How to Hibernate, or, Letting Your First Draft Rest

*If you live in the Seattle area, come see me read at The Grotto Theater tonight from 7 to 9pm for the Seattle Scribes Reading Event!*

I think I’m turning into a bear. My body is preparing for hibernation.

This past weekend we turned the clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings. Normally I refer to “fall back” as “the good one,” because it gives me an extra hour of sleep in the mornings. But this year, living so far north in Seattle, turning the clocks back had a scary consequence: the sun is now setting at 4:45 in the afternoon, and it’s only going to get worse.

Now I can’t go for a run after work, because by the time I leave at 5pm, the streets are already dark, and I’m not about to wear one of those reflective safety vests. Not that I feel like running…