V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, or Why Taking Time Off Doesn’t Mean You Have To Go Somewhere

 When asked by my supervisor where I was going for my two weeks respite from work, I told her honestly, “Home.” Some people understand my desire to simply not be a work for a couple of weeks. While it may not seem it to some, not being at my place of employment is a vacation unto itself. I don’t have to think about anything of more immediate concern than, “What am I going to eat?” and “What porn sites am I going to troll today?” (Okay, so maybe not so much on the porn. But Supernatural fanfic sites can suck you in just as insidiously.)

If I had the money? You’re damn skippy I’d have spent two weeks aboard a cruise ship, in Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Botswana… wherever. However, my time at home, mashing my ass in the chaise lounge has not been completely unproductive. (You knew I’d turn it back to writing, didn’t you?)

Aside from the minimal time I’ve spent actually doing chores and keeping the house just above pigsty status, I’ve spent time visiting my characters. Rayne is currently suffering a fever and feels like crap and has no choice but to face it and recover in a tent in a winter forest on her trip along with the Duke and others. She’ll go on to deliver a baby in a brothel and have a major falling out with her employer and end up a free agent again. But much of the excess garbage in the writing has been purged. (Some of her stuff I’ve written as much as four and five years ago. I’ve learned so much more since then.)

Valerie and Daniel have reunited after she was sure he wasn’t coming back. And I’m not just talking flowers and hand-holding either. I’m alomst a little embarrassed about the explicit nature of the long-awaited love scene. (Who needs porn when I can write stuff that’s so much better? And it doesn’t load viruses onto my computer!) I have to restrain myself from making their post-reunion story one long string of fooling-around scenes, since the two of them are so good for one another and neither of them has been in a sexual situation (with another person anyway) for over two years. I was worried I might induce a cardiac event in one or both of them. There are still a lot of questions in their future, but right now, they’re together and happy.

My werewolves have been visited and attended to, though nothing further has been added to their story. But I love my main character so much, she’s been making appearances in Supernatural scenes that crop up in my mind, fully formed, like Athena from Zeus’s forehead. (NO! No fanfic!! I’ve got enough stuff to work on that might actually get published (*and then, a miracle occurs*), to write something with NO hope of ever seeing the legitimate light of day.) Still, talking to the Winchester boys in Lily’s voice does serve to keep myself entertained while I pay bills and rip music to my hard drive. And makes the dog look at me funny.

I sometimes wonder what goes through that dog’s head.

I probably don’t want to know.