FINALLY my daffodils are blooming. They spent a week and a half trembling on the edge, their yellow blooms rolled up tight against rain and temperatures more like late November than late March. But today the sun came out, it warmed up, and they bloomed! Now if only the pears would follow suit so I would know that it really is spring.

I suppose maybe spring is the reason I have been casting around for something new to work on. Or at least maybe it's the reason it's occurred to me that I am not working on anything at the moment, and that maybe I ought to be. Because of first trimester sickness and the impending move, formal lessons for the kids have been dropped in favor of reading the Little House on the Prairie books and watching too much TV while it rained outside. Today formal lessons were abandoned because it was so nice outside (finally!) that it seemed a sin for anyone to be indoors, so the kids spent most of the day outside barefoot in the mud. But now that the move is looming only a week away, I've started thinking about how much time we are going to spend in hotels and in the car, and how I probably ought to have something to keep myself occupied. And also I have been thinking about how so much of success = consistency; that is, talent isn't the only ingredient in this game. I used to think I was pretty consistent, aiming for 1000 words a day and hitting it on the average of 4 or 5 days a week. 1000 words 4 or 5 days a week would make me happy now, too, but I think I'm going to have to aim a little lower. Maybe 500 words a day. 500 words a day won't get me anywhere fast, but it will get me somewhere. As long as I'm consistent. It'll be a good goal once we get settled in a bit.

So I go back to Black Dog -- joyfully, I might add, as I have the kind of protagonist who does things without me having to give him a swift kick in the ass. I read through my 37 single-spaced pages today, and they're not bad. A bit rough, and I'm not sure about how the plot is hooking up, but that's to be expected so early in the narrative in a first draft. I just hope I can keep this one to 150K or less.