Time Marching On

How many days is it till this year ends? Not many! And I've lots going on during the holiday season, as I'm sure you do, too. 

Parties, yes. Writing group meetings, yes. Family and friend visits, yes. And... well, I won't get into the health related appointments, but that kind of stuff continues like everything else.

Then there's the writing and editing and plotting, the same kinds of things I do all year.   They don't go away now. Romance and suspense continue to spew from my fingers. In fact, they seem in some ways to multiply.  Not a bad thing, but time consuming, of course.

So... Hope you're enjoying your ongoing December. I am!

A Writers Holiday

As Christmas and Hanukah approach, everyone is thinking of cards and gifts.  They’re decorating and planning special food.  They’re arranging parties and special events.

Not me.  It seems that every year I’m either close to a deadline with a book or in the midst of a rewrite.  This year it’s writing. Murder Ink is due February 1.  It seemed like I had lots of time, but suddenly the days started flipping by like calendar pages in a movie montage.

It was Labor Day, then Halloween and just recently Thanksgiving.  And now it is December.  Veronica Blackstone, my character, is still enjoying October days in Chicago as she gets deeper into what really happened to Rachel Parker Ross. 

I’m doing the only thing I can do.  Leave Southern California and go to Chicago to have my own writer’s retreat where I won’t be tempted to set my work aside and go somewhere fun .

It will give me the chance to immerse myself in the story and hopefully have the words flying out of my finger tips onto the computer screen.

I wonder if there will be snow.

Post Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is now behind us.  

Don't know about you, but I had a busy week.  With editing, of course.  Then preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, which was a lot of fun with our son and his girlfriend here, as well as a distant relation. I did have some assistance with various dishes, which helped a lot. Dinner was, of course, enjoyable, and our dogs seemed to enjoy it, too.  Well, the company at least. We did give them a few "tater balls" --tiny mashed potato balls--and a taste of turkey, but that's all. Even though Mystie made sure to tell us how busy her nose was and how much she wanted what she smelled when the turkey was out on our counter just before I stuffed it and stuck it in the oven.

And after? Well, busy weekend in particular, with family.  We went to see a Three Stooges movie festival, then attended the car show here in Los Angeles.  Next day, we attended the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of Southern California Holiday Party, where I won some fun items that had--what else?--pictures of Cavaliers on them.

Now--well, I did some editing whenever I could between the busy times, and that's what I'm up to now, of course.

I need to get back to it. First, though... Happy December, everyone!  Has the year gone as fast for you as it has for me?

Thanksgiving in the Rain

We've gotten kind of a tradition of having Thanksgiving at a restaurant at the beach. We'd go around three when there was still a chance to catch some dolphins swimming by.  We'd stay long enough to watch the sunset and of course, eat too much of the buffet.


But this year it was cold and rainy and driving through canyons to get to the beach didn't seem like a good idea.  There would be no view of the sunset and we'd probably miss any dolphins swimming by because the windows would be blurred by raindrops.

We changed plans and ate at a locall restaurant that offered turkey dinners and their full menu.  The full menu was a bonus for me since I’m a vegetarian and we could take home the leftovers unlike at a buffet.

Dinner was shorter and the view was a rain soaked parking lot, but it’s all about the people you’re with anyway, so it was nice.

Outside it felt cold and raw.  The temperature never got out of the 40s, which is like zero for us wimpy Southern Californians.  I had on a down vest, a jacket and a raincoat on top.  I was oh so grateful for that heated seat feature in the car.  After dinner, I looked forward to watching another episode of The Crown.  I am way behind in my TV viewing and am on the third episode of the first season.

But it was not to be.  There is another tradition for a member of my family.  He likes the experience of Thanksgiving shopping and he doesn’t want to go alone.  So, I bundled up again and as people were thinking about bed time, we headed to the mall.

It was insane, as if every young adult in the San Fernando Valley had gone there.  The place was mobbed.  The food court was open and very busy.  Most of the stores were open.  I was there as an observer only with no plans to buy anything.  The only store we actually went into was the two story Target at one end of the mall.  The looking became shopping when he remembered their microwave caught on fire.  Of course, there were numerous microwaves with special prices.  We got it in the cart and then I saw that Instant Pots were on sale for fifty dollars off.  I had been toying with the idea of getting one for a long time as several friends raved about them.  Now I was pushing the cart with the Instant Pot on top of the microwave and I had to navigate the cart through  crowd looking around the side of the Instant Pot.

It was after midnight when I got home with my Instant Pot.  And now to figure out how to use it.