I have not been very active in the blogosphere or on social media for the past two weeks. Normally I am one to preach about the importance of being consistent with your blogging or social media postings. Consistency does indeed count for a lot, but hopefully I’ve built enough of a following that my two-week absence hasn’t cost me all of my supporters. (Right? I say, dear follower, isn’t that right?)

Anyway, my excuse is that I was moving. Across the country. I’ve lived in Virginia my entire life, and I decided to move to Idaho. And I drove the whole way (well, my sister drove with me. She awesomely gave up a week of her life so I wouldn’t have to drive solo cross-country). But still, I spent a week either driving, navigating, or passed out in a hotel room. I didn’t have phone or internet signal a lot of the time (sometimes it was enough for the GPS, sometimes not).

After the drive, I’ve spent the last few days getting settled in the room I’m temporarily renting, putting my stuff in storage, learning my way around town, etc., etc. And so finally, for the first time in two weeks, I have a chance to sit down and write.

I haven’t written a blog, worked on my current WIP, or done any editing/rewriting in over two weeks now. And you know something? I didn’t miss it.

Does that make me a bad writer? Not writing for two weeks and rather enjoying it? I don’t believe so, and here’s why. First of all, my mental energy was consumed with other things (like the amazing flatness of Iowa. I don’t have a decent picture, because we were whizzing along far faster than we should have been considering we were pulling a trailer behind the car).

Anyway. Even for the most dedicated writer, I think it’s important to take breaks. The mind needs a chance to think about other things (even if you’re not trying to navigate back-country roads in Montana in the dark). Just make sure that the breaks don’t overshadow the actual writing time. Now that I’m settling into a bit of a routine and I’m staying in the same time zone for more than 24 hours, I’m ready to jump back into blogging and working on my stories.

Next week I’ll blog about some of the details of my cross-country trip, now that I’m back into the writing game again. For now, I’ll leave you with an image of some of the really cool rocky terrain of Montana.