The last two weeks in October were filled with reading, reassessing and writing my own book, working through my publishing list and writing challenges as they came up. I gave myself a gift – two days, creating my own twenty-four hour or so writing retreat. A cheap (clean and comfortable FTW) hotel with a free mini-breakfast (waffles!), two lectures at the St. Kateri Shrine over Indigenous Peoples’ Weekend, and time to simply sit in quiet with my pen and my notebook, with time to plan and think and reset and when it was over, the time to take what I received in all that time, and use that inspiration to move forward into the fall and to plan my writing intentions for the winter.

I did also finish reading seven books in October; multiple genres; fiction, non-fiction; books with groups, books as research for my own book; I even went to a book talk and signing that I thought had nothing to do with my own writing, and still there were some nuggets that have stayed with  me and continue to germinate and take root.

And then Halloween snuck up on us! Out of the blue, and before we knew it , it was here! I didn’t have a costume or any idea of what costume to wear. It was a real struggle; I always dress up for Halloween. This year was the longest I went without knowing what I’d dress as. It wasn’t until I woke up on Halloween morning that it finally came to me, almost fully formed. I could have kicked myself realizing how simple it would be to put together, even on such very short notice.

I’ve been reading The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon and I finished it rather quickly on Halloween. I will come back to that.

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