I’m in vacation mode, so if my thoughts are more scattered than normal, you’ll know why! Having found myself needing to use approximately 8 days of vacation time before the end of the year, I decided to take the first half of the week off (we get Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving). I don’t know if I’ve ever done that before, which is part of why I’ve got over 200 vacation hours piled up. This being Thanksgiving, here are some things I’m thankful for…

…loving the WiP! I spent a good part of the weekend reading and making notes, and while I’m only about a quarter of the way through, I’m loving the WiP! It’s overly-bloated at 478 pages (!!!) and the writing is really uneven, but I really like the main character and the story. At the risk of setting unreasonable goals, I’m going to try to have the next draft done by Christmas. Possible? Ye-e-e-s. Probable? I guess we’ll see once I start really rewriting it. Sellable? Not yet, but we’ll see…

…the Catbird coming home! Yes, it means driving nine hours round-trip to get her, and another nine hours to bring her back on Sunday, but she’ll be home, my little birds will be in the nest again and it will be very nice for a few days.

…the Magpie. I’m amazed at what a fine young woman she’s become.

…the RiP is out of my hands! For real this time! I hope the next time I have to rewrite it, it will be under contract. We’ll see. More on this (not a contract, it’s not back out on sub yet) another time.

…good coffee.

…the dog is still with us. She’s thirteen and increasingly neurotic. She can’t hear when the oil man pumps a hundred and fifty gallons of #2 heating oil in our tank. She has to stick her nose in. Every. Single. Footprint. In the snow when it’s cold and blustery and all I want to do is get back inside (that’s not new, anyway). But she’s a good dog and she’s still here and I’m thankful for that.

…my wife. She’s amazing.

…all of you. I know how many follow this blog, but I have no real idea how many read it. I do know how many of you comment and I thank you and am glad you stop by. I hope you get some value out of this, at least once in a while. Thanks for dropping in and sharing your thoughts and time.

That’s all for me this week. Happy Thanksgiving!