Last night I spent three hours formatting my play so I could submit it to a competition here in Chicago. Might be a long shot, but I figured it was worthwhile since I now have a completed application that I can tweak for other workshop opportunities. Writing fiction is very satisfying for me but when it comes to theater, your words don’t really live until actors embody them on the stage. So this program offers playwrights of color the chance to have a director prepare a professional cast to read the play for the public. There’s another program for plays that haven’t yet been written and I already know I’m going to apply for that, too. Unless, by some miracle, I manage to finish that 2008 play before the competition opens in June 2022. I’m definitely ready to try my hand at something new, though I’m not a total amateur. I wrote nearly twenty plays between 2004 and 2008; some were staged but most were not. Writing plays for those years made the dialogue in my subsequent novels much stronger, I think. Has writing for children for a decade changed how I think about the theater? Definitely. Just as being a professor for a decade impacted the way I write for young readers. I’m revisiting my past lives lately…I think I’ve let go of my professor life, though I can’t seem to part with certain books because my notes are in the margins and what if I *do* teach that novel again? And I’m still easily seduced by gothic architecture and exploring the University of Chicago campus last week did make me feel a bit wistful. I used to get the blues in September but I think I was too busy with the move to slip into a funk this year. Now the leaves are starting to turn, the temperatures are dropping at night, and I just feel dreamy…too aware of too many possibilities in the world around me. The Boy in the Lake is blooming into a much longer, more complicated narrative. I haven’t finished The Enchanted Bridge but think I can finish a rough draft this weekend. I hoped to finish Ola’s Dream this fall…maybe even revisit central PA to do a bit more research. But mostly I want to enjoy these months without endless Zooms and speaking gigs. I fumbled my way through a Global Read Aloud Twitter chat this morning and was relieved not to have to set up my camera in order to participate; a class joined from Pickering, Ontario which is where I grew up! I went back to Evanston on Wednesday; I’m hoping to continue my weekly walks with Cozbi. Afterwards I stopped at Dollop for lunch as I always used to do when I lived up there. Something old, something new…that’s what we carry into a new life, right? The electrician returns on Monday and I should get two quotes from painters as well. I’ve had a few no-show contractors lately but I’m not letting that get me down. The IKEA guy is on his way over right now to assess and measure my kitchen. Mail was actually IN my mailbox today instead of on the floor of the vestibule. My desk was delivered as I got home from my walk; the box is practically demolished but hopefully the desk itself isn’t damaged. Will bring it up piece by piece and see if I can get it assembled today. Bit by bit, I’m piecing this new life together…