One reason I've been away - a good reason, for once - is that my duties at work have been expanded to include writing ad copy for the shop's website and online store. This allows me to engage in two of my many passions: gushing about yarns I love, and overusing exclamation points and elipses:
Debbie Bliss Fine Donegal is a luscious fingering weight wool with just enough cashmere to make it something special. A tweedy single-ply, this yarn is both lofty (read: warm) and easy to work with. Try a versatile neutral like Snowdrift, which has a cream base and touches of blue and yellow in the tweedy bits ... or go for the wilder Blackberry with its black base and flashes of bright primary colors. And check out the pattern support Debbie Bliss has provided - you can use Fine Donegal to make beautiful garments, accessories, and more!
Between coming in early to write before the customers arrive, designing and writing up patterns for the store, and joining a gym so that I don't turn into a cautionary tale about the health effects of too much sedentary crafting, finding time to write anything for myself has been a challenge. Oh, and Erika also roped me in to making some tutorials, too, which mainly demonstrate why I was always more interested in radio than in television:
We're going to have to work on her camera skills, I think, if she wants these to reach a wider audience.
At any rate, school is back in session, and I'm settling in a routine with work and the gym, so hopefully I'll get back in the saddle again soon. One good motivator is the writing conference I'm attending, um, tomorrow (gulp!). This will be a first for me, and I'm excited to see what it's all about. I'm also psyched to meet some actual agents and editors in the flesh - it will be nice to know that they really exist, and not just in my dreams! Trying to get started as a writer can seem like throwing lots of time and mental effort down into a deep well, waiting for an echo that never comes. Maybe this conference will be the push I need to start getting responses and feedback and (one day) maybe even a contract. Stranger things have happened!
