Six Years Service: An Ongoing Mission? #amwriting #amediting

This Sunday marked my sixth anniversary as a crew member here at Spacefreighters Lounge, which caused a certain amount of introspection. My writing life has now been pushed so far onto the back burners that it feels abandoned and unloved. I've spent over a month struggling to finish a couple of paragraphs of editing. And word count? Well, thanks to those minimal edits I'm currently in negatives figures for 2018 so far. Not a great start.
Ideas pop into my head, plans for stories, series, revamps and collections, but nothing that has got my butt in the writing seat and my fingers to the keyboard. Too much real life stuff to do, and definitely none of the fire that first had me feverishly scribbling back when I took up an unfinished short story and turned it into a 110, 000 novel some nine years ago now.

What happened to that fire and enthusiasm? I suppose the realities of publishing, burn out, and a year of real life drama. I guess I'm still recovering, but I worry whether that original passion will ever come back, and even if it does somehow there aren't enough hours in the day. I used to make time, but that magical ability appears to have evaporated too.
But I'm not complaining. While I don't seem to be making a lot of progress with writing and editing, the royalties are slowly building up, ready to fund some of those currently vague unfulfilled plans I have, so it'll probably all work out. So while I'm a bit sad about not getting anywhere right now, I'm a touch optimistic about the future. I'm still here after six years, and no set plan to retire. :-P

Status Update
You know what I'm going to say. Reunion edits still aren't done. Maybe it would be easier and less repetitive if I just let you know when they are.

Chook Update
Right now I'm waiting in for a delivery of aviary panels for the girls' new super-run, and one that will finally allow us to walk upright in it rather than having to crawl around - another reason writing isn't happening. I'm not quite sure when the official build will start - we're still accumulating materials and have to convert a plastic storage unit into a coop as well, plus we need to somehow juggle the old coops and run in order to put the new ones in as they currently sit on part of the site needed for the new lot. Our poor girls are going to be somewhat confined for a while, and with a new avian flu alert I can't even let them free range in the garden when the weather permits. Hopefully they'll appreciate the extra space they'll get eventually.
In the meantime, here's a couple of pics of 'not such a baby now' Firefly (officially she's now an adult at 22 weeks, but still the smallest). In a rare moment of sunshine, I managed to capture the beautiful green iridescence on her feathers. Oh, and Kala and Phasma are settling in well, but refuse to stand still for the camera now.

And Jack Frost was apparently inspired by my girls to create these ice patterns.