WOO-HOO!!!!!!

Guess what, Blogspot Buddies? I am writing again! What a huge relief; I was beginning to think I'd lost it forever. I am very excited about my new work in progress because it is one of those projects that seems to come from nowhere, yet feels as if it has been waiting somewhere at the back of my mind forever. If it carries on developing at the rate it currently is, I could be sitting on something amazing. And this all came about because I did something I haven't done in ages - I sat back and looked at the whole picture.

As you know, I have had a couple of very dificult years in a row - my health, Mother's health. personal stuff going on in our lives (including the arrival of three grandchildren after having just one grandson for ten years), the job situation and so on. Lollypop came along and took on Yucketypoo, taking me by surprise when they then commissioned two sequels where none had ever been planned. The whirligig of having that published, the ups and downs of creating the sequels so that they were as fresh and original as the first one and tying that entire package together has probably made for the most difficult time in my entire writing career. As I got more and more tied up with Yucks 2 and 3, everything else in my writing life kind of fell by the wayside. In short, I felt completely at a loss. Where I'd been tootling along my entire life writing and publishing the odd poem here, article there and meeting the odd commission, all of a sudden there was a pre-destined path I had never expected or envisaged and I just didn't handle it terribly well. The harder I tried to find the writer I once was, the less likely it became that I would. I think maybe I even burned myself out to a point.

The other week I resigned from being group host to the Young Children and Haiku groups on Writewords because I was finding it more and more difficult to give them any degree of attention. I haven't quit Writewords, you understand; I have just taken a breather. Around the same time, I signed up for NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month) where the gauntlet is thrown down for writers of all levels to come up with a 50,000 word novel between November 1st and November 30th. If they achieve it, they get a certificate and if they don't - well they can always try again next year. I will not be getting the certificate this year. A week and a half in and I suddenly saw a new possibility and here I am, three weeks in, rediscovering within myself what it is like to be an active writer again. And I am quite happy to continue along this path for as long as this new work will have me. I feel suddenly free and unfettered. I am writing again because I want to; no more, no less. It is a good feeling.

I won't give too much away about the new project, just in case it changes its mind and puts itself on the back burner again. But I will come back to my blog more often now that I have got something worth telling you about.

Catch up soon.