Not dead, just buried

On the one hand, I can't believe we're almost halfway through the year already. On the other hand, it feels like the last 6 months have had a decade's worth of happenings crammed into them, and not just in terms of dismaying politics. If you're wondering why I've not only been silent here, but also pretty quiet on my more regular haunts of twitter and r/Fantasy, it's because I've had a lot going on. In the past 6 months, I've:

1) Applied for New Zealand residency (which required a mountain of further paperwork)

2) Organized repairs and other preparations for selling our house in Boulder. Everything to do with selling a house is stressful at the best of times, but my husband and I have found the stress increases exponentially when you have to deal with contractors, real estate agents, etc, while not living in the same country. I currently hate everything to do with houses.

3) Returned to Colorado in April to resign from my job in the space industry. Except at the last minute I was offered the chance to work remotely on a cool new project at the company, so I ended up NOT resigning. Heh, of course this change of plan came after I'd already sent my "Farewell, dear colleagues..." email out to all my coworkers. Cue a lot of telling people, "Um, about that? Never mind..." (My coworkers didn't blink an eye. The joke at our company is that it's the Hotel California. Nobody ever really leaves. Go ahead and try. You'll be back, we all know it.) Anyway, so I still have my job, which I'm quite happy about! But starting a new project does mean more time working and less time doing everything else.

4) Said a wistful farewell to my beloved literary agent of 8 years, Becca Stumpf, who is leaving agenting to take up freelance editing. It's not farewell for long, I'm sure, because if I ever need an editor, I will hire her in a heartbeat. (Becca is amazing, and I don't say that lightly. She's one of the best and most professional people I've worked with in publishing.)

5) Continued working on draft 2 of my new fantasy book The Dreaming Sea. It's going slowly, thanks to all the other demands on my time, but it's going, at least. Once our house in Boulder is sold, I'm hoping to also squeeze in some more work on the Shattered Sigil novella, The White Serpent. Oh, for more hours in the day!

6) And occasionally I've been trying to get outside. What's the point of living in a stunningly beautiful country if you don't take time to enjoy that beauty?

The famous Wanaka tree. It's an old fencepost, apparently, that wasn't quite dead yet when the lake inundated it. Since then it's blossomed into one of NZ's most photographed trees. Cue labored metaphors about life...

View from the Rob Roy Glacier Track, one of my favorite local hikes

Coast south of Dunedin, about 3 hours away from Wanaka (but worth the drive)

I expect the infrequent posting will continue for the near future. But I'm still alive and checking emails and twitter and r/Fantasy threads, even if I haven't much time to contribute. Can't wait for the day I can say I've got a new book or novella all polished and ready! Until then, it's nose to grindstone.