Plotting further afield

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A jewel not of my making; read below for its story.

I spent a few days away from home, gifting some autumnal quilts which garnered gushing affection, which is always so lovely to witness. Meanwhile my husband hosted a friend he's known since high school, and that friend also enjoyed the myriad quilts draped over the sofa, lol. It's always nice to be appreciated and prepared.

Speaking of prep, last week I started to wrangle with future installments of my current fictional series. I had ideas certainly; this saga has miles to travel until reaching The End. But I hadn't given it much hard thought, kind of caught up in Halloween quilts and cleaning for a guest, ha ha. Yet now I have a plan, or maybe it's more concrete than an ethereal notion. I won't know till I reach those stories, but at least a pathway has emerged from the foggy mist.

At times it's a difficult journey when relying on the muse, my faith, the twists and turns of life. I chatted about life's surprises with a few friends this past weekend, how much remains beyond our scope, and that's good because sometimes TMI hampers the here and now. I adore Future Me; she's like the better part of myself as well as the keeper of knowledge. But I'm grateful to be Present Me right here on this now suddenly smoky day. Half an hour ago blue skies were trying to overpower the cloud. Then the winds shifted and it's smelly outside, murky too. One never knows exactly what's going to happen next.

In June we visited our son and I spent time at a local craft market, where I admired the back of a fascinating hand-sewn quilt top made of half-hexagons and squares. The front was obscured by items for sale; the quilt top had been hung as a backdrop between the adjacent stall, but that's where I went to study the seams, finding in their aged beauty an EPP possibility. A few weeks ago that photo turned up and I made a reminder for today to sew a few of those blocks as a trial. Not sure how that will go, but it was wholly unexpected to find it today on list of To Do's, and certain advantageous to note in this post, which a few paragraphs ago I thought was going to be about my novel, LOL!

Such is the marvel of life, how priceless are these surprises that occasionally turn into new roads we stumble across or that jut into our current route, greatly (or mildly) altering our expedition. Concerning my novel(s), I have pared down the number of stories, instead telling the most vital slices of these characters' lives. We'll see how that goes (ahem) in that I really like all these characters, but I'm also fifty-seven and there are other tales to tell. Lots of quilts to sew, Future Me adds, not that I desire one more hand-stitching project on my plate. You didn't need this slew of novels either, Past Me frowns, but her angst is more to do with how this series came to be, from a dim place steeped in sorrow. Yet from the darkest night dawns a bright day, or a not as cloudy start as previous days or the haze will lift eventually. That's Humboldt County in a nutshell, fires notwithstanding, as well as life in general. Best to roll with the blessings plopped in my lap and go from there. Future Me nods and Past Me harrumphs while Present Me closes this post with a smile.

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