Scrivener’s Palsy

I even have plants!

Well there’s no denying that I’ve neglected you, readers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.

I’ve just been hard at work. Actually, that’s a lie- I’ve simply been enjoying my life and you can’t fault me for that.

What have I been doing you ask? Establishing a non nomadic life. A life with books, furniture, and other stationary objects. A life with clothes that don’t get crammed into a backpack and strewn on fences to dry. No, my clothes get hung in a (DOUBLE!) closet on wooden hangers.

Mostly I spend my days acting as slave to a 4 pound cat named Sabah, who did not come with the flat, but weaseled her way into my heart and life. When I’m not doing that, I am:

Taking Spanish lessons to prevent my sloppy grammar – which in turn made my English grammar plummet.
Watching two beautiful boys grow, learn and develop personalities before my eyes. I have the best “job” in the world.
Turning a room mate into a great friend.
Swimming. Walking. Traveling. Bitching about the rain.
The most monumental thing I have done, nay, that I am still in the process of doing- is writing my first novel for publication.

What’s it about you ask? Great question… With countless suggestions to put my travel experiences into a book, on May 1st- my 26th birthday I went to the store and bought fourteen lined notebooks. Enough room for 100,000 words written by my own hand. I wrote the second chapter (I don’t believe in first things first) and left the obnoxious stack of books on the coffee table. There they sat for one month, taunting me- daring me. Do it Brandy, just write it all down and give it away. It’s just words… come on, write me. Alright, I will.

31,500 words (and a hell of a lot of pens, tears, and cafes) later and this book isn’t exactly a travel memoir yet. It’s mostly just the scribblings of an unquiet mind. I’m discovering one has to write a WHOLE lot of absolute and utter trash until one day brilliance creeps into your wrist and bleeds itself out all over the page. Those are the minutes I wait for, those are the sentences you’ll read.

I can’t promise you that this book is going to have you laughing your ass off. I can’t promise you this book will have you sobbing into your pillow that you hug at night. I can’t promise you anything other than the fact that this book will be 100% Brandy Mother Effin Bell- what more could you want?

Be patient with me… but don’t forget about me.

Peace & Laughter.