Kate Rivet

Hi everyone!

Have you ever heard of that term before, a sticky wicket?  It’s a phrase that means a difficult situation, which is perfect to describe the one I find myself in right now!

I’m feeling particularly let down by my creative mojo right now — maybe it’s because I’ve churned out 12-ish books in quick succession over the past couple of years, or maybe it’s just because I made last year the year of READING instead of pushing at the writing, but ever since my NaNoWriMo project, I’m just not having very good luck!  I’ve got 3 or 4 projects I’ve half started, as well as a few others I’ve got tucked in other places that I could get working on, so I’m going to cross my fingers that something comes to me very soon!  I miss writing, and would love nothing more than to have such a great idea that my fingers trip all over the keys while I try to get it out!

On a more personal note, the other sticky wicket in my life right now has to do with one of my dogs.  Seamus, the family male Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, was diagnosed almost 2 weeks ago with mitral valve disease, as well as a disease in another valve.  It’s a very common thing for his breed, but at 10 years old, we’d thought we’d dodged that particular bullet.  It came on fairly suddenly, at least to us — he had no symptoms that would have indicated any issues until he actually started into congestive heart failure.  Seamus is my furry little best buddy, and he even comes to hang out in my room with me while I get ready for my day almost every morning.  Thinking about the fact that he could have as little as 6-ish months with us just tears me up, and my entire family is trying to grasp life without our little pal.  We have another Cavalier who isn’t directly related to him, and now we’re starting to worry about her and have plans to have the cardiologist check her over soon, too.  It’s such a shame, because Seamus is our little dude and he loves life so much.  He still plays like he’s a puppy, even at 10 years old, and he genuinely loves to please us.  Maggie is a lot less enthusiastic — she’s beautiful and she knows it, and she’s content to spend her days lazily awaiting her next meal or snack.  While I was able to teach Seamus a plethora of tricks, Maggie’s best one is to “be beautiful” and she sits and demands a treat for just being her!

Anyway, to get back on my original subject — these are the things going on right now that are contributing to me not being very active around here!  I DID just today finish rereading one of my older projects — a romance involving royalty in a country I made up — and it reminded me of how much I love writing!  So my plan is this — pick an idea or a half-written story, any of them, and work away!  It doesn’t matter if it’s the greatest story ever told or if it’s something I end up being lukewarm on in the end — it’ll at least get me back into the habit!

Until next time,
Kate