I have ADHD. I know it. I won’t focus or stick with a plan to talk to a doctor about it though, so this is a purely self-diagnosed condition.

I like to write. And to draw. And to create stained glass. And to paint. And to make and listen to music. And to play video games with my daughter. And to binge watch Netflix ’til 2am. And to ponder and study rocks, birds, plants (both wild and groomed), and the weather. And to think about work constantly. And writing. Not writing, just thinking about it.

I want to finish the The Birds of Nihilism, and also The 100% Altogether Absolutely Completely Utterly Entirely True & Very Real Official Story of the Tooth Fairy, a children’s book, and Way Down North, a gothic Finnish folklore horror set on Minnesota’s Iron Range in the early mining years. I will. Some day.

Oh, and there’s some poems I bang out once in awhile. Those could eventually become a self-published chapbook of sorts. I’ve tentatively titled that one aurora aura astral planes, but that sounds dumb now that I shared it, so I’ll be changing that.

About 10 months ago, we bought a house way up north in Minnesota. Like, Canada is rightthere “north”. So I’ve written a bit about that experience too. But it has a lot of fiction mixed in too. Things are going well on the home front. My work is remote and great. The town is politically diverse, and while we’ve met a good number of friendly, great folks, there’s no one I would call “friend” yet. Making friends when you’re my age and working remotely is challenging. I have work “friends”, but we don’t hang together outside of work since we’re scattered across the U.S. But I’ve yet breakthrough and find someone in my new hometown to grab coffee or a drink with, and even have for dinner.

I make lots of excuses. Our house isn’t ready to entertain. We still sit on the now-sinking furniture we bought when we first married, 17 years ago. Our bathroom, we’ve yet to remodel/redecorate. It has wallpaper that’s literally falling off the walls like the set of Fight Club. Maybe once the weather is nice and we can hang outside in our beautiful backyard, we might consider entertaining my stained glass teacher and her husband. See what I mean? Lots of excuses.

But I really do like to write. But bear with me, because I’m not always great at it. I’m always trying to improve.

Most recently, I’ve been working off-and-on on some ideas and chapters for Way Down North. I don’t know where it’s going entirely. Well, I know how it begins, and how it ends, but all the stuff in the middle is still up in the air. It’s a big tale, but I find myself writing small character vignettes. But I like them. I hope they’re creepy. I hope to share what I have soon. Might make a good podcast. Now I’ll be thinking about that.