Photo courtesy WSJ.

It’s hard to believe that it was 14 months ago that Hurricane Irene forced me out of my apartment, and here we go again. The only positive to Hurricane Sandy is that I no longer live at Ground Zero (both literally and figuratively), so I do not have to evacuate. My kids are home from school, and I’m trying to get my working day in order despite the “frankenstorm” that lingers a few hundred nautical miles away from here.

It’s funny how time flies; it’s been six months since my last post (note: this post originally appeared on astridcook.com). This long-neglected website is not nearly as “in limbo” as that long absence would imply. I am in the process of creating a this new “astridcook.com” (both literally and figuratively), where all my miscellaneous blog posts will live and – I dare to hope – flourish. It’s just getting too hard to maintain five websites when it comes to self-promotion.

And that is now my goal. I’ve finally started to get a bit of a name for myself writing-wise. Although few follow this particular website (granted, I haven’t done myself any favors by neglecting it), I am pretty well known in the beer writing community, at least within the confines of New York City. In addition, I recently finished my first novel (after decades of writing 1/2 novels and never completing any of them, I finally carried one story to the end); I’m currently pitching to agents. I would really love to publish the old-fashioned way, but if I cannot find an agent to rep me (I’m working on Book Two, which I hope to complete during the National Novel Writing Month that begins on Thursday), I will create a link on Barnes & Noble and do what needs to be done.

Which has included dealing with the tumult of my life. While things are still far from good, I do feel like I’m weathering the storm a bit better. My ship is no longer unmoored, shall we say. I hope the literal storm outside my window will be handled in similar fashion.

For what it’s worth, I do know that this storm is not all about me. I fear for my farmer friends the most, the ones that were devastated by last year’s double storms (Irene was followed by Tropical Storm Lee that pretty much took out whatever Irene had left behind). I pray that everyone remains safe and sound as we weather the weather once again.