Melissa Ann Goodwin - Writer on the Road

2012-02-24T08:03:00.001-08:00

I love Fridays because so many bloggers do fun things on Fridays. It's like the bloggiland equivalent of Casual Fridays in the workplace. So I'm just going to send you off to visit a couple of folks who made me smile this morning:

Chatty Crone
Under the Tiki Hut
It's a Mystery

I know there are a lot more fun people out there, so please let me know about your favorite Friday Fun bloggers.

Tomorrow we are meeting friends for breakfast at a new Swiss Bakery/Cafe and then we are going to the Bataaan Museum. It's on our list of 101 things to do before we leave Santa Fe.

On Sunday, it's another trip to the Storage Bunker, as RVPainter likes to call it. We've got to get out the quilts that my cousin-in-law made us just for the RV, so that we can ship them to the RV manufacturer in Indiana. We'll be sending them a bunch of stuff that we'll need when we go to pick up the RV, because we actually have to be able to live in it and then drive it back here to Santa Fe. You know what this means, don't you???? It means we're getting close!!

I'm teaching the 11am Restorative Yoga class, and this is my last hurrah teaching at YogaSource, so boy is this going to be a nice class! I should probably get up out of this chair and go dry my hair!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Stranded at Rocky Mountain RV

2012-02-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today we have to have a baseplate put on the car so that the RV will be able to haul it behind - when we get the RV, that is. So we have to spend the better part of the day at Rocky Mountain RV in Albuquerque, waiting while they do the work.

That's okay, because we have our laptops and I have my new iphone (I'm getting better at Words with Friends), and they have TV (and you can actually change the channels) and they have People magazine. Not the most recent issue, but still. There are bathrooms, coffee that is not the worst I've ever had and a soda machine. We've got yogurts for lunch but I'm hoping there is a machine somewhere with M&Ms or Doritoes or something for later :-)

I also have STORY by Robert McKee, which I got to help me with the screenplay I'm writing for The Christmas Village. An awful lot of people have said, "I can see this as a movie!" so I'm taking the next step with a screenplay. I mean - who knows, right?? I haven't written one before, but my first drafts are actually a lot like screenplays, I think. And my friends Arthur Wooten and Ann Best have offered to be mentors as I go along.

But best of all, I have all kinds of time to go blog visiting today, which is something I get behind with on work days. So, a-visiting I shall go!

2012-02-22T07:48:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun with yesterday's post about "signs!" Glad to know that I'm not the only who

a) talks to people who are not visibly present
and
b) believes that things that seem like coincidences are actually signs.

Read back through yesterday's comments for some GREAT stories about people who've gotten signs, or better yet, visits from deceased loved ones.

I can't say that I've ever had the experience of thinking that my mom or dad was right there with me, visiting. But my husband and I did live for a while in a lovely old Victorian home in Maine, where we definitely felt the presence of the past owners. I'll tell you those stories another day, because I need to find pictures of the place to add to the story. They were nice visitors, benevolent presences, not scary ones.

I've been bringing to mind Dad's advice to "STOP IT!" every chance I get. Most recently, I used it in conjunction with my ongoing struggle with kicking into handstand. I think I mentioned that I can DO a beautiful handstand once I'm in it, but I have "issues" with kicking up. I'm pretty sure it's a fear of hitting the wall hard and falling over. The reason I think that is because it's actually happened and it scares the heck out of you - and the person next to you! So I guess I'm not afraid of the handstand, I'm afraid of the wall ....

But if I took my handstand baggage to Bob Newhart, psychiatrist, and asked him to analyze my problem and help me overcome my fear of kicking up, you know what he'd say? He's say:

STOP IT!!!!

So yesterday, every time I practiced kicking up, I said the words "stop it" to myself. As in, "Stop holding back", and "Stop being a baby." And you know what? Up I'd go. Seriously. I kid you not.

Feel free to use the STOP IT technique to overcome whatever is holding you back - no charge for the therapy!

Watch for the Signs

2012-02-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

Do you believe in signs? I do. I'm always asking for signs to give me guidance or help me with decisions. But I'm sure I must annoy the heck out of whomever is answering my requests, because first I say, "Please give me a sign." Then I get the sign and I say, "Okay, I'm pretty sure that was a sign, but would you please give me another sign to confirm that the first thing really was a sign?" Actually, I'm surprised "They" don't drop a rock on my head to shut me up.

