Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

I’ve been away! Actually, I’m on Hive every single day as an admin of The Ink Well. But it has been quite some time since I blogged regularly.

To make a long story very short, I broke my foot really badly a year and a half ago, and it um (pardon the pun) crippled my writing schedule. The reason being that my m.o. was Actifit. So that was the end of that, with the long-term prospect of getting broken foot bones melded back together and aligned.

Plus I published a book — which was a very time consuming, life-devouring project. But yes! Yes I did that. It has been a very exciting adventure, and I’m very happy about it. (And yes there’s a “but” coming… eventually…) It’s a collection of short stories called Somewhere in Minnesota and you can find it on Amazon in paperback, Kindle or Audible. It's even on international Amazon sites.

But… (there's the "but"!) I had NO idea what I was getting myself into with regard to getting this thing promoted, getting it placed in book stores, getting the Audible version done, etc. etc. It’s the most time consuming project I’ve ever taken on.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

Oh! About the foot. So it was a mess for a full year — never fully healing, and keeping me from being active. Then at the very end of 2023, I had another surgery to remove the metal pins they had installed to get the bones to heal correctly in the first surgery, and then it finally started to really heal. Now at last I’m back to my former level of activity. I’m walking, biking, working out, playing pickleball, and living life again. Which means... when do I sit down and blog??

And how do you break back into a habit like regular blogging when all the mechanisms you had in place have gone dormant? I look at this platform where I used to have a voice, and used to be very interactive (as me, not just as a member of an admin team) and I feel like that kid at the edge of the field wondering how to ask if I can play!

But here’s how I decided it’s time. I realized that almost every day I take a few pictures or have something interesting happen, and my inner voice says: Hey, that would make a nice blog post!

Alrighty then. Let’s do this.

Photo credits: All of the photos in this post were taken by me and belong to me, unless otherwise noted.

My bio: I am a fiction writer and photographer based in Minnesota. I have had a lifelong love of fiction writing. I earned my MFA in writing from the University of New Hampshire. My short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals and anthologies, and my first short story collection, Somewhere in Minnesota is available on Amazon US as well as international Amazon sites., Barnes & Noble or from the publisher.