Winter Weather is Best for Writing

I’m writing this on a wet, cold, rainy, windy day in southern Arizona and could not be happier about the storm. I may be in the minority, but I am absolutely loving this winter weather! Any excuse to wear a sweater and hole up inside writing things makes for a great day.

But I have three kids and co-own a small business, so I actually pretty much never just sit around with a pen in my hand all day. And if I try to do that, I set my pen down at some point then spend the rest of the day looking for it only to discover one of the children swiped it and took it apart to examine the spring mechanism. But in an alternate world, I would crank out about 6,000 words today.

Speaking of thousands of words…I finished the second round of edits on my book last week and it’s very close to its final form! I am excited to release the book to readers, partly because that means I can stop poring over every sentence and revising for clarity, grammar, intent, and emotive power. Publication also means more people can read and hopefully relate to my story. I’m excited for people to read it and say to themselves, “Yes! I did that, too! I also had that experience!”

Publication also kind of makes me want to throw up, because I share some pretty dang personal stuff in my book. But I figure that we’re all humans having a human experience, so what the heck. I’ll throw it out there for anyone to read because we only live once, and I don’t want to spend all my years hiding behind what I want people to think of me.

For current publication, you can read my latest post at Western Horseman here. It’s about the challenges of teaching children how to behave in public when they don’t go out in public very often. Maybe we should work on that more as a family. But then their dad and I would have to go out in public, and we don’t want to.

And finally, just for fun, here’s a short video from my YouTube channel. I especially enjoy the first comment. I’m still trying to figure out why men would want to deny women the chance to learn how to change a tire. I guess it’s similar to the argument about opening doors: chivalrous or demeaning? I generally stay out of that debate, because I’m too busy saying “Thank you” and walking through open doors.

Note: Featured image is from the RO Ranch in central Nevada and was taken during the winter of 2015-2016. I remember the time frame because my second child was a newborn, so I shot this photo with tiny him strapped to my chest under my husband’s big coat.