Late for the meeting...but still here. IWSG

 Hi dear pals,

I'm late for the meeting but just a couple of days. I'm at Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton. My fella is doing some renovations here - the  abbey is like Howl's Moving Castle - a rambling shape shifting place on a bit of land floating out over the Atlantic, mountains behind, whales and ships moving slowly on the horizon, eagles and ravens playing in the wind. I have spent time here before - once I spent a month in the winter but that was decades ago. Before I go further though, let's do the traditional opening for a meeting of the IWSG - 

IWSG

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

I'm not going to answer the question which is no longer posted at any rate, but instead do something that my close pals and I do when we get together for any length of time. I'm going to check-in. Not about my whole life mind but just about my writing one. 

hmmm... I'm okay-ish. I am writing - working on my second Nell Munro novel, Butter & Snow, which is going slow as mud, but that's alright I think. I have a former mystery ms, The Rock Walker, with the woman who helped me with The Crooked Knife, but she is silent so far. I have another novel, Lost and Found, not a mystery, that I have about 60 thousand words written, but I want to change it from 1st person to 3rd. That'll waste a shit-load of time but I believe will save it from being binned. And I have an idea born of being here at the abbey for an 'end of days' type story, working title The Unwinding. So, let's see - that's four books in every stage from ready to pitch to nebulous thoughts.

My main anxiety - the one that keeps me in okay-ish and not just flat out okay - is that my discipline has been, well, absent. I can attribute that to some degree with the amount of traveling we've been doing. This has been the late summer early fall exploration of mountains. We were in Woody Point, Newfoundland, which is within the National Park of Gros Morne, a gorgeous range of mountains. Then we were in the Canadian Rockies, which are the most stupendous mountains in North America, and now we are in the Cape Breton Highlands. It is hard for me to keep my discipline when I'm traveling. I brought my laptop here because my fella is working so I can spend a few hours each day writing. The rest of the time I'm involved with helping out here at the Abbey and spending some good time with my old pal who works here. The truth is though, that I've had this kid ego-state who has just rebelled against me doing any of my disciplines lately. (last five months) No yoga, not much meditation, my drawing is down, all of it. Maybe you've had these fallow periods. I'm trying not to panic and just be gentle with it all, but it has me concerned. 

Well, that's it for today, for this month I suppose. I'll be back, and I look forward to catching up with you all now.