As the title says, I caught a nasty flu that laid me out for a few days, I’ve more or less been sleeping it off since Monday. Starting to feel like myself again! Will get back to the swing of things with talking to folks, prompts, membership requests etc, tomorrow most likely.

Time once again to welcome some new people to the group in an official capacity! Obviously a good chunk of y'all have been active already, but still, everyone gets one. Without further ado, please welcome... @Eliud Kimathi, academic-focused nurse practitioner interested in sharpening healthcare essays and professional research projects. @Valerie Bachinsky, health educator and RN building a daily creative habit around health, risk reduction, and real-life stories. @Leala Vincent, aspiring poet and toddler mom sharing pieces about love, change, and everyday moments. @L. Roberts Dale, self-publishing author and YouTube host here to help storytellers shape and launch their books. @Ben Olivia, professional editor focused on Christian books, clarity, structure, and strong storytelling from draft to finished manuscript. @Silvia Martins, human rights researcher shaping a memoir at the intersection of justice, accountability, and environmental stories. @Vera Sephora, romance fiction specialist helping turn almost-ready love stories into polished, publish-ready books and audiobooks. @Jenna Kelly, homeschool mom of five and book lover shaping a novel from dream sketch to finished story. @Esmond Thea, paranormal romance author and creator blending supernatural themes with online business and affiliate-world experience. @Oliver Haddington, fiction-focused creator here to level up craft, confidence, and overall storytelling skills. @Kim Wilson, who's just browsing for the moment but came here courtesy of @Kirsten Ivatts. I make these posts so everyone has a guaranteed way to get introduced to people and have an easy first connection point. If someone here sounds like your kind of person, say hi on their posts or pull them into a thread.

I am still in this stage of free writing to allow all the drivel to spill out without judgement. But I was inspired by the weekly prompt, The Unsent, and added a short letter into a scene I had been playing with. It's a bit of nonsense but fun nonsense :). Here goes some of it: Dear Olivier By the time you read this you will be back home, far from the screeching of London buses and glare of taxis lined up in the rain. You’ll be breathing mountain air, perhaps not missing the terrible coffee and sweaty, stifling trains. I imagine you've been to see Julia, perhaps she gave you some eggs from her hens or potatoes from her garden. You will also, no doubt, be continuing to ‘settle the affairs’ of Michel, compiling all the information on his assets, his liabilities, all the many taxes due. I hope you get to spend some more time in his white house, bathing your soul in its tranquillity, soaking up the views of the mountains and drinking in the peace that it offers. I hope you can forgive me for not showing up tonight, and that you didn’t wait too long out in the cold. Perhaps for you it wasn’t cold, coming from a place where you shovel snow in winter just to get out the door. Even so. You may be thinking I owe you an explanation, and maybe you are right. But even if I could understand myself what drove me to walk left towards the station that night instead of straight ahead, I’m not sure it would help. After all, what is there to understand when perhaps what drove me was made of years, if not generations, of tiny hurts and disappointments, that have settled in, like weeds, growing deeper and thicker as time goes on?

Between yesterday and today, I've written over 500 words on an essay that's been knocking around in my mind for a while. It's not a lot, but it's significant after a long string of days with 0 words. It feels good to be writing again.

This is for the ones who are just starting, coming back or are in a moment where the blank page sits and waits: For the days the words don’t come. Sit with silence like an old friend. Start ugly. Begin broken. Finish gently. Let it go. And when the world asks what you made... say only this: “I made a way back to myself"