An Introvert Goes to Egypt—This is my Amazing Life

Next week I'll be saddling a camel and driving it around Egypt for a month or so. 

If not for the mess and dust I wouldn't even recognize my life. I'm currently living so far outside the box, I don't even remember what it was like in there.

Did you read Shonda Rhimes book The Year of Yes? That's my motto. I say yes. I have for years.

• yes, I'd love to come visit you, nice person who issues a casual invite
• yes, I'd love to go to that writer conference
• yes, I'll read that book
• yes, I'll meet you for a coffee to talk BOOKS or WRITING
• yes, I'll come to your writer weekend
• yes, I'd love to go to Egypt on a study tour with some Egyptologists

Because this is my life and I want to do the things I've waited my whole life for!

Sometimes I have to step back and have a few months of No because it gets chaotic all this yessing up my life.

See, I'm an introvert. No, I don't see that as a character flaw. If I were an extrovert I'd never hermit myself and write novels. 

Being alone allows me to recharge. It doesn't mean I don't love you.

Being an introvert doesn't mean I don't like people. It means that after I hang with them I need a nap.

Saying yes is about getting outside my comfort zone. From personal experience I'd have to say that life really does begin at the end of your comfort zone.

Do I say yes to things that scare me? No. I say hell yes.

That doesn't mean I'm going to disregard danger or make stupid choices. My brain is still here. I'm just letting my heart drive most of the time. 

My bags are nearly packed and I'm taking work with me. I'm in the middle of editing a novel. I want to finish it because there are two more stories impatiently waiting to be written into life. 

After my last trip to London I got inspired to write a book about a married couple. The wife is a sociopath. He's scared of her with good reason. They also happen to be vampires. As with most of my fiction there's a rich vein of humor running through it, because I love to laugh—or maybe because life just makes me laugh. 

I'm enjoying writing A Vampire's Tale of Woe nearly as much as I enjoyed writing Bitch Witch. 

While I'm traveling I'll post excerpts from that story here on

Wednesdays. I'm calling it Vampire Wednesday, or Wampire Wednesday if it really has to start with a w. I think you'll enjoy Drake and Dorcas as much as I do.

If you'd like to follow my adventures in Egypt, I plan to post pictures to my Instagram, SRKarfelt. I'll check in here too, so leave me a message. Tell me what you're saying yes to, and would it involve eating camel meat? Is that really a thing? Would that go in the stupid choice column?