I Do Declare: I’m back and my current mood is Feeeling Good

My longtime readers will have noticed that, except for the occasional Vim and Verve post (those snark gators have so much to say) and a meme or two, I took a hiatus from this blog for a bit.

During the hiatus, I detoured from novel-writing and screenwriting to focus on other areas of my skill set, and in doing so, I discovered the high cost of not doing what you were put on this earth to do. (Steven Pressfield goes into this in his book The War of Art and his blog.)

Thankfully, the time I was gone also gave me opportunities to regroup, refocus, and reenergize. Which made the whole excursion so worth it. (My friend Angie Mizzell goes into this exercise too.)

More on this in future IDD posts. For now, I’ve invited Nina Simone onto my post to celebrate my return to following the path meant for me.

How does it feel? Well, the lady nailed that sentiment with precision:

Right Now: Let’s begin a series of writing prompts with Janus

Head of Janus, Vatican Museum, Rome

Background:

In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions. (Interestingly, there is no Greek equivalent for Janus.)

The god of looking back and looking ahead presides over doors, arches, gates, passages, and endings – and is in charge of transitional periods such as moving from war to peace.

He is usually depicted as having two faces looking in opposite directions – forward and backward.

The beginning of the day, week, month, and year are sacred to him. Appropriately, the first month of the year, January, was named for him.

Your Assignment:

At a cocktail party one night, you bump into a guy wearing a hoodie who says he’s the Roman god Janus. You laugh so hard you accidentally spill your drink on him.

As he’s leaning over to clean up his outfit, the hoodie falls back, and you see that he has another face on the back of his head.

When he finishes, he looks up at you and tells you intimate details of your immediate past and a glimpse into your immediate future.

What do you do?

Go Write Right Now.