Even Writers Need Vacations

I've been blocked for awhile. It's nothing to be ashamed of, but it is quite stressful. Think about it - you are staring at a white screen/piece of paper for hours with nothing coming out of your mind, let alone

your fingers. Yet, you've recently started telling everyone you know, or have just met, that you're a writer.

And then, as irony and Murphy's Law would have it - BAM!!! - a pretty bad case of writer's block.

I know there are far less expensive methods of getting rid of that miles high brick wall that resides in my mind directly in front of any words I would like to write. I know there are. But it was also our 10th wedding anniversary and we'd be celebrating our son's 9th birthday while we were there. Lots of reason to celebrate and it just seemed like the time.

So we planned, and planned, and had help and planned some more Believe it or not - all that planing just went into logistics. When we landed for our first leg of Europe (London) all that planning paid off. We traveled to London, Paris, London again, Dublin, Limerick and then Belfast before one more trip to London Heathrow hotel at T4 before coming home.

It worked. I now have ideas for stories, some that have been requested, but mostly stories I will be pitching to various magazines, etc. One of the reasons this vacation was so wonderful for me was this: I practiced saying "I'm a writer" whenever I was asked what I did for a living. The number of people who were so excited to hear that I write, and typically write something they would like, was awe inspiring. It was also rather validating - something that is difficult to get in the US unless you are on a best-selling list somewhere. This is not to devalue the wonderful, hard work those on the best-selling lists did to accomplish what they did. But somehow they got lucky and the rest of us did not...yet.

So to be told by women and men, old and young, that they were excited to meet someone

"famous" (I laughed at that one) and a writer to boot made me smile. Each time I heard it, my confidence grew a little. So, here I am with stories to write once the house is in order, perhaps next week, and with followers who are waiting for something... For you I will say this. I have an old story - old meaning I wrote it about 11 years ago - that I would love to share with you. If you'd like it, let me know in the comments. If enough people say yes, I'll find a way to get it out to you. (It needs a cover - hint to my friends who do covers.) So, there it is. One vacation and I may indeed be back - slightly differently than before, but back. Hope your summer is treating you as nicely as mine is treating me.