Anyway! I've been thinking about my departed family members a great deal lately - yesterday was Dad's birthday - he died in 2009. And March 31st will be the one-year anniversary of my mother's death. I talk to them all the time, and last week I asked them to tell me anything that they would like me to know. Anything.

Late last week, my brother miraculously came across a piece of information in a box of stuff that we had somehow never come across before. He found a food ration card with the address of the house Mom lived in when she was evacuated to Beaumaris, Wales in 1939. I had really wanted to know which house she lived in, and with whom. I think Mom answered my plea by guiding my brother to find the food ration card in the box of old stuff. It's what I had wanted to know, and I think she wanted me to know too. I think she wants us to know her story.

That was pretty cool, so I told Dad, "Okay, Dad, I've heard from Mom. Now you're up!" But nothing seemed to come, so I nagged him about it as I drove to yoga class Saturday morning. (Yes, that was me, talking to myself in the car.) The teacher started class by telling us a story, which included a reference to an episode of the Bob Newhart show. Well, my Dad LOVED Bob Newhart. We had Bob Newhart comedy albums at our house long before he ever had his TV shows. So my ears perked up. In the episode in question, a woman went to Bob (a pyschiatrist) for therapy. Bob told her that he would solve her troubles in five minutes. The woman launched into a speech about her baggage and her troubles. Bob told her that he had two words that could solve ALL her problems. The two words were:

STOP IT!

Well, if my father was going to send me a message, he would definitely do it in an amusing way so that he could giggle about it. If he could handpick a messenger, it would surely be Bob Newhart - because that's how I would know the message was from him! As for the message itself, "STOP IT!", I can totally see where that would come from. I worry too much. I fret. I mull. I perseverate. I overthink. And seriously, I need to STOP IT!

So, thanks Dad, for the advice. And thanks, Mom, for the information. I bet you're both feeling pretty pleased with yourselves right now.

Do you believe in signs? Have you gotten any? Do you think I'm nuts? It's okay - I might be!

The Courage to Poopsy-Do

2012-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Yes, I DO know how silly that sounds! And that's the whole point really, because "Poopsy-do" is a silly term coined by the late artist Helen Van Wyck. She died of cancer - I'm not sure when, but some time ago. Her half-hour art lesson show airs on PBS, and RVPainter likes to watch it on Saturday afternoons. Because it comes on after my favorite show, "This Old House Hour," I often watch it too.

Poopsy-do refers to a blending technique in which you apply oil paint sideways in quick strokes and then smooth it out with vertical strokes. First you "poopsy," then you "do."

So I'm not trying to give you an art lesson here - it's just what was on my mind this morning. I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to go on TV and give instruction about art and say words like Poopsy Do that everyone is likely to make fun of. It's hard enough being an artist without subjecting yourself to mockery!

Helen had the courage to just be herself, perhaps because she was so good. But which came first - the being good, or the courage to be herself? It's likely that both developed along the way, in a kind of iterative process. As she grew as a painter, she also grew more comfortable in being herself. The more comfortable she was in herself, the better a painter she became.

I think we can all take a lesson from Helen, but I'll speak about it as a writer. To become a better writer, I think you have to be willing to let your true self shine through. The better writer you become, the more you're willing to be yourself, seriousness and silliness and funny secret words and all. There is some equivalent of Poopsy Do for writers - I think it's called revising :-)

How do you Poopsy Do?

Solving a family mystery - Priceless!

2012-02-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

Some of you who've followed me for a while will remember my quest to find out where my mother lived - and with whom - when she was evacuated with her boarding school in England, to Beaumaris, Wales, at the start of WWII. At first, we didn't even know what school she was at, but we followed the leads and confirmed that it was the Liverpool Blue Coat School (for orphans and fatherless children). Through the school, I found a woman who was a friend of Mom's. She and I have exchanged letters, and she even sent me the page from her autograph book that my mother had signed - in fact, Mom was the first person to sign this lady's book.

Then, today, my brother was going through a box of old stuff and discovered a food ration card with Mom's name on it ... AND ... her address in Beaumaris! Don't know where that box has been or why my brother has it or why we never knew about it before!

