I'm not dead, nor do I intend to abandon the blog forever.
The novel is up to 53,000 words. Actually, the scrap heap also has 87,000 words, but that's not a reliable count; some scenes are represented by four or five scrap heap versions. I'd say that there are about 30,000 words of scrap that may or may not re-enter the main timeline of the novel.
So I've been writing.
Just not here.
Eat turkey!
That is all.