People often ask, “When is the next book coming out?” And I always have the same answer.

“The only writing I am doing right now is to-do lists and prayers.”

Which is not entirely true, but it sure feels that way.

You see, I have always been a writer, just like I have always been a reader. They are not hobbies that I occasionally do when I want to have fun. They are ingrained in my daily life and they have been for many years. I have a running handful of composition notebooks full of haikus, poems, songs, journal entires, to-do lists, goals, short stories, and full length book chapters. The challenging part is taking the handwritten work and sitting down at a computer to transcribe them into a larger piece that I polish, pay a professional to tune-up, and finish.

I am addicted to works-in-progress, I must say. I LOVE the writing process, the pen on paper process, the feeling of having my hand rest against a blank piece of paper and then letting the ideas flow as the white paper becomes full of beautiful cursive penmanship. I love that. I do not love typing, staring at a screen, and working to finish a project. It’s something I am trying to change.

Not to mention, I am a maniac Alaskan who does not do well sitting down in front of a screen from May through November.

So I spend a few minutes sneaking upstairs during the day to type a blog, and I write in my notebooks when the kids are asleep and/or I have an hour or two alone.

However, I am very excited for the season to change and the leaves to turn yellow and the fall winds to pick up and strip the trees of the leaves and the nights to get dark so the kerosene lantern can burn as I read Stephen King in bed and dream of November mornings in the yurt with a composition notebook on a table and my computer open as my fingers fly on the keyboard and I continue to work on the next book.

In the meantime, I’ll keep sneaking these blogs in, writing a few articles for the monthly newsletter, and busting my behind outdoors while I can. As the old saying goes, ‘Make hay when the sun shines.’ And the sun will stop shining very soon here in Southcentral Alaska.

I also want to take time to thank all of YOU readers and subscribers. Without readers, I would keep the writing in my notebooks and in my head instead of sharing it. Without subscribers, we would not have the time and money to work on our own property, to write blogs, to publish the newsletter, to raise our own kids, and to work for ourselves.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU TO OUR READERS AND SUBSCRIBERS!!!