I’m not dead yet. Monty Pythonisms aside, I cannot believe a month has passed with nary a blog post from yours truly. I honestly wish I had an excuse, or—more to the point—I wish I had but one excuse. I love that quote about “living lives of quiet desperation,” because it’s horribly true. Hours of tedium can morph into days and weeks, and I look back over the trail of breadcrumbs—shockingly uneaten—and see from whence I came but knowing there’s no point in looking back. Those breadcrumbs never lead you home. You cannot go back in time and get a “redo.”

I could enumerate my excuses, but they really boiled down to the doldrums: that stagnant stasis whereby nothing moves. Rather than dwell on unpleasant thoughts, I suppose I should focus on the small milestones I achieved in the past 30 days.

1. I started doing rewrites for The Truth. Some of you have asked, “Where did your book go? I want to buy it for friends.” First off, BLESS YOU! Thanks for loving the book and wanting to share it with others. After getting some really positive feedback from agents, I decided to pull the book for rewrites. It will be back out in some form soon (possibly through a traditional publisher). The whole self-published v. traditional publishing is still a hot mess. If a traditional publisher sees that a book is already self-published, it can break the deal. Thus, while my book might make a stellar beach read, you’re going to have to wait a bit to consume. On a self-improvement note, I think the fact I can now return to The Truth bodes well for the book; I was so DONE with it by the end of 2012 that I never wanted to read another galley copy again. Now I see errors and minor issues throughout, and this new material fleshes out (no pun intended) the relationship journey of the protagonist(s).
2. I started a diet and stuck with it for TEN WHOLE DAYS. Story of my later life. This is probably the only really good excuse I have for not keeping up with the blog, however. I was exercising twice a day starting from my last blog post and really committed to the weight thing. While it lasted. Losing weight in my 40s has been a Sisyphean task, to be sure. My only comfort comes from the realization that it took me four years to put on this weight, so it probably will take more than four weeks to lose it. Unfortunately. I feel like a fat troll these days, and not in the Internet sense. I mean as in, “I live under a bridge and will eat your Billy goats gruff.” Especially if they’re served up Jerk style with some plantains on the side. Hence, my weight issues.
3. I celebrated my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. I also visited Las Vegas for the first (and probably last) time. These two activities were not distinct from one another. As my sister is in Alaska, my folks in South Carolina, and other relatives are scattered between Chicago and the West Coast, Vegas seemed like a good idea. And I think my parents had a really nice, albeit expensive, anniversary celebration. (I’m even more behind on my other blog, but look for a post about my Vegas adventure there soon.)
4. I watched my son wrap up his baseball season and his fourth grade year. I also got him registered for camp. It’ll be his first foray into sleepaway camp, and I can’t wait. (No misplaced pronoun there; the only thing harder than working from home is working from home while the kids are here!)
5. I went to the dentist. If you are a regular reader, you will not be shocked to know why my dentist makes the list. Yes, I was referred for a root canal.
6. Last, but certainly not least, I pitched two stories to a national publication and the editor is interested in both! It will be my first national print credit, and I’m very excited. I’m one who doesn’t believe it until I see it (not pessimism, for a change, but the reality of having a kid in entertainment; stuff gets cut all the time), so I’ll let you know when/if it is hot off the presses.

And thanks for hanging in there with me while I took a hiatus. I’ll attempt not to be so infrequent a guest to my own blog moving forward.