An Ending And A Beginning

Finally I typed "The End" yesterday on the short story (8,000 words) it's taken me almost a month to write. Just so you know, that's not normal for me. Usually I could do that in a week--or less. Of course, two of the last four weeks I was sick. But, still.

But you know what? It's done. Just has to go through the critiquing process, do some final editing/revising, then submit it. Hopefully it will be accepted for the Christmas Candy anthology Whiskey Creek Press Torrid is planning for this December.

For those of you who don't know, I live in Arizona. Our winter is pretty much like the east coast's late spring/early summer (because our summer is pretty much like Hell.) As I worked yesterday, I had the door to my patio open, all the blinds up, and watched life start up around me again. The animals have been gone or in hibernation, but they've started to come back. I've got two resident lizards in my back yard, one pretty small, the other bigger but still about gecko-sized. Haven't seen the larger of the two, but the little one's been sunning himself on my back wall. The little ground squirrels are stirring, too. The cute little buggers have dug a few holes, one of which is right by my patio door. Watched one of them sit and chew on mesquite tree pods for awhile. They're rather shy, but as long as I didn't move around too much, he was quite content to sit next to the patio and eat.

My resident morning doves are also back, sitting on their nest. Last spring/summer they had three sets of babies (for a total of five), so I'm looking forward to little baby birds soon.

Yep, life's beginning all around me. And it's time to start something new.