Except for the daily posts here, some journal entries, and some letters to the editor, I don’t have any substantial writing projects going on. I heard back from one of the early readers of my autobiography, A Working Life, and won’t hear from the other until Labor Day. There is nothing to do there for now. Ideas for projects float around my mind, but nothing seems to stick well enough to take next steps. I’m not losing interest in writing but my view of it is changing.

It was a minor miracle I finished an autobiography. Increasingly, I have an urge to leave that behind. The first book, before marriage, was the important one to finish. The second is one of many books I could write about the time after that. A draft is finished and on the shelf. That may be as far as I go.

The main summer goal is to have a major writing project going into fall and winter. With another heat dome on its way to Eastern Iowa, that doesn’t seem important right now. I’m more interested in what I will do with the remaining years of my life.

The winter writing project could be a couple of things. I want to organize my recipes in the context of today’s kitchen garden. That would be a spiral bound cook book with very limited distribution. A collection of written works is another potential project. The most likely target is blog writing since I began in 2007. I would pick the 50 or so best posts and compile them for potential distribution. Much of my life surrounds the kitchen garden, so a book about that would not be a stretch. None of these seems like a starter today.

Short posts suit me better than books. Maybe the way to address my fall/winter empty space is to continue to write short posts, leaving room for other life activities. Those activities could lead to better, more engaging writing.

For now, I will adopt my protective process to survive the heat dome, and see what happens. With writing as an occupation, perhaps I should let the river of experience take me where it will and see how writing evolves. It has led me to good places and maybe it will again.