Don’t you just love January? 

For me it’s the month that just slides right on by. There’s no school. No uni. No deadlines. Just summer heat and icy drinks and my pile of to-be-read books. It’s the month of the year where I do the least, and I’m so grateful and lucky to have it.

That said, I have still been tapping away at the keyboard. I’ve cooked up a few articles, including this fun story on penis bones (or lack thereof).

I’ve also recorded a podcast on how much can be achieved when science and creativity go hand in hand.

And I’ve painfully slogged my way kicking and screaming and scraping and wailing slowly forward in my long-suffering work-in-progress manuscript. Argh.

A more sensible me would just leave this manuscript half-finished and get on with something else.

But I just can’t. I already tried.

The story just keeps bugging me and wanting to be finished. I think I care so much about the characters I can’t bear to leave them in limbo. Also, it’s a story I want people to read.

Except I don’t really know how the story ends. So that’s tricky, now, isn’t it. Grrr.

But, if ever there was a month where I have the luxury of kicking and screaming and scraping forward (instead of steamrolling forward in my usual deadline-driven approach), that month would be January.

All hail, January…
…for some (pitiful) manuscript progress (but nonetheless progress) has been made.

When I haven’t been writing I’ve been loving the chance to try farmsitting, plus some ruthless spring cleaning (my secret passion) and board gaming!

We’ve spent entire days building railways in Ticket to Ride.
Or saving the world in Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
Or escaping Abandoned Cabins and Mummy’s Tombs in various incarnations of Exit.
Or raiding treasure in Luxor.
Or stomping wasps in Dragonwood.
Or trying not to get electrocuted in Forbidden Sky.

Hmmmm.

Now that I read that list, I have an inkling where January went. Board games!

It seems we have developed quite an appetite.

Don’t you just love school holidays 🙂