28 February 2011

Last day of my birthday month

Even though it’s my weekly cyber-silent Monday, I simply could not let February end without posting something here about the sweetness of this past month. From day one I was filled with a new and almost forgotten contentment; I’ve been trying to capture it in words since returning home from Rivendell, B.C., where I spent a glorious techno-free week in solitude at the end of January. Some things are meant to be experienced, I guess, and cannot be translated into speech. But oh! the grand realisation that life is magnificent took my breath away more than once while I was on my little island retreat.

Perhaps I shall keep trying to find the words to share my joy in the coming months....

Speaking of which, tomorrow I am taking up an insane challenge (which feels like the most natural thing in the world). I plan to write more or less 1,600 words a day ... in order to meet my monthly quota of 50,000 words, or one unedited rough draft of a manuscript. Since fiction’s not my natural voice, I’ll stick to what I know: and write letters.

Yes, all fifty thousand words will have originally been shared with specific recipients by the time my letter anthology sees the light of day (if it ever does, which isn’t the point of the exercise).

I have also embarked on a thorough spring cleaning of our home (and garden, once the snow melts in July), and will post my “dozen a day” goals as and when I meet them. Roll on, March one! I’ll try and post updates in between my late writing nights and daily domestic engineering. By May I trust I will have created some sense of cosmos from my current level of chaos ... and with the right combination of passion and discipline, I may even have a first draft of a new anthology to show for it!

Spring-dreams of new life stir beneath the frozen earth, despite our dismal minus 26ºC reality….