Sing a New Song of Joy

This season of joy also lends itself to vast melancholy. I miss the silly gifts my mother would mail me. I miss the snow (but not a lot!). I miss the nip in the air (but only in theory). I miss the wonder in my son's eyes, the excitement he once felt when he was little and Santa was real to him. I even miss being young myself, and that thrill I felt knowing I would go to sleep and awake to a variety of presents, some expected and some total surprises.



Last night one of my new neighbors invited me over for dinner. I gladly accepted, as I relished the chance to get to know some of my fellow islanders. The meal was lovely, the company grand, and at one point my new neighbor said, "I'm getting older," as part of a joke to a friend. And I added, "Aren't we all?"



But older isn't bad. It's just different. When we traveled, we tried to impress upon our son that "different" isn't a negative or a positive. It is what it is. How they do things in Egypt isn't bad or good; it's just different. How they do things in France isn't better or worse; it's just different. And so it seems with life. As the years go on, everything changes. That's not better or worse...just different.

So when it came to buying and trimming a tree, as I wrote earlier this month, I decided everything about this tree should be different. This particular tree should reflect our new home on the ocean, our little house here next to the sea.

Of course, we needed ornaments to fit the theme. I bought mermaids, a sea turtle, ships in a bottle, and lighthouses. All pay homage to this new place in our lives. We're just a few miles from the Jupiter Lighthouse, so the lighthouses were a must. On our property there's a turtle nest marked, and I hope I'll be here to see the hatchlings make their journey to the water, so a single green turtle sparkles in the branches.

I haven't seen a mermaid...yet, but there are a lot of manatees in this area. One theory suggests that sailors saw the manatees and thought they were mermaids. I have my doubts, as a manatee is large and gray and cumbersome, and all the images of mermaids are svelte and gorgeous. But who knows?



Every tree needs a star, and that had me stumped for a while until I saw this beautiful starfish.



So this is still the season of wonder and miracles. It still holds magic and enchantment. And I can miss my mother and my youth and days gone by, but I'm learning to sing a new song.

I hope you sing a song of joy this holiday, too.

Side Trips

It seems like everything is hitting the fan at one time. I got the go ahead on the synopsis for the sixth crochet mystery and today got my revision letter for You Better Knot Die. Tomorrow (I’m posting this Friday night) is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and I’m going to be in the Sisters in Crime booth Saturday from 4-6. Anybody in the area please stop by. The booth is near Royce Hall. Then it’s get ready to go to Malice Domestic in Washington DC. I’m leaving Thursday morning. It’s a chance to meet up with a lot of my writer friends, and hang out in the hospitality room with Joanna. Berkley takes all their writers out to a fabulous dinner at RuthChris Steakhouse (they have a nice vegetarian option) and there’s a banquet on Saturday night. I’m going to be on a panel Sunday morning about red herrings with a book signing afterwards.

The cool thing about the Washington Trip is that the subway station is practically in the hotel. The first time I discovered the subway, I was surprised at how easy it was to get to all the good place. A few stops and you come up in the Mall. One direction is the capital and the other the Washington Monument. And in between all the Smithsonian museums.

This year I’m planning to go somewhere different. I discovered if you take the subway in the opposite direction, it’s only a few stops plus a bus to Old Town Alexandria. I have an book that describes walking tours in and around Washington. That’s where I found out how close Alexandria is to where I’m staying. The book didn’t have any pictures, but it described various old buildings. I find the pictures never really tell enough anyway.

So for now, what it looks like is a bit of mystery to me. I know there is an old apothecary that in the old days had globes of different color water to tell people who couldn’t read when there was an epidemic of some bad disease like plague, cholera or yellow fever. There a Palladian style mansion which interests me because there was a whole thing about Palladian houses in Dead Men Don’t Crochet. I had to write about the style from pictures. It would be nice to see what it looks like in real life.

I know this trip is about meeting readers and spending some time with my agent and editor, but I always like to throw in some tourists stuff. I already signed up for next year’s Left Coast Crime because its in Santa Fe and I’ve always wanted to go there. Last year’s Left Coast was in Hawaii. I loved the day trip I took around the Kona coast. Each night I watched the sunset either from the balcony of my room or from down by the water. It was very cool to encounter a sea turtle sleeping on the black rocky beach.

It’s not going to be all fun and tours, though. I’ll be working on the sixth crochet mystery and the revisions for You Better Knot Die, though that will be mostly during my stop in Chicago after DC.

How about you? Do you like to mix pleasure in with business?















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