No Excuses . . .

But here are some anyway

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

My mantra is this: We make time for what matters to us.

Despite that, I haven’t made time for this publication lately, and I apologize for that.

Here’s a list of the reasons I haven’t made the time even though this matters to me.

• I did a flag line for the funeral of a veteran on a Friday morning when I normally would have been writing a post here.

• I got my hair cut and highlighted — believe me, it needed it.

• I’ve been attending or watching via the Hudl app my son’s many basketball games — he’s the head coach, not a player, but as his mama, I’ll never stop cheering him on.

• I subbed for a Spanish class in a town 40 miles away on another Friday when I would have normally been writing this.

• I finished and submitted two long feature stories for the Norfolk Daily News

• The Winter Olympics started, and I’m a sucker for paired ice skating, so . . .

• I’m in the midst of a 9-day dog boarding with a fairly regular dog — he doesn’t take much work, but when he’s added to the mix, there are three dogs to corral and entertain around here, so my normal routine goes out the window

• I spent quite a bit of time reading “The Deerslayer” for my classic literature book club — it’s lengthy, so I had to read at least 50 pages every day to finish it on time. I’m also reading “The House of the Seven Gables” for my monthly column

• I prepared all my tax information — what a chore that is!

• I came down with a nasty cold a few days ago and am still battling it — coughing until my gut hurts, unable to sleep, etc.

• I drove to Norfolk to pick up this beauty — if you recall from an earlier post, I shared a photo of it after I’d finally put the last stitch in it; it’s so wonderful to have it framed and on my wall after all these years

• I could go on and on, but here’s the biggie — I had an epiphany concerning the novel I’m currently writing, and I managed to write 11,000 more words of. I’m now a little past 50,000 and planning to have its total length be between 70,000 and 80,000. This epiphany will require some changes in the earlier parts of the book, but the same thing happened with “Last in the Class.” Once I realized who the true bad person was, I was able to finish that novel and rewrite earlier parts of it.

  

  Because of the epiphany concerning the book I’m currently writing, I’ve been spending regular parts of each day doing what I’m supposed to be doing — writing the book — this stupid head cold isn’t helping at all in that department, though

Because I’ve been MIA too long, here is my most recent column for a bonus read:

And because this Friday might keep me away from home once more when I’d normally be writing this post, I’m doing it today. No more excuses.

I make time for what matters!

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and if you’re a paid subscriber, you can keep reading for another portion of “Distant Dedication.” Upgrade to paid status to have access to everything behind the paywalls in all the posts — there are more than 170 of them.

Until next time. By then, I hope to be over this darn cold, I hope to have written another 10,000 words of my novel, and I hope to have solved world hunger — a gal can dream, right?

Tammy Marshall