Earlier this year, I posed a question to my fellow scribes, asking them what is their day job – because [spoiler alert!] a lot of us aren’t full-time authors. The comment feed on that post became populated with some interesting insights from those of us walking that tightrope of writing and day jobs and families and lives.

And it’s that tightrope walk that’s kept me from posting to this blog in over a month. (Nobody tell Agent Steve, please.) It has not been a fruitless time lapse, though, because fortunately I’m a marketing person by day, and the skills I hone there will certainly help when it’s my own book I’m promoting. (That sounds believable, right?)

I’ve spent the past several weeks developing the campaign for the inaugural West Virginia Urban Agriculture Conference. We created a concept that blends urban imagery with agricultural themes with a “Farming. It’s so citified.” tagline. Our logo – depicting a chicken wearing a necktie – was the genesis of the campaign. We then personified said chicken, named him Chicken Stu, created an actual Stu (as you can see in that photo there), and set him up his own Twitter account. Stu has become the official spokes-chicken for the conference and has been tweeting his journey from the barnyard to the city and his experiences at the conference. In the tradition of the Traveling Gnome and Flat Stanley, Stu has been exploring our capital city, visiting some important folks (like the Governor and First Lady!) and finding urban agriculture examples all over town, sharing his snapshots, portraits and selfies along the way. So it’s been a bit of a time suck, as you can imagine.

Add to that the fact that we’re finishing up a new edition of our magazine, embarking on an expansive (and expensive) community beautification project, and I spent most of February and March writing a grant proposal. Okay, and I recently discovered the gloriousness that is TV’s Game of Thrones, so between binge watching the show and reading the lengthy books, what time I have had for writing has been spent being entertained by the Starks and the Lannisters and the gang.

Now, that isn’t to say I’ve been completely inactive. We’re still awaiting feedback on both Blades of Grass and the revised Welcome to Straightville. Steve is expecting editorial response soon. And I am working on a cool story for Brent Hartinger’s Real Story Safe Sex Project. (More on that soon.)

So, folks, that’s why I haven’t been an active presence on my own website and social media platforms lately. It’s been one of those “life in the way” chunks of time. But I’m finishing up the Real Story project very soon, so stay tuned!