February began on January 31st for me. It was an email with a mixed review from an editor at a publishing house. She’d read/or had someone read/an MG story of mine. She liked it, but…

The best-of-best feedback followed. Very specific detail about what was wrong. No problem! I was happy to run the manuscript through my editing grinder, working as long as I could each day, every day, until I finished it. It took two weeks. What a frenzy! By the end of it, I was happy with where the story had gone, but my hands were throbbing like two overdone hamburgers.

My main-man and I celebrated by hopping into our old pick-up and going on a road trip. We went the old fashioned way, with no reservations! It was freeing! We went where the wind blew, ending up in Northern California, and we worked our way up the Oregon coast, Washington State coast, around the Olympic Peninsula to Port Angeles, took a ferry across the Giorgia Strait to Victoria, and went up Island to Parksville. We’d check the weather and head away from storms.

What a time! We had sweet crab in Cali., fish & chips several places, and storm watched from our rooms’ picture window/s and balcony. We had beach walks in the rain and snow and sun, and our ferry had an orca whale escort! It was a great trip.

The main thing I crave all the time is freedom. I can’t create unless I have a fairly empty calendar. It can be maddening, since there are tons of great meet-ups and friends to see, poetry readings, writers’ groups, etc., etc., etc. Besides family, writing has to come first.

Freedom is necessary to create, but editing should happen in a grinder, fast and consistent.

Something else, beside freedom, that feeds me, is reading. I read a bunch of YA and children’s books this month, some gorgeous, some not great. The breadth of current children’s lit is fascinating.

I also read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which one of my favourite movies is based on. The book was written in 2008 by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The movie came out in 2018, directed by Mike Newell and starring Lily James and Michiel Huisman. Now I’m reading Appointment with Venus, also set during WWII on the Channel Islands, a current facination.

What feeds you? Do you like a schedule, or a wide open calendar? What kind of reading feeds you?