On the cusp of summer vacation -- we administer our final exams to students next week and, after Memorial Day, are free until mid-August -- I can finally say with some confidence that THE END IS IN SIGHT with my long, unwanted break from writing. Because, for the most part, since about the time school started I've written little to nothing this year. For someone who has considered "writer" akin to her bloodline in terms of identity, this is a shock. Or, to put it another way, in the last 9 months I've written the least I have since I was 12 years old. Yep.

One aspect of cause was the crazy circus my life was from 2010-2012. Job loss due to a terrible economy, moving back in with Mom and Dad at the tender age of 31, falling in love, trying to search for a job, going back to school part-time to add another certification, etc. I mean, I had no consistent schedule, no routine, no place that was sacred to writing. So things fell apart over time.

Another cause was life since last summer. Moving 1300 miles. Starting a new job within two weeks of the move. (Teaching full-time is NOT for the lazy…believe me!) The adjustments that come with a new workplace, new state, a new category for the relationship. (We got engaged in November and will marry in little more than a month.)

A third cause, which only came to light in the last few weeks, was my health. I'm a generally healthy person; in spite of having no flu vaccine and working in close proxmity with teens, I only got sick once this school year -- a nasty cold that waited until Winter Break to attack. So when I was so exhausted these last few months, found it hard to think, found myself cold all the time, and other little aspects…I chalked it up to aging. Stress. Living at a high elevation of 7,100 feet. Living in a climate that is not as mild as the ones I previously resided in on the west coast. (Truly, the town where I live had quite a long winter…it snowed as late as May 1st!) It was only in a conversation with my mom several weeks ago, when she mentioned a family history with the women on my dad's side having problems with underactive thyroids, did I even think about going to the doctor. I requested a blood test, just to make sure everything was okay; what I found out, instead, was that things were NOT okay and I had hypothyroidism. (In laymens terms, my thyroid was underactive.) I was put on a daily thyroid medication to fix my levels and BOOM! Energy again! Clarity in thinking! No longer shivering all the time! Etc. Since the symptoms crept in gradually over time, particularly in the last year, it makes me wonder if that is connected to the writer's block. Because, truely, one reason I fell off the craft was a lack of energy and feeling like I couldn't think or focus. So that's been fixed.

Once I get my finals graded and the grades in and wrap the school year, I plan to turn a portion of my attention back to writing -- establishing a routine, an hour a day, where I go back with my characters. I figure by the time school resumes in mid-August I should have writing incorporated into some capacity once more.

I am also getting married in late June. While my last name will change in my "real life" and in my classroom, there will be no adjustment to it with my writing. My website's URL will remain the same. My e-mail address that I use for that will also remain the same. I always intended to preserve my maiden name as my pen name if it came to pass that I married. When PIT6 finally is published -- 2014? 2015? -- it will still be under Kristen Sheley.

-K