New Journeys

It’s been a good holiday, sent out Light Fields to a few more publishers and agents, also one of my short stories to a publication. I’m basicly just focusing on that for the next few weeks. So I’ve had a lot of time to read the NYT today, which is essentially becoming the central place I get my information. It’s such an amazing resource. I could spend all day on it, and I sometimes do.

It’s easy to get lost right now waiting. I read for the first time in awhile just how bad the cases are here in Alameda. I’m inside most of the time now. It must be so hard out there if you don’t really have someone to stay with. Our apartment is quiet almost all day, and sometimes it can be a little like a chasm, with so much distance from my family.

I’ve been in contact with the Zen Center about possibly doing a residency. I may or may not do it. I think being away from my partner would be a little intense. I feel alone enough as it is. I hope I was able in the last few weeks to offer some hope with my writing. It’s a step I’d like to take, but maybe not just yet. It’s enough like a monastery sometimes in just the quiet.

But this silence is becoming more like a field of possiblity. A blank canvas, an open page, ready for new daydreams and investigations. I have hope that Light Fields will find an agent or a publisher soon. Until that happens, I’m going to keep it published here on the blog, if anything as much as a record of when I finished it. I can feel the next novellete growing slowly inside of me, and I’m nurturing it to let it grow.

This openness is something that made me make this playlist today, an open space of sounds about hope, starting over, going on new journeys. It’s a playlist I hope can be relaxing, encouraging, and calm. It has some tracks from Enya, Debussy, and some more John Wiliiams. Essentially all impressionist music. This is my foundation for the next period of writing. Hopefully I will hear back soon, and if not, there will still be new stories to tell, soon, and for that I am grateful for all that these silences can give.