Well, the great idea I came up with last winter for a new MG novel kind of stalled out through the spring and summer.  With so many other things to do, mainly basic home snf auto maintenance, that I couldn't bring myself to sit down at a computer in my free time.   But now I think I'm going again with several new ideas.  So in that way it was good to take a break for a while and let the ideas bake, the wisdom of which I've heard a lot.