Happy October to you. I have always declared October my favorite month. But sweet October…sometimes I wonder. As life changes, I´m sorry to admit that I have occasionally questioned you. I think it must be my ¨season¨ of life right now. I´m searching for all of the things that made me fall for you. I know they are still there. Each year, I take my kids to a particular spot I found for a few pictures. It is a gorgeous sunflower field – sunflowers as far as you can see. We went there recently and a huge portion was plowed down for a housing development. And yes, these sorts of things crumble up my heart a bit. I still took a few pics of the kids leaning into the remaining shoots from the sidewalk. But it stings. Where will we go next year? It´s important to stay optimistic (especially for the kids) because what else can you do. Maybe we´ll find a far more beautiful place eventually. The weather is perfect right now. It´s a tiny window and I need to live in it. I think a few walks will bring all of the warm goodness of October back to me – a chance to shake off some of the difficult things.

Some writing news: The agent who requested my novel has passed on it. Thankfully, it was a very positive decline. I´m holding on to those compliments and they are tucking me into bed at night right now lol. Her reason was quite personal to her, and so I won´t disclose it, but I do understand and respect her decision. I feel like I have taken a leap in my writing and am working diligently on polishing my book once again to match. I won´t continue querying until this polish is complete, but I´m excited to restart my search for an agent maybe in another month. Also, a magazine editor-in-chief is allowing another revise-resubmit round for my novelette. I´m grateful they are willing to work with me and I hope I get it right this time. I´m very confident! I have worked so hard on this piece (outside of my full novel) that I think I´m really liking it now. I hope I´ll get the opportunity to share it with you! Due to time constraints, I´ve not sent out some of my flash fiction pieces in months, but I still want to give those a go. And Medium, I do miss you. One of these days.

And FYI. I have over 2,300 comments waiting in queue for this website lol. I´m very sure that 99.9 percent are spam. I know there are tools for that but they are quite expensive and come with strings. So, I´m very sorry if by chance you have left something and I´ve not responded. Hopefully (eventually) I´ll get through them (somehow). If you´d like to send me a message, the best way is through my email hotchocolateful (at) G mail.com. That was the old name of my blog, but I use it for casual writing correspondences and check it often.

I want to be a positive source, so I´ve had to pull back from sharing this past month. But autumn is in the air and so are a lot of things to look forward to. It´s the season to count our blessings, and if we do that together, we are bountiful.