Someone I work with passed away today.

At work. In a flurry of confusion, pain and worry, the world hiccupped and Death took her.

I don’t have any golden words to impart. Nothing brilliant to say about the shortness of life and the eternity of love. What I can say is she was a lovely person to me. She brushed up against my life in bits and threads but I liked her.

Death does come on silent wings at times. Sadly, there is never that second we should get to say goodbye or give one final kiss.

My best wishes to her family. Death is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than a lost friend or a broken heart. It does lighten over time—the sting of Death—but it leaves one numb and sometimes paralyzed. It’s hard to walk around a gaping wound in one’s life. I can only hope her family knows she loved them deeply. In the little we spoke about the tiny things in our lives, I knew she loved the people she held close.

So, now is when I tell you to let people you love know they are loved by you. They are hard words to say. I get that. And it’s hard sometimes to say them through the day to day annoyances and grumbles we have but say them. And make sure people know you mean them.

I suck stupid things into my brain. Interesting but things I never will use.

Unless of course I’m writing a book.

How a helicopter is landed if the engine fails.

Morning.

I have the day off and I’m trying to shove some words into a chapter because a deadline is closing in on me and I’ve got to get this book done. Some days, writing is easier but often, I have to do it around things, places and people. I literally shove my writing into the crevices of my live and then gather it all up at the end.

Yesterday I discovered I’d forgotten to save the word document for chapter 11. I did however have the PDF I send out to my beta readers so it was an easy enough recover, although I had to de-paragraph all the lines because exporting to a word document means text boxes and a copy and paste into a word document means every single line is a paragraph.

Good times. Just a chapter. Not too bad.

My Irish visitors, TA Moore and her mum, Rae, have left for the wilds of Colorado to go look at cliff houses. They’ll be back in time for a drive by hug and then head back to Northern Ireland. TA (Tamm) is one of my dearest friends and one of the Five, if any of you read the acknowledgements. She’ll have a book out through DSP in a few. I’ll post its link once it becomes available.

We’ve known each other for going on decades and I can’t even explain the swell of joy I get when I see her. I have a few people who make me go awwww, she is one of them.

I also need more coffee.

Today is going to be dedicated to writing and coffee. The dog’s asleep on the couch but I’m sure he’ll be awake in a few to bark at a bird or a leaf. I’ve got the Black Impala Mix queued up for music and should be on my way in a bit.

What’s going on with all of you?