I was trying to do a young boy with this grumpy face, but it turned into an old woman. She looks like how I feel when I wake up to start my day on these dark mornings. I can’t seem to get my eyes opened for want of trying.

I’ll be glad when the time change happens this weekend. At least the sun will have a half a chance to be up when we are. I say half, because it hasn’t stopped raining for any length of time all month.

Last night my DH asked if I wanted to go hiking with him in the woods. I said okay even though I am afraid it will be cold and wet and not at all pleasant. But he wants to be out in the fall colors and I want to be with him. So there you have it.

I have to put on my CASA cape this afternoon. I am going with my GAL lawyer out to visit my child in the new foster home. Seems the cases I get assigned are anything but ordinary. Still, I have to remind myself I am doing a good thing and I will be getting brownie points for helping the child to be safe and happy.

Next week I have to jump full throttle into the art for my next book. Sadly, I am still awaiting final edits. I will forge ahead any way and hope the edits don’t change too much of the book, I am running into crunch time and don’t want to miss my deadline. Already my family is teasing me about working 27 hours a day 8 days a week. I wonder if this is the norm in publishing or only with my house.

I have unpacked from my travels. All the camping equipment is put away until spring. Everything is washed and sorted and put back in its place. Woo. I will most likely have to buy both a new sleeping tent and vending booth for next year’s tour as the ones I have have pretty much given their all. That can wait till spring.

Today’s daily doodle is a werewolf face, in honor of the upcoming holiday on Saturday. I figure I have a theme going already might as well get the full value from it!

“The fields lay fallow. The pumpkin harvest had been exceptional this year. People had come and gotten the best pumpkins to take home to carve into Jack O Lanterns. Only the small and lopsided fruits remained. A lone crow landed on an orange gourd and cawed loudly into the still, moonlit night. Nothing answered.”

In the ‘better late then never’ mode, I am trying to catch up with the weekly prompts for Watercolor Wednesday. LOL. This doesn’t really fall under the requirements of the daily doodle since I didn’t use marker and I did use an eraser. However, I kept my pencil marks very loose and only erased a few lines to keep the watercolor pencil from becoming too muddy.

I finished the last of my traveling unpacking and putting away yesterday. I have a vague idea on my NaNoWriMo novel. I signed up for PiBoIdMo. (Picture Book Idea Month) Plus, I have a book to illustrate that final art is due to the publisher on February 21, 2010. So I have enough projects to keep me more than busy for the next month. Hee. One of these years I’ll learn to simplify.

Now that I have finished traveling for a while, I need to re-establish all my daily routines. Like the Daily Doodle and my morning yoga workouts. I’m not sure why going on the road scuttles all my good habits, except that I am usually so wiped from the road that all I want to do is sleep. I think a week of sleeping in between loads of laundry and putting away the piles of stuff I take with me on tour in their designated places should be about enough. Time to buckle down again.

This year for NaNoWriMo I am walking out on a limb and writing a historical fiction novel. And I am just going to follow and go where my muse leads me and not worry about anything that will come of the novel past making the 50,000 word mark to win NaNoWriMo this year. I just want to write a novel from start to finish. For a picture book writer, that will be a huge accomplishment. After all, I am used to manuscripts that are done at under 1,000 words.

PiBoIdMo is another self styled challenge. 30 other picture book writers signed up. We plan to come up with a new picture book idea a day for the month of November. I really need this challenge since my idea file has been depleted and needs new seeds. If I am to have a new book a year, I have to have ideas to generate those books from.