Well, I was starting to wonder if I still had the ability to write a story, but at long last I proved I can at least START one. I had to backburner the novel (again) and focus on a brand-new story to get my brain back in gear. So today, over lunch, I started messing around with "Grumpy Old Wizard."

Here's a piece of it:

I turned onto the rock-strewn path -- calling this narrow winder a "road" was being far too generous -- just as the sky began to fill with dark rain clouds. The cart nearly jarred me out of my seat as we hit boulder after boulder, and as my mule gasped for air, I realized where we were heading now.

The brown hills. Or, I should say, the Brown Hills. I'd never been this far west, nor had I encountered any fur-feet that actually lived in this hostile clime. Gone were the fields of wheat and barley, past were the ale houses on each corner, behind me were the dancing kiddoes and crowded gardens of flowers and vegetables big as your head.

Here, in caves carved out of the petrified mud and crumbling rocks of the Brown Hills, lived the Madfeets.

It's been a lot of fun so far, and I'm trying my BEST not to make it into a rehash of Tolkien's THE HOBBIT. And I have no idea how it's going to end up, but I can assure you it has a dragon in it. Sweet!

I also messed with "Dead Man's Rope," and wrote a couple pages in there. I think, all told, I drafted out close to eight or nine pages this afternoon. Not bad at all. New, shiny words are our friends.

Hope everyone has a great weekend -- we'll be working on our long-ignored yard, trying to get it all winterized so we don't have a mess of weeds next spring. And we'll be taking it easy with Mr. Drew and his sore ears -- we go to the ear, nose, and throat doctor on Monday. How's THAT for a great 10-month birthday gift??? (Today's his 10-month b-day.) And maybe, at some point, I'll write more on this story. It's always fun visiting the Madfeets. Later!