Missing You, Portland and What to Do When Plans are Thwarted

I’m so sorry to say, Portland friends, that I will not be making it out to Portland tonight for my reading with Kelly Davio at Annie’s Blooms due to being too sick to travel. I hope you still go to catch Kelly Davio reading from her new book, who is not only a terrific person but a wonderful writer! I hope to make it back out to Portland to visit soon.

I had big plans for fun this last weekend, but ended up spending most of it in bed, sleeping through my less than stellar symptoms (sneeze, cough, stomach ache, etc.) I watched old MST3K DVDs Glenn got me from the library, tried to read my writing magazines but didn’t have quite the mental energy for that, and also tried to look at submissions and my review pile of books. Sometimes our best laid plans get thwarted, and when that happens, I try to move to the next best thing on my list to look forward to. I’m looking at a crowded reading schedule in the next two months, mostly for things like Jack Straw and anthologies and the like. I’m hoping I will be well enough to go to most of it! How is it almost September again?

But September is usually a favorite month for me, a time when my preferred weather (cool and less sunny) prevails and I feel the energy of the new season starting. I mean, in Seattle our weather is usually rain, rain, rain – then three months of sun in summertime – then rain, rain, rain again, we don’t have the dramatic seasonal changes that made the mountain of Tennessee, the back woods of Virginia or even Ohio seem to light up with color and the smell of wood smoke. This time of year means new beginnings, hope, getting out my cardigans and jeans and boots and putting away the sundresses.  I am thinking of moving on, of new projects I can be excited about, about shaking off the past and embracing the future.