I’ve been settling back in after a trip back east, followed by a weeklong illness, followed by a LOT of work to catch up on. My PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE crashed last week, so  I spent most of my time redesigning that. Be sure to CLICK HERE if you want to check it out.

I have a photo shoot this weekend, so I managed to get out and do a location scouting expedition this week. Here’s a quick iPhone pic I snapped…

Colorado. It's a big ol' bag of alright.

On a more important note, I’ve got news…

MEN WAITING FOR SLEEP UPDATE:

I swear I didn’t forget about it! In fact, I’m almost done with the first draft. I crossed the 80,000 word threshold this week, which is a big accomplishment considering how long it took to get here. I am figuring I’ve got about another 10,000 words to go. I’m hoping the first draft will be done by the end of October, at which point I put my copy in a drawer and send a digital copy to my editor and beta readers.

This is a good story. I think there’s going to be plenty of work to be done to flesh the story out more once the first draft is done, but to tell you the truth, I can’t wait to put this thing in a drawer and feel as though it’s finished for a while. I have never spent this much time on a novel before…this is the fifth one I’ve written, and I am currently three years into writing it. By comparison, “Confusing the Seasons” took about a year to write, and I thought THAT took too long to write a first draft! My first novel, “Nuns in the Bathroom,” took four months for a first draft.

I guess life gets in the way…

Part of the reason it has taken so long is because I was having a very difficult time relaxing before I left Flagstaff. The stress in my life was reaching an 8 or a 9, and now that I’m settled in here in Colorado, that stress level has lowered a bit to a 4 or a 5, at least for the moment. It’s amazing how much easier the words come when I’m feeling more relaxed, more settled. I’m in a good place, figuratively and literally.