Wind, weather, and other small turmoils--

UP way too early, considering the long (but interesting) day I have ahead. First, the pellet stove had something stuck in some way, and it was making a sound akin to a ghost with its sheet caught up in a turbine. It cleared, but that was at 4:30am. Sigh. No sleep since.

I got up, and now there's some crazy wind gusts creaking and shaking the house. I hope that passes quite soon; that sort of weather event makes me super nervous. 

Soon, it'll be full daylight. That helps. 

Things that rankle: 

• Trump calling the governor of Maine a man repeatedly in a recorded telephone message to his supporters in Maine, while lying outright about policies SHE has in place. 
• The ongoing artificial down-playing of the economy (numbers don't lie, but the GOP does). 
• The level of mental exhaustion I'm feeling from a long week at work and an even longer and very depressing day of "professional development" yesterday. It was filled with CPR, other life-saving things, and a rousing webinar on suicide prevention. Ooof.

I'm sure the list could be longer, but why bother?

Today, though, I have an all-day writing class with some of my very favorite people, so that will be awesome. And tonight, G and I have plans to go to a concert locally. I hope I have not jinxed it-- every time we have any plans at all, they go down the tubes. I've lost a bit of money because of that over the last year or two, so let's hope that this time, the money is not poorly spent. (And there I go again, trending toward the negative.) The concert is a Scottish folk band, so that would be something quite different. And you know what else is different? Us having any plans that start at 8pm. We are getting old.

So maybe coffee or a nap after my class will be in order. 

In the meantime, in the next couple of hours, I have some house chores to accomplish so I can relax into the rhythm of reading, writing, and discussion. At heart, I am a student. Always a student. And I love learning and exploring. This class is focused on poems that push the writer to inhabit the "negative capability" that Keats is known for, so that will be a welcome challenge. I have not written anything worth even looking at in quite a bit of time, so I'm both excited and relieved to have this class today. 

And speaking of writing things, I've been informed by Finishing Line Press that my book is scheduled to "drop" for presale on Tuesday! Stay tuned for that. I will have to gird myself in some way to overcome my innate shyness so I can market my book (shamelessly)-- there is a presale quota to meet. If I don't sell enough books between Tuesday and December 20th, it will not be published. That pressure is upsetting, but I understand it's part of the publishing world. Why would anyone take a risk on my little book? Financially, from a business standpoint, they shouldn't-- in the US, poetry does not sell a ton. So, maybe I can make it happen. I'll need to suck it up and splash the info out there. Sigh.

OK, time for more coffee and a hot shower. I need to shake off the anxiety about the wind, the weather, and publishing, and focus on my inner writer for a bit. 

Have a good day,

C