Happy Holidays!

 

            Happy Chrismukkah, everyone! 

            Having Christmas and Hanukkah’s first night on the same day doesn’t happen often, but that’s how it is this year. And my family celebrates both! 

            In fact, we’re getting together with family today, so I don’t anticipate getting much writing done. But there’s always tomorrow. 

            My pups will get some extra treats in celebration, and we’ve also sent gifts to our grandsons already. Fun time of the year from many angles. 

            I hope you all enjoy the holidays, and look forward to a wonderful New Year!

Happy Everthing!

 I've done it again.  The holidays have crept up on me.  It helps that the weather has warmed up and everything is looking green in the yard. It is so easy to just take one day at a time and forget that the future becomes the present.

Once I realized my editor wouldn't be looking at MURDER BY THE HOOK until after the first of the new year, I decided to go through it again.  Now that some time has passed since my last go around with it, I am looking at it with a fresh eye.  I am really enjoying going through it sort of as a reader who has the power to make changes.

I am finishing up making changes to my website for the upcoming release of DEATH AMONG THE STITCHES.  And in the back of my mind, I am starting to think about the next Yarn Retreat book.

But next week, I'll set everything aside and go into holiday mode starting with Jakey's eighth birthday and then Christmas and Hanukah.  I celebrate everything.

Happy Holidays!

Some Good Stuff

     I’ve had a couple of fun things happen regarding my writing this week. One thing was that one of my Alpha Force novellas, previously for Harlequin Nocturne, was republished on Amazon as an ebook. I’d stick the link here but it’s really long, but it’s definitely worth looking at thanks to the fun cover with a sexy lady and a lynx. In case you’re interested, just visit Amazon and look up CLAWS OF THE LYNX. Or you can also get to it via my Facebook page.  

            Also, Audiobooks has a 70% off sale on the audio version of my first Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mystery SIT, STAY, SLAY. Again, you can see it on my Facebook page. Or, you can go to the Audiobooks.com website and look it up there. 

            I’m still attending holiday parties, including the alumni association of Union Oil Company of California, my former employer when I worked as a real estate attorney. Soon, there’ll be a joint party between the local chapters of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. 

            And no surprise, but, I’m also still writing away, making progress with my latest manuscript, the first in a new Harlequin Romantic Suspense series. Of course I always need to stop writing now and then when my younger pup comes over with a toy for me to throw for her to fetch. 

            The holidays are progressing. It’s almost Christmas and the beginning of Hanukkah—but not for a while yet.  Hope you’re all enjoying the season.

 

Grateful

 I don't post much on Facebook, but I read other people's posts and often leave comments.  This morning I followed a link to read a very long post by a writer I only know from Facebook.  My eyes were clouded by tears when I got to the end.  It was about her efforts to fix the problems with her  very dysfunctional family.  She didn't go into detail, but from what she said, it sounded like there was terrible abuse.  Her efforts to talk it out with her family now that they were all adults failed completely.

I can't get it out of my mind.  

The only problem my family had was a chronic lack of finances.  We lived in a rundown building. One of my babysitting customers always made cracks about it when he took me home.  Something about having to hurry before they tore the building down.

To me it was home and a refuge from the world.  I felt safe and loved.  The cheap rent attracted an oddball mix of people.  For some it was just a springboard to better places and for some like us, it was permanent until they actually did tear the building down.

We knew most of the neighbors and stayed connected long after we left the building.

It's not that I didn't have challenges, but never from my family.  My parents came from very different backgrounds, but we stayed connected to both sides.  I went to a high school that was almost all Black and sometimes I was the only white person in a class.  The school was boarded by a street that had the second highest crime rate in the city.  I walked over a mile to school, mostly alone and mostly worried.

But I always felt grateful for my family and all the other people who did nice things for me.  When my parents died there was no unfinished business, just a lot of good memories.

There was nothing I could do or say to that writer to erase what happened in her life.  It doesn't seem like much, but I sent her a million hugs.