Thank Goodness Spring Is Here

Last week was fabulous. The sun shone every day. The snow is gone, except for piles in parking lots and even those are disappearing. The ice on the pond behind our house has almost completely melted. The ducks are back. Hubs and I are eagerly awaiting the baby ducks’ appearance. My daffodils are poking their spears up through the ground.

Add to all that, marvelous events happened in the sky. Mother Nature celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a super-charged Aurora Borealis. Then she threw in a Super Moon (moon is closest to Earth) that totally eclipsed the sun. On the downside, the Mars One Project—plan to put people on Mars in 2024—has been delayed by two years due to lack of funding.

Speaking of downsides, after last week’s blog about writing 25,000 words (about 100 pages) this month, I jinxed The Protector, my science fiction romance work-in-progress. While lying awake that night and “plotting” I discovered a thread that didn’t work. That's what happens when I don't plot and let my characters dictate the direction of the story. I had to rip out 1,500 words. Trust me, it killed me to do it. However, I saved those precious words (tongue planted firmly in cheek) in a file I call “leftovers” just in case I find a place in the story to use them. I've properly chastised my characters for leading me astray.

For an upside, on Saturday instead of a speaker at our monthly writers’ meeting (Mid-Michigan RWA), we had critiques/brainstorming. When the group brainstormed a “what should happen next” in The Protector, I got several good ideas plus an “ah hah” moment. Truly, many heads are better than one. Writing a novel is such a solitary world. I envy writers on television shows because they can bounce ideas off each other. My writers’ group is great! Now I’m off and running again.

The best event of all happened yesterday. Through the magic of technology, I got to watch my daughter-in-law open baby shower gifts 2,000 miles away. Baby Girl is going to be one well-dressed kid. "Eagerly awaiting baby ducks" doesn't come close to describing our anticipation of the arrival of our newest grandchild in May.

I’m looking forward to another great Spring week. I hope yours is fabulous, too. Dare we hope winter won’t make a reappearance?