Coldest Spring – Writing Blue

Here’s a lovely bluebird. I can’t tell if he’s happy or not. Most birds look angry.

Normally, I would be outside drafting stories or revising in the sunshine this time of year, but it seems like winter has decided to make a bit of a comeback in my part of the world. After a bout of absolutely gorgeous weather, we’ve got a cold snap. I lost motivation to pull the patio furniture out of “mothballs” just yet, but there are still plenty of things needed to be done, weather or not.

I put in some new trees to replace those we lost last winter (not that they’ll grow to the sixty+ feet overnight) and even a few fruit trees, now that there’s safe, sunny space where the deer can’t demolish the fruit and tender buds. I love those large critters but they can wreck a young tree in no time. We put in more blueberries, and there are some grapes as well. The felled trees wrecked my wild raspberry patches, but not all of them. Time will tell if enough of them survived.

There’s also the need to take care of the chickens, who have been out for one full week as of yesterday (24APR2023), and seem to be enjoying it. They thoroughly foraged all of the weeds in the old chicken run we revamped for them, and are almost ready to have the door standing open for them to wander at large in the yard. Chickens–all birds, really–are fun, silly creatures with definite personalities. Nash still comes running out for me. I think he thinks he’s a dog or a hawk. Or both.

I really want to be outside writing. I always get better results when I remove myself from the technology, just use a notebook and pen and really concentrate on what’s going on in my head. Of course, nature can be distracting too, and I will frequently find myself stopping to listen to the calls of the birds* or some shuffling critters in the blanket of dead leaves. It’s all inspiration, though, especially when I need to ground a scene in the senses.

Anyway, keeping this one short so I can get back to writing. I’m going to have to uncurl my frozen fingers, however, in order to grip the pen. Until next time, stay warm my friends!

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*Titmice are my favorite birds around here–tiny and clever, and amazing to see the little things take off with a whole peanut in their beak (not just a little nut, but the nuts in the shell!). The best bird call comes from the Carolina wrens, though. They fly around calling out “Jeremy! Jeremy! Jeremy!”. Jeremy never seems to answer, though.

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Eater of Dreams is well underway – 23 episodes uploaded to Kindle Vella, roughly 61,000 words. For those interested but not quite ready to delve into the investment of tokens (I totally get it, many of us are being hit with the hammer of hard times right now, me included), the first three episodes are free, and Kindle will gift you 200 tokens as well. Episode costs vary by length, but none are over 50 tokens (Example: Errand Boy costs 24 tokens, Heat is 32 and Camp Discipline is 19). You could read all the way up to Episode 10 – Vrenith: Amidst the Cinders.

Best news is that those 200 tokens are just for the claiming–no purchase necessary, no “buy 1000 get 200 free”. I’m guessing you need an Amazon account, and we all have an Amazon account. Do we know anyone who doesn’t?