Normally in November and December I spend the month baking and making different things for my family, vanilla extract or apple butter. This year that all fell to the wayside.
I have not baked anything this fall or winter. I have a single jar of extract going and we never took the trip to North Carolina to get mountain apples for apple butter. All of the vacations were canceled along with most of the other random trips and things we do as a family or even just alone.
Instead I have been writing and slowly working on my house. Nanowrimo this year was a month long queue of Zoom and Google Meet meetings. I backed out of the Surry Conference in October, not being able to face yet even more online meetings, this summer and falls seems to have been a blur of online meetings.
The money I saved by not going on any real vacations or writing conferences has gone instead to an electric fireplace, a new kitchen door, new dishwasher, and a water heater.
I finally got a diagnosis for my stomach issues I suffered through all last year after a bout of C. Diff., I am now lactose intolerant. Sadly this means most of the fall comfort foods I crave are very pale imitations of what I actually want right now.
Everything is bland and exhausting but it is Fall, my favorite time of year. Here is to hoping 2021 is amazing :)
January 1st, Shattered Stone, book two of the Stone Mage series will be out on Amazon and book 1, The Mage's Daughter, will be on sale in ebook form.