Happy Christmas

They call it the silly season, this time coming up to Christmas, and with the steamy days and flooding rains we could all be forgiven for becoming a bit “silly”. One afternoon last week a 30 minute thunderstorm had the drains on both sides of the road in front of our place filling so quickly they flowed over onto the road and our driveway and our backyard was almost a lake. For the next three nights we were serenaded by hundreds, if not thousands, of frogs and toads calling out their joy and trying to attract the females of the species to choose them to help keep the amphibian population growing.

It made me grateful that humans are a little less vocal when it comes to the mating game. I don’t think I could tolerate a human version of Frog Hollow! No offence to Kermit, but if he croaked all night like these guys do I doubt Miss Piggy would have clutched him to her ham bone.

The Writers Mentoring Retreat was a great success. Thirteen participants, all enthusiastic and eager to learn and network. Wonderful to see the progress in their writing and the way quite a few of them decided to keep in touch and form an email critique group. They were all such lovely people and it was a pleasure to work with them.

After Christmas I will have to decide whether to write the next in the Murder, Mayhem & ? series or to let the next complex romantic suspense story flow from my fingertips. Don’t you just love the word “flow”? Wish it was as easy as that 🙂 Plots and characters for both stories are stewing in my brain and it’s getting quite crowded in there. I’ll have to let some of them out soon or the pressure will get too much.

Speaking of pressure – four days ago I had built-in furniture put in my office. Now, the big problem with this was clearing out the five pieces of old, and very disparate, furniture that had contributed to my mental clutter by not coping with the physical clutter. I culled as I filled boxes, then ran out of time and just threw everything in and moved the boxes to the lounge room and the furniture to the shed. Now I’ve put back most of the ’stuff’ and am trying to dredge up the enthusiasm to finish sorting the last few boxes when all I really want to do is write.

So I wonder – how do all you great people out there in cyber land cope with encroaching clutter? Any thoughts on the subject would be appreciated. And maybe contribute to something in the next Murder, Mayhem & ?? book.

Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year and may love wrap you in its warm embrace.

Sandy