It’s been a little over a week since we had something resembling a funeral for my sister. For the longest time she just didn’t seem to be gone. Getting the phone call from my niece; not being able to stop by and visit in her waning days; not being able to go into the funeral home to pay our last respects and the hurried service at the cemetery.

I’m having a hard time finding words for this post today. Yes, it’s going to be difficult for a while to do this but I have to do it, I need to do it. Writing has been one of the things that’s helped me through difficult times. This is no different.

Before my sister passed I started on a new horror script. I gave it to a beta reader to review – I’m more of a pantser than a planner, so sometimes in the early phases I need to get a sense for whether the story has legs or not. Her answer was yes, I needed to pursue this story, there’s something to it. It’s going slower than I’d like, but I’m getting back to it.

I know it hasn’t been long, but I’m feeling creative again. It must be however many weeks in lockdown have me craving an escape from the drudgery, the monotony, the repetition. I need to get away, to a different place for a while and get away from things. Others need an escape as well. That’s why people read and watch movies, after all – to escape from life.

We storytellers are more important than ever. Keep writing, my friends.