I was a social butterfly this weekend, so I didn’t get a lot of writing done. It’s not often that hubby and I have weekends off together. Plus, we had a three day social calendar. Most of those days included double bookings!

via GIPHY

And you’ll have to forgive me if I get all gushy about my kiddo. He’s a man after my own thespian heart with three dramatic presentations going on at school. He *wanted* to audition for this talent show, much to my surprise. Torran’s never been the kid who “wants to act.” If he wants to be on stage, I’m OK with that.

Video quality not great and I blurred out other kids faces for privacy.

Why are these silly three jokes amazing? Because doctors told me this boy wouldn’t be born, or if he was, his first breath could kill him. He was born three months early and on the sixth day of his life, while he was already struggling with bleeding in his brain, he became septic. He was expected to die.

Exploring the possibility of turning off his life support was excruciating for us. He kicked Death in the pants and won. If you don’t know about Torran, you can check out his tumultuous start in the world through my personal blog, or by reading Growing A Rainbow: The Premature Journey of a Two Pound Hero (all proceeds support the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation).

Am I a ridiculously proud parent the boy who wasn’t supposed to live, much less walk, got up in front of a couple hundred kids to tell three dumb jokes? You bet I am!!

Thus, this weekend was all about family, friends, and family-by-choice, with only a smidgen of writing time.

Every writer has a different work style. I write, or am involved in the business of publishing, most days of the week, for several hours a day. Some people write daily. Other folks do hard-core stints like NaNoWriMo then have to step away from swathes of time.

However, there’s something to be said about leaving the writing cave and reconnecting from time to time. After all, characters drive stories and where else do we get our details about characters than by observing people?

Whether it’s a character trait (like a nervous habit) or the impassioned situations in which common folk rise above their circumstances, the skill of watching people informs the skill of writing.

I’m thinking about writing a blog post about how to do this artfully without being slanderous, stereotypical, or derogatory. Would that be interesting?

But not today. Today I’m catching up. Plus I have free flash fiction for my reading community on Friday.

More later!