Of cucumbers and novels

I could write a horror movie and call it, "The cucumbers are coming and the zucchini is not far behind."

I am not sure if it is possible to overdose on cucumbers, but I am pretty sure I have come close. Every day I juice about six of them and then eat another six. That still leaves plenty for the rest of the family, friends and neighbors. I have to pick them twice a day because they grow from little bitty things to these oversized beasts in a few hours time. I have a huge pile of ones that have grown beyond an acceptable size -- and that is with me combing through the leaves on a daily basis. Plenty like to escape out the fence and grow into these freaks. Today I tried to kill a zucchini plant by taking all its leaves off. Because the cucumbers were all entwined in them.

And don't even talk about the tomatoes. I used to love cherry tomatoes -- they tasted like candy and were ever so delicious. Now I am not sure I will ever eat another one. And my daily sandwich -- lettuce and tomato -- is getting old. After I've had my large cucumber juice, it's like, oh goody, time for lunch. NOT! But I have to enjoy these foods while they are so fresh and amazing, right? Because in a few weeks time I am going to have to go back to the supermarket and get the bland versions and actually pay great sums of money for them.

That is if I ever eat any of these items ever again! Today I am not so sure.

So I have not had time to blog the past few weeks (months?) because I am writing elsewhere. In essence, I am cheating on the blog. Big time. I started a novel in 1999 that was inspired by the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife Caroline. Shortly after, we were on the Vineyard and a shrine had been built on the beach up at Gay Head, near where items from the plane had washed up on shore. I had taken pictures of it and whammo, a novel was born. But then it fizzled out. I just couldn't seem to figure out where to go with it, and tried out a bunch of different scenarios, before abandoning it and writing several more novels instead. But I always liked it, and I figured out how to download my books onto my kindle (the ones I've written) and I read it again while on the Vineyard. And it all just clicked ... and the end became so obvious and even more interesting, the span of ten years has made all the difference!

So I have been writing up a storm and while I have several other completed novels, this is going to be my debut one, I have decided. I am looking forward to the kids returning to school so that I can put in a huge amount of hours toward writing. Currently I am sitting down whenever and getting lost for hours on end, and then I have to pull myself out. It is hard, so I have been actually holding myself back, because it is still summer and there are still summery things to do ... so I am working on being patient. Not that it always works, and it's not unusual for me to say I am headed to bed, only to write a few words that turns into several hours and any thoughts of being tired are long gone.

The writing life is NOT family-friendly -- at least not the way it works for me. I have spent much of my children's lives saying, "okay, be right there," only to find the house dark and everyone asleep and a little nagging thought that I was supposed to do something. It's not really fair, but the future is upon me -- pretty soon there won't be any children at home at all, and no reason not to lose myself for hours on end. The fact that I can return to a book ten-plus years later and it's as though it was the way it was supposed to be has taught me that nothing has to be written overnight. You can get the characters back fully once again and they become richer over the passage of time.

A lot of the blogs I follow seem to be on the verge of coming to an end. It as though we have collectively shared and honed our ability to write on a regular basis, and now we are all concluding that it is time to channel it elsewhere. And unspoken as it seems to be -- the fact that so few words are being spoken speaks volumes!

I am not formally ending my blog -- but I do not feel compelled to write everyday, as I already am.