Yes, it is February and we’re in shirtsleeves.

It’s five in the morning and I’m sitting in a Super 8 in Colorado Springs, watching channel 13 news on mute with closed captioning on. The rest of the family is still asleep, although my husband is stirring and the girls occasionally make little noises. We arrived late last night.

I’ve visited Colorado a few times in the past twenty-seven years, but I never dreamed it would take me almost three decades to get back here to stay. I’ve missed the mountains, I’ve missed the people, I’ve missed the way of life. Most keenly, I’ve missed the infinite little indescribable tones, words, and actions that are colloquial here and misunderstood everywhere else.

I’m home.

I’ve had the tagline A Writer by Birth, A Redhead by Choice, and An Outcast of Colorado by Temporary Necessity since 2011. I’m still writing, and my red hair was freshened up with a streak of blue and green before we left Vermont, but I’m no longer an outcast. I’m here, this time to stay.

Time for a new tagline…

The transition time is not over. Today we’ll start looking at housing, but hubby has to return to Vermont for work since he still doesn’t have a job here in Colorado. Getting the girls into school and all the other details of relocating will still take some time.

When I found out this transition was happening, back in November, I stopped working on my NaNoWriMo story and concentrated on all the details of moving. It was neither simple nor easy, but I won’t bore you with the details. I kept up with publication schedule for The Cities of Luna, but didn’t do much else, not even promo. That’s going to change soon. As we settle into our new life, I’m diving back into my writing career full throttle. I have some promo in mind for my lunar shorts, and I will choose one of my romance projects to flesh out and query.

This is March, which means the first Round of Words in 80 Days for the year is almost over. I do have some goals for now:

1. Revise Pastor Pastornack’s Sabbatical and send it to my publisher. It’s an Easter story, so it needs to come out this month. Usually we work much further ahead, but things have been wonky in transition.
2. Look at what stories should come out in the following months.
3. Write some fluffy trash to get the cobwebs out.
4. Connect with the local writers, many of whom I already know.
5. Think through what realistic goals should be for round two.

Want some light reading? You’re much lighter on the moon, whose gravitational pull is one sixth that of Earth.