Sadie Jay

Last weekend of January–I hope that means I'll pop out of these January blues I've been swimming in. Maybe my body (and mind) just needed a rest after the bustle of last year? Whatever the reason, I don't feel like I've accomplished much of my To Do list. Anyone else feel that way?  The snow was so wet, it sounded like rain and melted within hours. Still, I'm glad it was a day I could stay in.  We all read advice blogs that say "don't have a character describe themselves by looking in a mirror," although I'm sure we've all done it at least once! So, in Like Cracks in the Sidewalk , I let Val describe James like this (told from James' POV):    Shocked silent. Apparently, that’s a real thing, because I couldn’t speak. Over the years I’d let myself get scruffy and unkempt, subconsciously trying to discourage the women Mom kept bringing around. And here was Val, describing my too skinny self as rugged.     He saw the play of confusion cross m...

January is not a good month for me. I don't know if it's "coming down" from the holidays, or the lack of sun, or the cold. Probably all of those things! I was hoping to use this month to get a jump on editing and possibly starting a new book. What I'm actually doing is reading a lot. But that's not a bad thing. Right? Which doesn't mean I'm not accomplishing anything. Just not as much as I'd like. My January mood!  This week I'm snipping from my current project, Like Cracks in the Sidewalk .  James made sure Val got home okay after an incident the night before. He slept on the couch and he's the first up the next morning. He's poked his head into Val's room, checking to see if he's still asleep. Told from James' POV:  Val's hair was fanned out across his shoulders and hid the slice of his face not buried in his pillow. Enough light filtered in through the windows for me to see that he’d gone to bed wearing a white t-shir...

I decided to put the original draft of Headphones on Vella since it was written in serial style. Easy-peasy, I thought. Not so much. Turns out a big percentage of the snapshots were shorter than the required 600 words. So this project is going to take up more of my time than I'd first imagined!   A snippet taken from the  Headphones Vella:  The voice echoes up the steps, hollow and heartbreaking in its isolated misery. Headphones feels like a voyeur sitting on the top step listening to Mick’s sorrow flow out in his song. The lyrics are new to her, nakedly emotional, a melding of words she’s never heard before. There is the possibility that they were authored by some other mind, but they’re too personal, the hitch in his voice too jarring. There is no doubt in her mind; they are Mick’s words, written after Joey’s death. “I lost September Death was there and you were gone I didn't just loose September It took my youth when it took you. We were young and happy and caref...

Week one of 2023 is done. I always start the year thinking this will be the one when I get organized. It's already obvious, this isn't going to be the year! I'm still in that ether of a project finished and not being fully emersed in the next one. I decided to do another Vella, using an old serial I'd written, thinking it wouldn't take up much of my time, but it needs more rewriting than I'd thought. It's a year-long project, so we'll see where that takes me. I'm also adding occasional words to a book I have outlined but haven't started the "serious" writing. That's probably going to be a few months away, but hopefully I'll have a really solid base to build on once I start.   Afternoon Walk-- Everything's so brown. There's beauty in it, the richness to the bland. But winter makes me want to hibernate. I miss being outdoors. (And warm.)  My other project is a book I've written but am only now starting the long editing...