Away with the fairies....

 

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

William Butler Yeats

 

This may be the longest period of time I’ve ever been away from the blog since starting it in 2009. But, well, I’ve been away with the fairies, as they say in Ireland, both figuratively and literally. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, it can mean anything from daydreaming to being not quite right in the head or perhaps just falling down the rabbit hole of Facebook for an hour. (Where does the time go?)

I have indeed been doing a lot of daydreaming, but it was essential to the work I’ve been putting in on my middle-grade series of novels. Since the fall, I’ve finished and edited the third book. This week, I began to write the fourth and final book in the series. Without giving away too much, there are definitely fairies in these books, though they play a minor role. A large, black dragon plays a major role, as does a ten-year-old girl whose gift it is to sing… which brings others “toward light,” as the dragon tells her.

For a solid month, Sgt. Thomas Tibbs wasn’t well, so I was up sometimes four or five times in a night to take him outside, resulting in some long naps for me during the day. And of course, there was Maya to walk every day (whether she wanted to or not, although she will now leap into the backseat of the Subaru, given half the chance, because she’s decided she loves walking—as long as it’s out in the hills with no people or cars or other dogs or machines or loud noises, which is why I love hiking too, I suppose).

With Thom’s intestinal issues under control now (thank the Universe) and the holidays over with (thank the Universe again), we are in a state of as-close-to-normal-as-possible-given-the-constant-threat-of-COVID-infection. I think that’s as good as it’s going to get, and honestly, I think that’s pretty good. I am grateful for my family, for my furries (Thomas, Maya, Purrl & Jenny), for my health right now (still no sciatic pain! Woo hoo!), and for my own gift of putting words on a page in such a way that perhaps (as is always my most fervent hope) they will lead others toward light.

I’ve missed you, dear Reader, and I’ve missed sharing my adventures with you. So here’s to a new year, new adventures, and our continued journey together.