Hi.  It’s been awhile.

Life has a habit of taking some unexpected turns sometimes.  And while I’ve been perpetually exhausted, physically and creatively, over the last year+, things are getting better.

I left St. Louis last September, under the best possible circumstances.  The family member that we left Los Angeles to help take care of is doing well.  In fact, she’s far beyond what we, and the doctors, could’ve ever expected.  While she’ll never be out of the woods with the type of cancer she has, and in many ways, it’s still just a waiting game, she’s been symptom-free and the cancer has been in remission since the chemo treatments, which finished up nearly a year ago.  I truly believe that we got to St. Louis just in time to help save her life.  She was in rough shape, but once she came to live with us, she improved dramatically.  I like to think that it was our intervention and care that got her through that really rough time and helped her get to where she is now.  Sometimes, these situations can bring out the worst in people.  But all in all, in was heartwarming to see how her family came together to help support her, even fight over her.  There was so much love, even if it wasn’t always expressed in the most constructive ways.  But people stepped up and we all got a good look at who we really are and what we’d be willing to do for others.  As for my fella’s uncle, the elderly, autistic one, he lived with us for the ten months that we were in St. Louis.  While we enjoyed having him around, his care was more than we could commit to for the next however long he lives.  Luckily, conflicting situations with other family members resolved, and he is settled back into the house he left, but with things running more smoothly.  We’re still involved in his care, although not as deeply, and he still calls us every day.

So, if I’m not in St. Louis, where am I, you ask?  Well, I’m living in Chicago.  I somehow managed to make it through the winter here.  I’m not a fan of the cold in any way, but I tried my best to not let it interfere with my life too much.  This meant forcing myself to leave my apartment from time to time.  I still had a bit of seasonal depression, however, which mostly zapped my ambition to do much of anything.  But I’m fighting it, and looking forward to consistent warm weather and some sunny skies.  I take public transportation everywhere if I’m not walking, maybe I’ll be able to get back to bus blogging at some point.  Chicago is a cool city, but California still has my heart, and I know I’ll be back there some day.

What brings me to Chicago, you ask?  Well, I’m going to grad school.  I’ve wanted to get a Master’s since before I finished my bachelors.  Of course, back then, I thought it’d be in psychology.  It’s not.  No, I lost my taste for psychology long ago.  It’s not in writing, either.  I still love writing and plan to continue, but the sad truth is that it doesn’t pay well if you’re not a very top author.  As much as I liked waitressing, it’s a lifestyle that’s best suited for Los Angeles.  No other city that I know of can compete.  Also, it’s mostly a young gal’s game, and while I’m not that old, it’s a physical job and I’m not sure I’d want to, or be able to, do it forever.  Thus, I’m getting a Master’s in Game Programming.  I thnk of it like this: I can still be an indie if I choose.  Video games, in my opinion, are a form of story-telling.  And by going into the programming side of things, I’m learning skills that I can apply to a vast array of possible jobs should the need arise.  No one ever said that you had to be a starving artist.  Hopefully, in a few years, I’ll have my degree and be able to put it to good use, and also have the funds to fund my various projects, including writing.

That’s not to say that you’ll have to wait years for new content from me.  At least I hope not.  I will have a new story with The Future Chronicles coming out at some point, the date is still TBD.  There’s a team in Austin working to turn my short story The Assistant into a short film.  I’m still, slowly, working on New Worlders.  I’ve also been revising book 2 of my Sleep Saga.  In fact, I’ve got a number of stories just sitting around, finished or in need of one more pass, just waiting for me to figure out what, exactly, to do with them.  Hopefully, I’ll figure that out soon.

As always, I’m going to say that I do want to start blogging again.  I do hope to do this, but I’ve made to many broken declarations of such to make promises.  There may be some video game related content on here from time to time, but I’m going to try to do something writing related for everything game related.  I’ll also categorize them appropriately.

I look forward to a continually brighter future.

Thanks for checking in ❤