I've had moments over the past week where I seriously contemplated giving up the whole writing thing altogether and trying to claw my way back into cube world. If there was one thing repeated over and over to me at the show, it was the story of not giving up: so-and-so took 25 years of scrabbling and starving before their such-n-such book took off. Well gee, thanks for that bit of encouragement. ;)

I miss my people. Not the 'peeps' or 'minders' I jokingly referenced last week, but those who really know me. For all the encouragement and enjoyment I've received meeting various members of the family of God over the past year, nothing quite compares to your own dear family and friends.

I miss having solid ground under my feet and I think, odd as it is for me to write, that I even miss a regular routine. Something as simple as being able to make a coffee date a month from now because I know I'll still be in the same town.

I don't think this is coming from any kind of depression or discouragement...in fact I'm glad I'm ready to go home. But I do think I'm ready for a break from this 24/7-marketing-wandering-bedouin-
so-far-out-of-my-comfort-zone-I-can't-see-it-anymore lifestyle. I'll go home and take some time to regroup. Try to remember what it was about writing fiction that I loved...which I seem to have lost my grasp of with all this marketing nonsense. I'll dust off book two and start asking God what He wants me to convey with it and remind myself that I didn't get into this to make a million dollars, but to have God use me and my writing however He wanted.

Meanwhile, I'll suck it up and pray God gives me what I need to finish this journey in a way that is pleasing to Him. Since that includes the very real necessity of paying for the gas to get home, I don't think prayer will be too hard to come by. :p