Name that movie. (Hint: it’s a rockumentary.)

It’s the shortest summation I can make for my own long absence from Gaslight. Last year was, on a personal level, a power-blown year.

I know Tina has her own story to tell, so I will just keep my comments to my own experience:

2017 proved to be an emotional mountain for me and my family, the crest of which was the arrival of Hurricane Harvey (the harbinger of which was the first full solar eclipse for America in quite some time.) The beginning of the week was a typical summer day in Texas, and everyone happy and excited to watch a celestial event. Said I, to friends who worried about news of a tropical storm heading towards the coast: “pfft. It’s just a storm. It’ll come ashore south of Houston. At the worst, I’ll have to get some bottled water, batteries, and hunker down. It’ll be over with one breath.”

A week later later, I stood on the front porch of our house with my husband and watched four feet of water climb the driveway in an area that had been virtually flood-free for over a century. I chewed over my braggadacio with bitterness. It wasn’t even the rain that wouldn’t quit that bothered me. It was the nearby river (less than a mile away) that was predicted to crest at 59′. This is what had me wondering if we were going to join the ranks of the Houstonian refugees. 

It didn’t, thank God. The rain stopped, the local police force rode the waters on boats through the subdivision, and we smiled and waved at them – no thanks, we’re good – and the flood receded. The river only crested at 56′, like it did last year after heavy floods, and our own particular lives went back to “normal.” My family was lucky.

Much of Houston was not.

But we didn’t escape 2017 without scars of our own: the loss of my father in law, as well as the discovery of a ‘new’ relation: my birthfather. Yes, I’m adopted. This discovery was the culmination of a 30 year search, not helped in the least by the agency that adopted me out or by the scant information that my birthmother had given me about him. I lost her back in 2011. It was DNA that was the final breakthrough for me. However, that mountain became a hill that I was not willing to die upon: the relationship I attempted became a verification of two truths: “all things happen for a reason” and “when someone tells you who they are, believe them.” The emotional backwash is something I’m still processing, but I am not sorry about ending the reunion. I was justified in my decision. 

So all of this took its toll on any amount of creativity I might have had in 2017. I thought about Gaslight often, and indeed, we’ve had all sorts of plot bunnies running around in our notes and emails. We talk stories, but talk is easier than actually doing it, and the actual stories have been slow to come. So what’s coming down the pike? Truth be told: I can’t promise anything. Turns out, it takes money to put Baby Bird through college. So I have to go back to work. I had a goal of writing for 15 minutes per day or at least just ONE sentence. Haven’t been doing that too terribly well either, but my excuse is that Ive been hot on the tail of a new job so my Little Chick can continue to Fly The Coop and become an active little Mockingbird herself as a veterinarian technician. It’s possible by the end of this week I may have an offer, in which case I have a month or so to “get my affairs in order.” At least that’s my plan. And there are a couple of ideas that we’re batting around to liven up things here at Gaslight, but Im not going to say anything until I know for sure that it will manifest. 

Thank you so much for coming here! I watch the stats for the site at least and notice when we get visits. If you come more than once and see something that you really like, especially in the stories, please don’t be shy. Leave a comment. Authors LOVE having feedback on their efforts and we do retain contact with a good portion of the authors in our Archived Stories.

Also MUCHO MUCHO thanks to our writers: Tina, Taffey and Joan!! They’ve been incredibly supportive and patient with my haranguing them for stories (whilst I produce nothing), not to mention heart-wrenchingly GOOD friends. I never would have thought that my enthusiasm for an actor would have brought such incredible people into my life. 

Signing off for now.

~ Sharon