Spring coming, and with it the flood tides and the ebb tides and all manner of change. This is my time of year, the time when the trees become a riot of blossoms and the flowers start to emerge from the earth and everything – everything – seems possible.
1. I don’t believe in God or Fate, but I do think that the universe has a way of putting what we need in our path when we need it.
I’ve been reconnecting with an old friend lately. We lost touch after high school, the way you do when you no longer have a shared universe to hold you together. For years I contemplating calling her parents’ house to ask for her number or sticking a letter in the mail, but it never felt right. Someday, maybe, I told myself, letting the friendship slide, content to hold her close to my heart and wait for someday to come.
About a year ago, it did. Since then we’ve been slowly getting to know each other again, sending letters back and forth the way we did as teenagers. I am more and more convinced that our orbits crossed again at exactly the right time. For both of us.
2. After over a year of promising myself that I would run outside, not every day but at least once a week, and after running less often than I could count on both hands, I’ve joined the gym again. It’s in the basement of the building where I work. This makes it easier to get to during the day, but also means that I really do live in the office.
I got on the treadmill yesterday and ran for 27 minutes. For once, I didn’t worry about how far I was going, or how fast, or whether my heartbeat was at the right level. I just ran. It was a goodness.
3. I finished the synopsis on the novel last night. Now all that’s left is to polish off the query (an ongoing process), turn my 4 1/2 page synopsis into a 1 page synopsis and a 2-3 page synopsis, and read through the manuscript again for consistency (I know there are a bunch of places where the timing or the names of the characters doesn’t match up).
Then I send it off into the world, resisting the urge to do another revision. I’m sure that will come eventually, after an agent picks up the manuscript and requests it, or after it’s rejected by half a dozen agents for the same reason, but this draft is ready to go. At this point, anyway, it’s all word-smithing – and that’s something I could do for years.
4. The blog is getting an upgrade, as part of its transition to becoming an author website. A little more color, a unified theme, pages for the stories, and, I hope, its own URL with some custom coding. Let me know what you think of the new look.