I'm still here (sort of)

I set aside my almost finished experimental novel about the Chernobyl accident, and for the last two weeks I've been working on a new novel. I'm 17,000 words into it, and I think about it when falling asleep, and when I wake up.

It is a very different writing experience from my first novel (Swearing in Russian...) In Swearing my protagonist was extremely isolated and introspective, and being in her head was often difficult, as it was such a different mental space. In the current draft I'm writing mostly dialogues--my protagonist is meeting all those strange people, and there's a bit of a mystery going on.

I know that others manage to blog, and FB (may I use it as a verb?) and write novels, and send out short story submissions, and what not. I'm only managing my novel and my kiddos right now. I will blog more when this novel is out of the first draft stage, I promise.