It's gone. Time. Eaten and devoured. Don't know where or why. Well, I do but there's no need to say why because it just is. Gone.

I made a vow a couple of weeks ago to follow through on goals. I started by writing short-short stories and I've been posting them over at StoryADay. I'll share them here shortly.

And I'll share what else is happening. For now, know that Penquillity still writes.

Throwing in a quick post about National Novel Writing Month which begins in less than 8 hours. I've got a murder mystery queued and am pacing until time to write.

That's it. I told you this was a quickie. I plan to post throughout the month on my progress and my Rebel NaNo antics.

I've no excuse for 213 days between posts. Can't say I forgot. Can't say I was kidnapped by a gypsy caravan although there was this one funky looking minstrel troupe - but still, no excuse for such negligence. Enough of the woe-is-me-ism. This is what I'm up to today:

I'm world-building in preparation for this year's National Novel Writing Month to commence the first of November - place, time, genre, story arc, setting, character(s). There is this gnawing feeling that I should complete the unfinished novel from last year. Instead, I'm mining it for characters and partial plot because I know last year's story has gone stale due to misdirection.

Earlier this year I discovered Steampunk - fascinating subgenre that falls somewhere between fantasy, science fiction, and Victorian goth. I have this idea but I'm not telling you, not right now, maybe later once its germinated, grown roots, and sprouted into something viable. I can tell you that I'm enjoying where my thoughts are traveling, what my pencil is jotting down in my journal, on index cards, and on any handy scrap of paper.

This novel creation process sends me into a trippy head space and I walk around half in reality, half in this other world. My reality exists in a half-light, and I find myself pondering if whatever sound I hear, person I see, emotion I feel, situation I observe, could twist into the story. I'll be like this for the next several weeks, worse once November begins.

Touting itself as the 4th largest book festival in the USA, the Tucson Festival of Books is going on this weekend at the UofA campus and I'm looking forward to spending a few days with crazy, bookish people. I'll fill you in on the details when I return to cyberland.

It's snowing today and will continue through into the night. We could get a few inches or a few feet; depends on the elevation and the temperature (which is slowly dropping). I'm ready for a day or two inside, my home wrapped in a blanket of white. I've a knitted afghan I'm working on and a Tunisian lace crochet scarf, both in magenta tones.

The cats have burrowed into their warm spots: Chevy by the heater, Pollyanna and Billy on the wool afghan on the couch. Hubby is reading the paper while I sit and watch the snow fall. Peaceful. Quiet except for the wind chime outside my studio window; it rocks in the same wind that tosses tiny snowflakes in the winter air. I should take a picture but I'm too wrapped up in the magic. Perhaps later. This is the daydream time.

One of these days, I'll figure out how to add photos to this.

In the meantime, I want to share with you a comment I left on my friend Mary's blog - www.psychologytoday.com/blog/she-bets-her-life/201009/basement-medicine-13-how-johnny-moses-can-ease-your-sorrow

Mary discusses the beauty of living in the moment and how so many people these days do not practice this. They prefer to zoom along their day, even when they're attending fun events. Few take the time to stop, listen, and absorb. Whether it's a show, an artist as he or she performs, or an exhibition at a fair, a park, or a street. Their way of capturing the moment is to take a picture with their digital camera and then move on to the next "thing." Sometimes these pictures stay buried in the camera's memory for months.

The neighborhood is quiet this morning. School is back in session and the parents must be catching up on the sleep they lost during the summer weeks.

The view from my studio window is clear, no clouds dotting the cerean blue sky. Our monsoon season was short-lived, lasting only a few weeks. It may return but for now, the skies are wide open with traces of white clouds gathering along the horizon. It is a time for daydreaming.

What inspires you? What makes your inner being purr? What calms your hectic self? Simplicity relaxes me. When I search for inspiration, I find it in:

• Words, well written and in a distinctive voice
• Writing, weaving language into a form that others can play with, dance to, and hold close to their hearts
• Knitting because it's fun to interlock the same strand of yarn until it transforms into fabric between my fingers
• Watching people - they are fascinating and, more often than not, find their way into my stories as characters in composite form
• Playing with my cats - they keep me young and humble
• Staring at clouds - such beauty, such movement, such growth - and purpose behind their actions. Maybe not here but somewhere on their journey.

There go some now, heading northeast out of the southern sector.

I sulked for two weeks. I'd written a witty entry as my introductory blog post but I didn't realize I was supposed to click on "new entry" not try to overwrite the automatically generated "Welcome" post that the GoDaddy folks put out there for me. Lost the entire thing because of a hungry cookie who didn't want to recognize it. Sheesh!

So I'm trying this again. Disclaimers aside, I will probably regret using this as my first post; but, hey, it's out there and I promise to be more professional next time.

Goals:

• Write and post often, at least twice a week
• Post a photo at least once a week
• Save before previewing or publishing (that's what got me into a funk in the first place - and I know better)
• Keep on topic (writing, the writing life)
• Ask questions
• Learn and grow

This last bullet item is the big one. Bear with me; I'm learning as I go. Oh, look! A cloud grows outside my studio window. It's peaking from behind my neighbor's trees. Clouds start small out here and expand as the day warms up. You really can watch a cloud grow into a thunderstorm within a few hours. What does your sky do?