Though I doubt that my pause in blogging has caused anyone extensive pain, I would like to explain what caused my long blog-drought. First, I've been working on a novel, which is good but kind of bad. I knew the story and the characters well, but the darned thing would NOT focus. For months the characters wandered through what I believe to be a very intriguing plot without any sort of consensus at the end about why they'd been there. That part has resolved itself. For me, it takes many, many passes before a book starts to feel smooth and focused, but it's finally happening. While this is just the beginning, it is encouraging. Before I can show the story to anyone else, it has to please/excite/gratify me. My second reason for neglecting a lot of things was a fall on the ice in February. For the first time in decades, we decided to stay in Michigan for the winter, and my reward was a broken femur. It was quite an adventure, since I was back in the woods when I fell, but lucki