The amazing author Jude Johnson truly let me contribute a guest post on gnats. Can you believe it? Now that’s cool.

Why gnats? Well…

In my town, October brought a stretch of perfect autumn weather: long sunny afternoons, cool crisp nights. The leaves turned gorgeous shades of red, gold, and auburn, and covered walkways with crispy piles. Perfect weather for long walks to stretch muscles stiff from sitting in front of a computer all day. Except for one thing.

The gnats. Starting about two hours before sundown, blue gnat swarms built under trees, over shrubs, along sidewalks. How do I know the gnats were blue? Because after a walk, I’d shake dozens of them off my sweater, hair, scarf, anything they could cling to. Breathing, talking – anything that required an open mouth – became downright unwise.

It started me thinking about the blue gnat swarms that can attack during the writing process – or any creative work. You know how it is: you’re cruising along writing your thousand words a day, loving your work, basking in it like our fall sunshine, then BAM! You’re swatting and snorting out gnats of fear, insecurity, envy, procrastination, and did I mention fear?

Read it all here.