October was a crazy busy month.  So busy, in fact, that I wasn’t able to blog in real time.  Instead, I’ll give you a recap:

WORK:

Work has been busy, yada yada yada…

Now on to the good stuff.

NANTUCKET:

I started off the month with my annual trip to Nantucket, but instead of my usual long weekend, this year I went for an entire week!  My father joined me for the first half  and we were not idle for much of his visit.  One day we took a picnic lunch by bus out to Scionset where we walked the beach and took in all of the beautiful cottages.

Another day was spent going on a history tour during the day and a ghost tour at night.  The history tour was very interesting – I didn’t know how involved Nantucket was in the abolitionist movement or that Frederick Douglass gave one of his first speeches at their Atheneum.  I’d also always wanted to go on a Ghost Tour which was fun, but we questioned the tour guide’s choice of traipsing us over a rickety bridge (with no handrail), down a ditch and up a steep hill full of divots in the pitch dark.  Luckily my always-prepared father brought along his flashlight to protect us from both ghosts and wildlife.

Oh, we also made time for one more tour…

On Thursday afternoon my Dad left Nantucket (arriving home to a very happy Mom who did a great job holding down the home fort with my sister while he was gone) and my girlfriends showed up on island about an hour later.

We had a wonderful remainder of the week spending time biking, walking the beach and visiting all of our favorite spots.  I also took them on (what I remembered from) the route of the ghost tour so we could see the sights during the day.

Before I leave my musings about Nantucket behind, I want to show you what I found amongst the many “ACK” and “I am the Man from Nantucket” t-shirts:

This.

This is what I’ve been trying to explain for years about my love affair with Nantucket.  Everyone should have a place where they take deeper breaths, laugh easier, sleep more soundly and feel truly at peace.

If you don’t already have your Nantucket, please take the time to find it.  Just remember to bring a flashlight.

MISCELLANEOUS

Just a few more events to share from the last month:

• Halloween:  I FREAKING LOVE HALLOWEEN!  I am a huge fan of horror movies, dressing up in silly costumes and candy.  Honestly, if the holiday just ended with a game of TV Trivia it would be like it had been invented just for me.
• I WALKED INTO A BOOKSTORE AND SAW MY BOOK ON THE SHELF.  That’s the first time this happened to me.  Booktrope, my publisher, has an amazing and unique business model that focuses more on e-books.  The only downfall is that its authors don’t often get to experience the excitement that comes when a brick and mortar bookstore carries their books.  Lucky for me (and my community!), a lovely new independently owned bookstore just opened near my house.  (Go like them now:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Letterpress-Books/186486561526194 )

• Writing:  Not only was I invited to join a new writing club that meets monthly, but I decided to participate in the National Novel Writing Month challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  I am feverishly trying to finish my second novel and taking any opportunities for motivation that come my way.
• Finally – and I promise this really is my last comment – this happened earlier this month:

Now, do I think that Next Year I’ll be Perfect?

No.  Absolutely not.

But… that doesn’t mean that I didn’t make a few resolutions for the upcoming year.  But I’ll tell you more about that in my next post!