I stared at the picture with dismay. Just like I had read, the saxael tree lives in the Central Asia desert. It is indeed dense and thicket-like in its narrow leaves…but it is far shorter than I had imagined. My beginning scene is not going to work.

At the beginning of last year, I switched from researching on ancient Persia and the Saka/Scythians to the north to writing a novel about them. Moving brought that project to a halt, and months later, when life was settled enough to pick up projects….well, anyone who’s stopped reading a novel in the middle and come back to it a year later without reviewing has an idea of how hard that is. Writing is worse.

Finally, the gears are getting a little looser, and I may be back in a groove–and then this.

Yes, I’m working on transitioning into more writing. For anyone interested in seeing the transitions in life this past year, I have posted occasional updates: Day by Day, With Each Passing Moment, Camel Ride. I am gearing up for an experiment on updates: newsletters. For those who are interested in occasional updates in writing and life in general, besides just hearing when a new post is up, try signing up.

As a bonus, I will send a link in the welcome e-mail to the two alternate beginnings I’ve come up with since seeing pictures of saxael trees. You can see some of the agony of decisions that come into writing, and throw your two cents in as well.

In the meantime, on to rework scene two…for about the fifth time.