I went straight to Google Earth and was able to hone right in on the front door of the house that my mother lived in. It's just where it should be, based on her description in an essay she wrote in 1940, after she had returned to the U.S. Just as she described, it faces the Menai Strait and the green she spoke of playing on with her friends. I feel like Mom is guiding us toward knowing her story, but she is taking her time about it! Now that we have the address, I've written to the nice people in Beaumaris who helped me before, and asked if there is a way we can find out who lived at that address in 1939 - 1940. That would be the older woman my mother spoke of staying with.

Here is where she lived, second archway from the left in the closer-up picture:

It's amazing what technology can do - I found the address on google earth and then took a picture of my computer screen with my iphone.

I also promised you pictures of dessert from our lunch yesterday, so here they are:

Dick's dessert - chocolate cake with mousse-y stuff and whipped cream

My dessert - an almond crust, chocolate mousee, and inside, strawberries. YUM

Today I'm teaching the Restorative Yoga class at 11. The yoga teacher who has breast cancer is having her surgery at 12:30, so we'll send out lots of healing oms and prayers to her. You can add yours in too, if you feel so inclined. The more positive energy going her way, the better!

If I haven't visited your blog this week, I plan to catch up this weekend!

Thursday Thinkabout

2012-02-16T06:52:00.000-08:00

I've met so many lovely Aussies here in Bloggiland and that's what made me "thinkabout" the title for today's post. Kind of like a walkabout, only lazier ...

So Things I'm Thinking About about today:

Why on earth do people agree to go on Judge Judy? Seriously. They must know she's going to annihilate them ...

You do NOT want to get THIS look from Judge Judy!

Do you think we could put a temporary moratorium on new internet stuff so we can all take a breath and get caught up? (This thought brought on by finding myself totally out of the loop with regard to Pinterest, which I have now joined and have no clue how to use)

Please, just a little time-out?

Is it only in Santa Fe that people ride their bikes to work when it is snowing out?

Apparently not, because this photo was taken somewhere else

Things I'm grateful for today:

Going to Valentine's lunch with my sweetie, even though it's not actually Valentine's Day. But I worked Tuesday so we waited until I was off. We're going to Burro Alley, which used to be Cafe Paris (please pronoune Paree), the first place we discovered in Santa Fe. It's special to us. They have a fabulous French bakery and we are going to have a dessert treat for sure! I'll take a picture of dessert with my new iphone.

I've written two solid first chapters of my next book and sketched out three more. Hope to poke at those over the weekend and end up with at least one more in first-draft-finished state.

Only 48 days until we hit the road!

What's going on with you today and what's on your Thinkabout radar?

2012-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

My 25-word Nail Polish Story is up at - you guessed it - Nail Polish Stories, A Tiny and Colorful Literary Journal - HERE. My nail polish color is called "Russian Roullette" - it's not exactly a love story, but it's fun! Read all the February entries (won't take long, they're all only 25 words!), and send in one of your own if the spirit moves you. They publish them once every month.

Ann Best, author of In the Mirror and a well-known and popular blogger, wrote the most wonderful, unexpected, unsolicited review of my book, The Christmas Village. When someone feels everything I hoped they'd feel when reading my book, it makes me just want to jump up and down and clap my hands like a little kid. I'm grateful for Ann's generous spirit in putting this spontaneous review out there.

So, if you've been curious about my book, take a hop over to Ann's blog and read what she has to say - she really captures all that I could hope for any reader to take from it. And while you're there, check out her memoir, In The Mirror, which continues to get rave reviews.

It's Valentine's Day, so here's a shout-out to MY Valentine, RVPainter, aka artist J. Richard Secor. He has been my Valentine for more than 30 years now and I couldn't have been given a better partner with whom to share life. We've gone through good times and some rough ones too, but we've always been a great team and he still makes me laugh. Good thing, 'cause we're gonna be living in pretty tight quarters soon!

Wishing you all a wonderful day, filled with love and hopefully, yummy chocolate bonbons.

First Pictures of our New Home

2012-02-13T05:13:00.001-08:00

Very exciting - we just got the first pictures of our new RV under construction - it's pretty far along as you'll see. We are just about 45 days away from going to Indiana to pick it up!

Here we go:

That's our new front door

Nexus logo over the cab

This side slides out to make it roomier inside

Our Dreamcatcher logo will go right there above Phantom

It's a little blurry - but that's your guest room under the bus - bring a blanket!

Kitchen area - nicer than here in the Tiny Little Apartment

The back wall will be the bed headboard. That's Dick's closet space there on the right :0

I'm told I have to take quick showers :(

Storage above the dinette and couch

Sorry we can't really see the living area, but I suspect it's rather a mess. Will post more pictures as they send them to us. Still, Very exciting!!

