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The cold has finally come upon the land, with temperatures dropping below 0°F. There have been some times we’ve had to pull the bed up close to the wood stove, but overall the yurt has been warmer than many houses that we visit.

That doesn’t mean we refuse the offers of our dear friends who invite us over for a warm meal . . .

We’ve been occupied mostly by writing. We’ve been working on a new young adult novel, set about a hundred (or so) years in the future. The book itself went very quickly, fully written in about 3 1/2 months. Now we’ve put in approximately two months of editing, test-reads, and the ever-essential query and synopsis. Today or tomorrow we’ll send out the first of our queries to agents. In the past this process has felt rather tense, but this time around everything feels different. We decided to write the book simply to write the book, without thought of whether it would someday be published. The result is that we had a great time doing it. It was a blast (even the multiple edits!), and in a sense it’s already been wildly successful for us, since we enjoyed the journey so thoroughly. Now we’re just as excited to put it out into the world to see if we can get an agent to represent it.

Besides writing, we’ve been going on daily adventures in the woods, following otter tracks, searching for the fisher, and standing in amazement at the artwork that nature surrounds us with. My new client will begin on February 1st, and we’re equally excited for that. Each Metamorphosis client brings their own challenges, joys, and adventure to the mix.

We’ll leave you with a photo (above) of one of the ridiculously beautiful sights that greeted us the other day.

Winter has come to the forest at last, a heavy snowfall on New Year’s Eve. As usual, we slept through the New Year, though sharp retorts and bright red skies marked midnight as our friends up the hill lit off fireworks.

The yurt is staying warm, though anything not cooked on the top of the woodstove involves our outdoor kitchen (a Coleman stove given to us by some dear friends). Still, it’s somehow joyful to go out and boil one’s tea water surrounded by wind, pine trees, and the birds that visit our suet feeders.

These birds are BRAVE! We’re creating sign language for each species, since we can’t find them in any of our online or paper-and-ink resources. Rose-breasted nuthatch is “friend bird”, because they’re the bravest of all. Chickadees are “cute bird”. The woodpeckers come in three varieties, each one signed with more fingers pecking a tree. Downy, hairy, and pileated woodpeckers. Blue jays (no sign yet) fly over often, and crows (“spirit birds”) are always talking as they wander the forests.

This week we’ve dedicated as writing retreat. We began a new young adult trilogy about 3 ½ months ago, and book one is already finished. We’re doing polishing edits right now. After that, we’ll begin the query process of submitting to agents.

We got a chance to enjoy the company of many of our family and friends this holiday season and want to wish everyone a New Year filled with abundance, playfulness, magic and adventure!