Did you know Blue Jays aren’t actually blue? Nope, we just perceive them as being blue as an optical illusion. It’s actually the microscopic structures in their feathers that scatter light so our eyes perceive blue. They’re also not really wearing eye makeup and necklace. That too, is also an optical illusion. My own blues? not an optical illusion. I’ve reached the end point of my sixth month stay in my San Diego dwelling and I am not sure if it’s the same phenomenon of urgency to pee when you get closer to a toilet that I’m now feeling more homesick now that I’m in the homestretch (no pun intended) of my stay, with roughly four weeks left before I head on back to the east coast and enjoy the fall and winter in the northeast (I know, kind of odd, but I too am strange and mysterious).

Anyway, am also in the homestretch of my novella that seems to want to drag on and on and on. Maybe it knows it is a novella so is hoping the more I pore over its pages, I’ll expand it and then it will become a true novella. I’ve thought about that. But it won’t. It is a novella. It must stay a novella. It must be released this year!

So my Jays are in fact Blue not only because I’m homesick, but also because I’m nearly finished with my novella and anticipating the post-writing blues when you’ve lived with characters for so long and then it’s done and time to release them to the readers to make them their own.

Here’s to wearing eye makeup and necklaces, even with nowhere to go but home.