Meredith Mansfield, Author

Okay, I’m willing to admit that I’m in some kind of writing slump. Maybe it’s writer’s block. I haven’t really accomplished any writing . . . well, not much really so far this year. All I have accomplished is some critiques for other writers, which is good, but it doesn’t get my stories down.

I don’t know what it is about MAGE STORM that’s just not moving me to write.

Maybe it’s because I’ve already written this story and rewritten or heavily revised it at least once. The enthusiasm I had a couple of months ago for MEADOWSWEET . . . well, if I don’t act on that kind of enthusiasm fairly quickly, it tends to evaporate. And that’s pretty much what happened to that.

But I know my own creative process well enough to know that I’ll only get ideas–and enthusiasm for writing–when I’m writing. Conundrum, that. So, I need to figure out a way to break myself out of this. Maybe it’s going through my files and finding another story that sings to me.

Maybe it’s playing around with the first sequel to MAGE STORM. There’ll be at least four books in that series, if I can ever get off the start line with it. And I’ve never written a word of ROGUE MAGE. Maybe that would give me enough drive to actually rewrite the first book, MAGE STORM, so I could get to ROGUE MAGE. Only trying will tell.

Meanwhile, I still have a full roster of chores to work through, too. First and most urgent is getting the yard mowed. Now, you have to understand, I don’t really have a lawn as such–or only in a very small area. The rest I’m in the process of redoing in a more sustainable–and less labor intensive form. (I hate to mow almost as much as I hate to vacuum.) The problem with being in the middle of that project . . . well, a picture is worth a thousand words, they say.

It got so out of hand because of all the rain we’ve had so far this year. It kept on being too wet to mow, but all that water just made the weeds grow like crazy. That tall stuff back there, that’s mostly common mallow. It’s tough and fibrous and a problem to mow, even with that little mower in the picture which is actually a mega string trimmer with a 6 horsepower engine.

I have to do a little at a time–and then stop to unwind the fibers from the underside of the trimmer. And all made more interesting by having to find and then work around the plants I’ve already got out there as part of the re-landscaping. (You can just see some of the red berries on a pyracantha bush there to the left of the mower.) I’ve just determined that this is not likely a single weekend task.

And then there’s Monster-in-the Walls Part 2. I’m not kidding. Several years ago now, I kept hearing a scratching in the walls. It’d stop when I tried to locate it, but I finally narrowed it down to a short section of wall in the hallway. We actually cut a hole in the wall to figure out what was going on–and then hastily patched it back up when two little masked faces looked out at us. Raccoons. Specifically raccoon kits. Not long after, mama raccoon moved them out, fortunately. Now, it’s happening again. Except, I’m pretty sure this time it’s skunks. I don’t think I need to explain why I think that. Ooh, boy.

The reason this is even possible has to do with the history of the house. The chimney was already in place in what is now a corner when the addition–including the hallway–was built. There is no exterior wall in that short section that backs up to the chimney,  just a short bit of vertical siding between the chimney and the exterior of the addition. So the wall is, in effect, about twice as thick as normal. More than enough room for small creatures to explore up into the wall.

And the scratching is driving Sadie crazy.

This time, I think I’m going to have to figure out a more permanent solution.