Hiatus

It’s been an awfully long time since I last posted, I know. And I’m sure all of you out there have just been holding your breath, waiting–hoping–that I’d post again soon. Well, here you go. Merry Christmas. 🙂

So, what’s been happening here in Maine, you ask? For a while there, it seemed like we were just going to get snowstorm after snowstorm, with no end in sight. I had about two feet on my roof. Then, for Christmas, we got weather in the fifties. Go figure. Still have snow, but a lot of it’s melted and reformed into ice. Super.

Temperatures are chilly, with chillier on the way. Everyone tells me to “just wait until February,” so I guess that’s when it will all improve and things will be balmy again. 🙂 Oh–and by the way. By “chilly,” I mean sub-zero. So any of you out there who are complaining about cold, you can only complain if you’re in the sub-zero club. Period.

Christmas was a success. My son was absolutely wild in anticipation for Santa Claus, which was worth it all right there. We watched some of the old Christmas specials (Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus is Coming to Town) to prepare, and he kept going to the window to look out and see if he could see Santa. What a blast. Sunday we were invited to the Bishop’s family Christmas party, and Christmas Day we were invited to the Stake Patriarch’s. We just can’t help feeling that people are being super nice to us just because we’re new, and it’s all going to be revealed as a facade any day now . . . but as time goes by, it appears more and more like it’s not a facade at all. Everyone should live in Maine. (Except I’m glad they don’t.)

Friday we’ll be heading down to Pennsylvania for ten days. I might actually have to use a day of vacation this time, too. Oh well–you’d figure that in 20 days’ worth of time off, I’d have to use some vacation sooner or later.

Family is good. Baby’s still on track for beginning of February. Name not yet announced, but gender definitely female. We’re excited, and preparing to bunker down for a newborn and those February temperatures we’ve been promised. We’re flying in reinforcements: my mother-in-law is coming for two months. She arrives January 14th.

Writing’s going . . . slowly. People are reading Ichabod some more for me, and I hope to have that out to an agent by the end of January. Planning for book . . . ten? Yes, number ten, is coming along. It had originally been planned as a YA, but I’m beginning to eye making it more of an adult book. There are some conflicts I’m looking at that are seeming beyond YA scope. Not sure yet, though. I’m trying some new plotting techniques, and I want to make sure to have it planned right before I dive into it. No eight month rewrites again, thank you very much.

Anything else to report? I suppose not. Happy Holidays to all of you, and may your New Year be bright and shiny.