I’m probably not the only one who feels we’re stuck in a game of Jumanji, otherwise all but one of the many t-shirts on etsy offering that sentiment will go to waste. As nice as it would be to believe life will get back to the old normal again, I’m afraid that’s wishful thinking. So… what is the new normal? I’m still trying to figure that out, but one thing I’m determined is that it will include new books.
I used to think writer’s block meant running out of ideas, and who knows, maybe it does. That’s one problem I’m unlikely to ever have, considering I have dozens of books waiting to be written. What I experienced over the past year though, was the inability to write. I actually could not do it. I couldn’t put the words together to tell the story. It was as if I no longer knew how, and it was horrible. I don’t know why that happened, but I did a lot of praying about it, and I’m just so thankful it’s over. I can write again, and I am!
“Reclamation”, a spin-off of “Hiding Treasure”, is the next book to be released. It’s at the halfway point, so my hope is it won’t take much longer before it’s complete. The main character is Amelia, Tressa Leighton’s cousin. The past few years have been very difficult for Amelia. If you remember her from “Hiding Treasure” you’ll know why. Whether you do or don’t, it won’t make any significant difference as the story is meant to stand alone.
“Gone in a Flash”, the third in Jack Ryland’s series, may be at the halfway point. It may not be, I’m not as certain how many more pages it will take to complete. After that… I don’t know what comes next. House of Bannerman? Mystery Lane? Another stand-alone? The service dog training center, featuring Trixie’s pups and Cecilia Taylor from “Darkness Falls”? Or, it might be one as of yet without a title, dubbed girl who cleans. Or the fourth in the “Terms of Engagement” series. I really don’t know, but it’s nice to have so many options.
Speaking of options, if you know of a good word processing program, I’d like to hear about it. Word once again flipped out and decided it should overwrite the current document on my iPad (which contained an entire night’s work) with the day’s earlier version on my Mac. Whether it was the fault of Word or OneDrive, I don’t know, but I am not a fan of Microsoft, I can tell you that! I was able to retrieve an earlier version of Reclamation which had all the missing pages, so that was a huge relief. I save to a flash drive whenever I’m on my Mac, but I’m not always. I now take screenshots of each new page, because saving automatically to the cloud continues to create issues. If there’s a better way, I’ll take it.
It’s dinner time, and the townspeople still expect to be fed regularly. They’re not as pushy as the dog and cats, who managed through persistent harassment to move their dinner time to 1:30. At this rate it won’t be long before it’s merged with breakfast. Still, although the people are less demanding, they’re just as capable of starving if not fed regularly. Apparently I’m the only one able to find anything in the refrigerator or run the microwave, so… I’m going to go make dinner, and then get back to writing!