Cold and Gloom Approach

Yep, a depressing title to the blog today. Patience.

I discovered, on accident which is the best way to learn new things, that I have many cycles to my life. In the post below, I whined about Daylight Savings Time. This, as it happens, occurs annually. Blogging allows me to take it public where only the family had to deal with it before. Happens nearly every year, right at this same time, as the days start to shorten.

The most interesting cycle occurs at the same time as DST ending; an annual evaluation and renewal. Spring in the fall, if you will. This wasn't conscious until I took some time and visited a therapist.

Me? A therapist?

Yep. Did it when I was having great gobs of success in running my own little business, winning awards and working seven days a week to catch up with demand. I was making more money than I had in my life. Had a wife and family that adored me and that I loved. And I was totally, completely miserable.

It was about this time of year that I made a management decision that something needed fixin', hunted around, and found a great lady two hours away in Spokane that I though could help. Set the appointments and made them all, about six total. I was right and she did help.

You want details? Too bad. . .

It was around this time of year that I started my first novel, Finishing Kick. Couldn't get a scene out of my head so I wrote it down and something inside cheered as it broke chains I thought could hold anything. I'll tell you the story sometime. It involves a seven year old and a spaceship . . .and being mocked.

This time last year, I started taking some classes on writing, courtesy of Dean Wesley Smith. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm a complete pain in the butt that might . . .might . . .amount to something. I learned a ton of from him, most of it too late for the first novel, but just in time for the second.

This year, the same impulse flows in with the change of the seasons. If my count is right, I'm closing in on a half a million words written this year.

500,000. Words.

That is a heck of a lot of writing. Most of it has been on this blog and over at Inlandxc.com where I do the race reporting for the kids.

And that, my friends, is a problem.

I'm working on a novel but only in a kinda way. It needs, demands, my full attention.

I have a non-fiction book (a short one) that's 98.2% done.

Blogging interrupts much of that so . . .

I like blogging. It stays, but gets rearranged a wee bit. First, I won't be blogging nearly every day. Too much of my writing time goes to the blog, not the book. Fixable.

I'm going to keep the trail run photologs. Those are fun and I'm going to play out there any way. (Thinking of recreating a Narnia run, just for the pictures. What's a Narnia run? Ahhh, a story for later. Yeah, that's three times I've put you off.) Same thing with the interviews. I  have learned so much talking to people like Tim Tays, Rick Riley, and Jack Welch. They stay.

The same goes for the cross country blog, then track in its season. It stays because the kids love it, and someone who gives a damn should notice how hard they work.

Something has to go. And it's the content that I put up because I should write something on the blog today. A lot of it is good, some is okay, a larger portion than I'd like is drivel.

All of it is expendable.

I've going to aim for six good posts per month - four running, two interviews or book reviews. The time I recover goes to writing new words into new stories. The characters inside my head need to be free and I need to write while I can still hear their songs.

You folks that read my blog often, some of you daily, I love you guys. I hope you understand.

I told Dean, on a day where I was being especially difficult, that everything serves the story.

Everything.

Including me.