The Holiday Season and my Writing

"Individually, I love you all with affection unspeakable, but, collectively, I look upon you with a disgust that amounts to absolute detestation."

Fredrick the Accidental Apprentice Pirate

Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years – they are the source of many precious and mortifying stories. I treasure each of these holidays. Nevertheless, Fredrick sums up my feeling well. I detest the U.S.A.'s 'Holiday Season.'

Despite events like Write a Novel in a Month, November through January is a slump time for me. It's very frustrating.

As an introvert, I need my quite and routine to recharge my social batteries. The Holidays Season is loud, pushy, and full of emotional whiplash. Jump scares, bad movies, and sugar highs. Celebrate the first colonists not starving to death, then Black Friday frenzy. Spend money for Christmas, 'reclaim' Christmas for Christ, feel generous, feel happy to have relatives invade your house...

...then comes New Years, or as my family calls it Amateur Drunk night. I haven't got the brain space to make resolutions because I'm gathering supplies to last until the roads are safe. Heaven help us all if there's bad weather. (Oklahoma ices – thankfully no snowadoes.)

This year, I filled several pages of a notebook with reminders, quotes, and story scribbles. However, Tales of Mundus netted nothing more than a few paragraphs. (Yes, I know, REAL authors can write 1,000 words per day on a lever action typewriter while their fingers bleed. )

It many be laziness or creative excuse making, but I simply don't do well in winter. My creative seems solar powered. When the sun goes down, I want to go to bed – never-mind it's only 7pm. Come New Years, I'm drained from running in 'owl mode.' Add the Holiday Season’s social marathon, and it's no wonder I always catch colds or have winter allergies turn nasty.

Even now the state of my nose and throat is not fit for description. I'm not 'ladylike' when I sneeze. Between the noise and jerking up my arm up to stop the spray, it's more like a karate demo than a cute kitten webclip. I've been fighting this bug since January 1^st. 

Thank goodness I don't have anymore company for a few days. Now I can reboot my sleep cycle, sort out my notes and get some writing done before Valentine's Day hits.