If you notice the date of my last blog entry it was 8 months ago. It’s not because I forgot about blogging. I thought about it often. The reasons I didn’t write an entry are numerous. Taking care of a high maintenance dog, spending the fall contacting and re-contacting schools to schedule author visits, writing, editing, submitting to publishers and agents, substitute teaching, family stuff, enjoyment and exercise breaks, eating, reading, laundry,… you get the idea. Excuses. Priorities. It’s okay. Some things can wait…until there’s more time.
It happened. Overnight actually. Two months of library, school and conference contracts were cancelled. A new season flew into our universe: coronavirus. Shelter in place. Suddenly I had time to blog, to ponder and plenty on my mind.
So I sat down to my computer to blog, every day! starting March 14. Nothing. Listening to so many numbers (largely associated with deaths) and stories that touch the heart, I wondered what I could say. Also, as a writer I wondered how or IF I should put some of what is happening now -both the angst and the points of light-to use in stories. After all, a story has to have a problem and conflict. This new season has provided plenty of that. But what about resolution? Stories need that too. I dream of it. I long for it. I see hints of it in the efforts of so many people across the world. In my fictional stories, there are many options for resolution. In real life, it’s trickier. Let us hold onto the possibility of a resolution to the spread of COVID 19. And soon.

The blog was patient. It waited and I hope you did too. Good to be back. Make good use of your extra time to play a new game, laugh, and explore new resolutions. And never abandon hope. It is the one thing that has not been cancelled.