality, in my mind, which makes it less saleable… that downward spiral.

But I can’t stop writing.

Several more stories have forced their way into my attention. One about a love triangle that includes two men and a woman, where the woman is breaking up the romance between the two men. Another is the revision of a story about a man addicted to a fantasy lover who becomes real. But then so do all his other fantasy lovers, demanding equal time.

Pray I get all these and more down on paper, at least first drafts?!

That’s all for now, more later in the month.

Keep reading, keep writing,