As you read this, I’ll be winging my way to the States, to my summer home, to my favourite island in the world.  It’s hard to believe it’s that time again.  My life still seems to run along an academic schedule, so this time of year also marks the end of a year and a time when I usually look back to see what I’ve been through before preparing myself for what’s yet to come.  By any standards, this has been a very full year.  It’s the year when one of my closest friends died.  It was the year of negotiating the empty nest.  But it was a year which saw the acceptance of my new novel by a new publisher.  The year of CurvingRoad’s fourth production.  The year of the first draft of my second full-length play, and the completion of my manuscript for a new book of poetry.  There was lots of organizing, lots of travel, lots of words.  It was a good year, and now I’m off for a quiet month of — yes, more work — but less franticness, and hopefully, a few lazy hours on the beach.  Then comes the craziness known as August, and then the hysteria which will be September.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  You see how much I need to slow down?  But through it all, I’ll continue to be here with you, Dear Readers.  And until I’m writing from the other side of the pond, here’s a little traveling music (thanks to splaif for this video, whoever you are):