Maybe it’s just my imagination, but the night sky seems busier and brighter in October.
(Or maybe it’s just that inTexas we close our eyes every time we step outside all summer long…)
These days the mornings are darker than they’ve been, the stars still brilliant, the moon high.
Today is our first parent-teacher conference.
It’s officially fall.

I start to get a hankering, right about now, to finish the year up right. 
To complete things, to put pesky, leftover tasks to bed.

This time around, that feels even more important since I’m going to use November to fast-draft a novel.
(I’m scared to even utter the words NaNoWriMo so humor me while I act like I came up with the idea and it just so happens to be in November.)

Anyway.

Before the end of this month, then, I have two poems to write — folks waiting on both of them — two picture book manuscripts to revise — again — and a newer picture book idea I’d like to see materialize. Plus I’m thinking I should occasionally walk the dog and feed my family. 

I’m never sure how I really feel about deadlines — even arbitrary ones like mine. 
Are they the ultimate motivator? 
Or the heaviest albatross?
The lit path?
Or the foreboding wall?

Right now, it’s a new day so I’m going with the positive.
The moon’s gone down and the sun’s come up.
We’ve got work to do…