Enchanting Christmas trees, Santa’s cookie crumbs, house warming menorahs, crackling fireplaces, holiday flights… December’s alight!
I have a unique ability to spontaneously submerge myself in the moment, so sprinkling nutmeg on the top of creamy eggnog, wrapping bright red ribbons around happy events, and conveniently standing under doorways dangling with mistletoe are all-encompassing pleasures (among a few other winter-warming activities). Yet there are also holiday-shunning moments… moments reminding me that the world is spinning me into a countdown towards that next important number… and it’s not 2012! There is another number on my horizon… a much more significant number. It’s a number that’s sure to turn my world upside down beginning in January, and this number will last for several months. For the sake of my anxiety level THAT number will remain unwritten here. THAT number is important because it is the end of my next book. No, it’s not Notty Love! (the sequel to my last novel) which is still in the works, but a different kind of book unlike anything I’ve written so far. This one is not only a true story but it’s so true that I myself will not know the ending of the story until spring comes in 2012! How will I get from here to there?
Sometimes I think I have lost my mind (in a most intriguing and passionate way) because in order for me to arrive at the end of this upcoming story after almost four years of research in Las Vegas, I’ve decided to take on a very challenging process which will begin in January. I seriously don’t know if I’ll be able to pull this off… the odds are against me and my well-being may be at stake. No one else has ever undertaken a challenge like this before so there are no footprints to follow… no map to guide me. I am not at liberty to disclose the details of this project, so I will have zero emotional support during this sensitive and highly creative time. I will also be spending an inordinate amount of time alone (with the gracious exception of domestic help and the occasional company of my much needed personal assistant/angel, neither of whom have or will have any knowledge of what I’m writing). Lots of praying and meditating coming up, that’s for sure!
My challenge will soon begin (simply writing this sends Jack Frost’s chills up my arms and dizzies my tummy like a shaken snow globe), making sometime in January an historic moment from which a very heart-felt writing endeavor will be conceived as it marks a very special month for me and for my readers. The vision that I have has entirely claimed me as its own and has asked me to prepare myself and my lifestyle for major upcoming sacrifices, because when January arrives I will surrender everything that I am to this challenge which will quickly deliver me to inner and outer worlds that only a challenge like this one could reveal. I will allow this story to take me wherever it needs to and as far away as it wants to… without the limits of expectations and without judgment’s inhibitions. How far will that be? I honestly don’t know… I am just as nervous as I am excited. This writing project requires my loyalty until THAT number relaxes me in March. Will I be able to do this?! We’ll see (deep breath)… Again, I have committed myself to a very specific story that makes all the odds heckle me like a green bitter Grinch. However, for the sake of my writing and the interests of my readers I am moving forward with no holds barred.
Until then, anxiety plays like a Christmas carol in December’s background while I slide into sexy Christmas stockings, red velvet, white satin, and… Whoops! I just slid onto the naughty side of Santa’s list!
