Musings & Thoughts for Monday, January 15, 2024, or: On Surviving My First Month ‘Up North,’ and Pushing Forward with Reunion: Coda

Late Morning, Monday, January 15, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, everyone. It’s late morning here in my corner of New England. The sun, thankfully, is out, and the snow that has affected Carroll County and other parts of “almost Maine” has – also thankfully – moved away from the area. Currently, the temperature is 25°F/-4°C under sunny conditions, but with the sunlight bouncing off the snow on the ground and a gentle (3 MPH/5 KMH) southwesterly breeze, the feels-like temperature is 37°F/3°C.

Today’s forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 28°F/-2°C. Tonight, we can expect partly cloudy skies and a low of 6°F/-14°C. Colder temperatures than I am used to, yes, but at least there won’t be more snow. At least, not tonight.

M + One Month

In addition to being – in the United States, anyway – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, today marks the one-month anniversary of my arrival in Madison. I have mixed feelings still about the reasons for moving to New Hampshire in the first place, and I’m a bit worried about the whole “becoming a permanent resident of the Live Free or Die state” process. I still have most of my things in boxes and suitcases, which I must accept as a fact of life but still frustrates me for both emotional and practical reasons.[1]

I don’t want to delve much into my current emotional state, except to say that I think that I’m adjusting well to some parts of my new life in New England, such as feeling a bit more confident that I will come to love New Hampshire as much as I once loved South Florida at some point in the future, and that I will learn to tolerate the winter season and not fret so much about snow and below-freezing temperatures. Hell, I might even make friends up here (beyond Patti and Marc, at any rate) or fall in love with a woman who appreciates smart, creative, and sensitive guys like me.

In short, I’ve survived my first month here in Madison – more correctly, a district of Madison called Edelweiss – despite occasional bouts of homesickness, self-doubts, regrets, and impatience.

On Writing & Storytelling: Action This Day

Although technically MLK Day is a federal holiday and today could be considered the third day of a long weekend, it’s a workday for me. I want to work on Reunion: Coda today because:

1. I’m a writer. Writing is my job
2. I have been working on Reunion: Coda since early to mid-March of 2023, and I had to hit the “Pause” button in mid-November to prepare for the Big Move North
3. I want to finish the novel before Summer of 2024. I have mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again in case you missed it: I originally planned a Winter 2023 publication for my novel, but I ran into quite a few difficulties with the first 11 chapters, then I chose a truly difficult storytelling technique for the 12^th chapter…and then I had to move from Florida to Madison in wintertime. So, of course, my schedule went “Ka-blooey” on me

Besides, even though I do the chores I can and must do, I need something to focus my mind on. I can sometimes read a book – just not some of the ones I had on my Florida TBR list because those books are in moving boxes in the garage – or watch a movie, but I can’t spend my days – which are finite – reading or watching movies. I am not dating anyone at the moment, either, so I can’t focus my thoughts on love, romance, or sex  unless they’re limited to what is going on with my fictional characters in Reunion: Coda.

Thus, the only thing I can focus on now – other than trying to adapt to a new state and survive my first New England winter with most of my sanity intact – is (ta da!) my first novel.

So, after my midday break, my plan is to go over the manuscript again, fix whatever mistakes or weak bits in the story I may find, and then continue to write the transatlantic exchange of emails between my protagonist, Prof. James “Jim” Garraty and his new love, the scintillating, witty, and beautiful Madison “Maddie.” (Yes, Maddie has a last name, but I don’t want to reveal it in this blog. At least, not yet.)

And, that, folks, is the plan. And since late morning has become midday/early afternoon, I’ll close for now so I can make a quick lunch, rest for a bit, then start my day’s work shift.

Auf Wiedersehen!

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[1] For instance, when I was still living in Florida and the long-planned move was to be a relatively “easy” one from one house to another one 12 miles away, I bought several writing-related books that I needed as references or “how to write X part of a story” guides. I looked at the books that are on the completed bookshelves here in my office, and only a few of those how-to books and references there. Thankfully I don’t need them for the epistolary chapter, but I will need them when I start the next chapter of the story. I understand the reasons why getting me settled is going to take time, but I’m only human, and (I hate to admit this) patience is not one of my strong suits.