Abject Apologies

It seems I took the summer off. I didn’t intend to, it just happened, but I really should have warned folks before disappearing like that.

How did it happen? Well, I had planned to work, but a small (OK, medium-sized) child invaded my space with demands for snack and ice cream truck money and rides to friends’ houses and trips to here and trips to there and snacks and… wait… I mentioned snacks already.

What did I do with the medium-sized child in my space instead of working here for you, Gentle Readers? I reviewed third-grade math facts with The Boy; complained about The Boy’s teacher and school to anyone who would listen, and to anyone who would read (on Facebook, of course); offended a zillion people by complaining; and then apologized to anyone who was still talking to me for being offensive.

Then, The Boy and I made freezer jam and homemade ice cream and rock candy lollipops. We had a garage sale and a lemonade stand (but we weren’t arrested for it). I supervised a water balloon fight and a Nerf war. We went to the local farmers market, Remlinger Farms for the rides, Snoqualmie Falls for the rocks, the Fremont Troll for the climbing, Theo’s chocolates for the free tastings on the tour, the International Fountain for the water fun, the Issaquah Hatchery for the salmon (too soon!), and the Seattle Aquarium for the fish. We visited local parks, watched a movie or two, taught our friends geocaching, played putt-putt, and even took a weekend trip to Leavenworth. The g-parents visited us and rounded out the summer with a trip on the Ice Cream Ferry.

In addition to the fun stuff, we dealt with a pinky toe that got dislocated and relocated and bruised The Boy’s entire foot in the process and an infection when The Boy slid down the steep concrete sides of the International Fountain on the top of his foot and skived a half-dollar sized chunk out of his skin). And we dealt with a raging case of eczema (turns out The Boy’s skin is oh-so-sensitive).

In the spare moments, I met Joni Sensel, read some of her work (and even wrote about it), and sadly said, “So long for now” when she decided our critique group was not for her. I made some small progress on my novel, met a new high school student to mentor on her memoir, supervised the library’s Teen Writers Group, and started mapping my novel’s rises and falls and rises again to circle in closer to the moving target that is my ending.

I’m rested and ready. Or cocked, locked, and ready to rock.

Ready to start by apologizing for not writing—and not warning folks I wouldn’t be writing. How rude.

If you’re still with me, look forward to some future articles on my future plans with this blog; verb tenses and how to use them consistently (and why it’s necessary), and North  of Beautiful’s use of motif. Also keep an eye out for discount offers. I’ll post those to  Egg and Feather’s Facebook page a few months before major writing conferences.

In the meantime, should you be planning a trip to the Seattle area, check out those links! We’ve got so much to do you might forget to write too!