This winter has been particularly difficult. Not for any personal reasons, not really. Family is healthy-ish, and we've had some truly wonderful moments (above). But as a whole there's been a comprehensive lack of sunshine that, when compounded by night shifts in a room without windows, result in an abysmally lethargic me.

That sounds dramatic, I get it. But there's been so many times I've found myself clinging to the S.A.D. lamp and praying for the energy to do much of anything. Then, just days ago really; I was blessed with the ability to pick up my pen. Shaking frost from my mind and my hands like a bird that shakes free of the rain.

So I share here the ups and the downs. The down being a particularly histrionic poem I wrote in an effort to drop the heavy from my shoulders. Up, a brief WIP drawing session of the primary antagonist of my novel.

If you'd like to see other iterations of she who will not be named, here are a few of my favorites.