The blank page is winning, y’all.

I still get up early every morning; I still open the ol’ notebook, but then the page stares me down and I’m the first to avert my eyes. I don’t know what to say about anything at the moment. As it turns out, my entire existence in the military, in public service to military communities, has only ever been an exercise in woke nonsense. Time to put a stop to all that and submit to our AI-crypto-whatever futures.

But I’m going where the energy is. I’m reading a lot. That, at least, has finally shaken loose after a couple of years of feeling like a chore. I discovered Brandon Sanderson and found him intriguing/delightful:

I read a Belinda Bauer crime novel for my local book group and thought she nailed the character with Aspergers:

I picked up Amor Towles’ A Gentleman in Moscow on the free swap shelf at the library and am thoroughly enjoying it. It’s better than the miniseries, of course, which we also liked. I didn’t expect the book to be so … droll? But it’s as magical as you have all said.

And I’m finally tackling Black Lamb & Grey Falcon, the definitive tome on the Balkans by Rebecca West, as research for my current novel in progress. What a writer. It’s from the 30s so a tiny bit of the language is dated, shall we say. But otherwise, wow.

On other fronts, I battle on. My website guru says WordPress might be imploding*, so on her advice I’m looking at Substack as a possible replacement. I’ve signed up for two ghost story festivals/workshops/conferences, for fun but also to help with my WIP. I’ve also signed up for a short course with Consequence Forum, a military lit journal, in an ongoing effort to wrestle my nonfictional military experiences onto the page. I’m making as many writing dates with friends as possible so we can (positively!) pressure each other into producing some work.

It’s only February, way too early to declare that I won’t meet my writing goals for the year. But lordy, I could use some encouragement.

Thanking you in advance for any thoughts you’d like to share.

*Let me know if you’d like me to share her newsletter on this topic. It’s really dismaying, considering MOST websites run on WordPress!