For those of you who read this blog every week, I feel the need to be honest with you: This week’s blog was the most challenging I’ve had. For some reason, no topic seemed right, and the words just wouldn’t flow like they normally do. I started and rejected two different blog attempts before starting this one.

That rarely happens for me. Once I settle on a topic (the hard part), I usually sit down and write smoothly from start to finish. I “write into the dark” as Dean Wesley Smith so eloquently describes in his book of the same title (click here to check it out).

But this week, my creative brain just wasn’t there. It was in part, perhaps, because I’ve been doing a lot of planning this week, so I’m using the other side of my brain a great deal. But my job requires me to use both sides of my brain simultaneously on a regular basis, so that’s probably a reach.

I think it’s more that it was just a strange week. After starting the year with dog potty issues (trust me, you want no further details), it continued with two days of balancing work with a kid who had no school (because of snow and ice even though my local area was unaffected) and two tragic events for my neighbors (a child killed by a falling tree and a serious house fire just a few doors down).

So, after two false starts and a looming deadline, I decided to just tell it like it is. Writing is a mysterious thing. And sometimes, it leaves you. Like it left me last week.

But this week is a fresh start. And we have a lot of exciting projects coming up I can’t wait to tell you about (Hint: bundles abound). But more on the future once we’ve settled on the details.

Stay tuned.

Allyson Longueira is publisher of WMG Publishing. She is an award-winning writer, editor and designer.