Yes, you read the title right. No more pity parties for poor, poor Jane. After months of languishing while her creator dealt with silly things like greeting beautiful new grandchildren into the world and meeting non-fiction book contract deadlines, Jane is once again up and running.

More than running.

Actually, Jane is galloping toward the finish line. Only the final scene remains to be written before THE END will conclude the first draft. Of course, when an author strings out the writing of a novel over more than 2 years, substantial time needs to be spent on rewrites and edits. Because the author did the writing when she was in her late 50s. Which means her memory’s not so good any more, and her chances of remembering what she wrote more than 2 years ago are about the same as blizzard on Mother’s Day in western South Dakota where dear Jane lives. Which really, truly happened yesterday.

As it has happened before.

The author knows this because she experienced a Mother’s Day blizzard in Jane’s stomping grounds in either May of 1984 or 1985. 18 inches of snow. Wind and drifting. 3 day blizzard. School cancelled. Water pipes frozen. Dead lambs and calves everywhere.

The kind of thing even authors in their late 50s can’t forget.

The kind of juicy real life event that could become a bang up scene in a mystery novel. Except that this mystery is set in the fall of Jane’s first year teaching country school, ending just after first quarter parent-teacher conferences and just before the Halloween party. And Jane’s former school teacher creator can’t imagine a final resolution scene encompassing more than 6 months, 3 more grading periods, and enough art projects to placate the imaginary students in Jane’s class until school’s out in May. Just thinking about that much tempera paint, glitter, and construction paper is exhausting.

So Jane’s creator will stick to the ending already planned.

But, she will tuck the Mother’s Day blizzard idea into her idea file. Just in case the first book in the Dick and Jane series gets published. Just in case it does well enough to warrant a second book. And just in case a writer in her late 50s with memory issues can remember where the idea file is, find the idea in the file, and recall why in the world she scribbled “Mother’s Day blizzard” on a piece of paper and stuck it in the file. The chances of all those things happening are about the same as the chance of a Mother’s Day blizzard in western South Dakota.

You know, it just could happen!