J.K. Coi

Well, I guess you can tell that I haven't been around here much recently. I mean, the last blog was from August or some such nonsense.

Sorry about that.

I can tell you that the passage of time has been both good and...not so good.

We had a number of unfortunate deaths in our family this year, and I miss them all very much. But we also celebrated birthdays, weddings, Christmas, and all those fattening-type holidays, and enjoyed every minute of it all. My sister is now a happy married lady with a little baby on the way, and everyone is looking forward to when he arrives and we find out that the doctor was wrong to tell her it was a girl...just kidding. They don't tell you those kinds of things unless they're sure--right?

Derek started junior kindergarten in the Fall. He loves it so much, and I couldn't be prouder of how well he's doing, how many friends he's made, and how quickly that comment "nothing" starts coming out of his mouth already when I ask him what he did on any particular day.

For those of you who were aware of the fact that I was writing my first novel...ta da!! It's done, finis, and now we enter the dreaded editing phase. Actually, this part I like. It's the time when I get to re-read the book with a lighter frame of mind, not so worried about dreaming up plot strategies. I just get to fine tune minor inconsistencies and enjoy the actual story-imagine that.

The new book is well underway. The first one was more of a "pantser" exercise, meaning I wrote by the seat of my well-worn oversized sweats. But this time I'm trying to be a little bit more methodical, and I've actually got an outline!

Hopefully, I'll make it back here soon. Love