Guest Post from Greg Allen, Author of Chicken Boy: The Amazing Adventures of a Super Hero With Autism

2012-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Today, author Greg Allen and I are swapping blogs. Greg is a multi-facted writer who writes in a variety of genres. The themes he covers are diverse, but a common thread, whether he is writing for grown-ups or for kids, is the theme of overcoming adversity through perseverence. Today, he's telling us about the inspiration for his children's book,
Chicken Boy, The Amazing Adventures of a Super Hero with Autism.

Heeeeeeeeere's GREG!

Inspiration in the Eyes of my Godson

As an author, I find inspiration in so many places when I’m writing. A dream. A situation that pops inside my head. A tour guide on a vacation can become a character in a book. Something I’ve lived through in my past and want to work through it in a fictionalized way.

With my children’s book, it was something completely different.

I have a long history of working and writing in children’s theater. The first musical I ever wrote for the stage was a children’s show when I was 14. I went on to write two others in high school. When I moved to NY, I toured in every children’s show imaginable including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – so performing and writing for children was in my blood.

Last summer, the idea of Chicken Boy: The Amazing Adventures of a Super Hero with Autism came to me while having my weekly dinner with my godson and his sister. She and I were watching him eat his chicken fingers (that he must have every week) and this children’s picture book was born. I submitted it to a few publishers, but then it really took off in the fall when it was entered in the MeeGenius Author Challenge. They are a leading eBook publisher and received 400 manuscripts in the fall. The public was able to vote and we were thrilled when it received over 2,000 votes. Now it is in the final week of the last round where only 13 remain and all have been edited and illustrated. It has been an amazing lesson in gratitude for me.

I knew I wanted to tell a story from the perspective of the child with autism. So many are from a sibling or friend and this was a simple way to say “don’t be fearful of who I am…get to know me.” Naturally, I used my godson as who was in my mind – but I’ve heard from so many people that read the book in round one and said “that is my child!” It has touched me beyond words and now the book is about all the children with autism that are super heroes – each living in their own minds and are wonderful, creative, smart people.

Who knows where my next inspiration will come from, but for now – I’m thankful that Gabe not only inspired me, but that I followed through and we’re hoping this book will see publication soon. (Feel free to click on the link to read it and put in your own vote as well! CLICK HERE TO VOTE

I wish great inspiration on everyone reading this blog. You never know where you’ll find it!

And for a video about my inspiration – well HERE he is.

For more on Gregory G. Allen - visit his website at www.ggallen.net or see Melissa's guest post on his BLOG

That's Greg, right there!

Tomorrow I'm Swapping Blogs with Greg Allen

2012-02-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I'll be swapping blogs with Greg Allen, author of Chicken Boy, The Amazing Adventures of a Super Hero with Autism. He's guest posting about the inspiration for the book. I hope you'll stop by here to meet him, and make sure you say, "Hi Greg!"

This is Greg:

And this is Greg's book:

In other news:

At YogaSource, we've started having practice sessions where the teachers get together and we share different ways to teach poses. It's a great way to learn variations and new techniques. Anyway, yesterday we did all this cool stuff using the "rope wall" - which isn't really ropes - more like straps. It's amazing for getting really long extention in the spine. I think I'm two inches taller!

Later today I'm teaching the Gentle Yoga class and I have some fun stuff in store for them using chairs to help them do the standing poses.

We've got blue skies and sunshine over Santa Fe this morning. Other than teaching that class, there's nothing I HAVE to do today, and that is a nice feeling!

Happy Friday!

Grateful

2012-02-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone, for the supportive words yesterday. It's much appreciated, because otherwise you start to second-guess yourself a bit. Before we leave Santa Fe, we will indeed resume walking in the cemetery, paying our respects and stopping to ponder the lives of people like "Dallas Leroy Brown" and "Walter Blackburn" and the three Esthers who have stones on the same hill, (Esther was my grandma's name) and the "Fourteen Unknowns Soldiers" and "Indian Boy." I wonder how many people in Santa Fe know those names? Not many, I'll bet. Why? Because, sadly, you never see anyone walking over there!

Anyway, yesterday was a funny day because I woke up thinking that I was just going to let it just be a day of gratitude. I'm always bugging God for stuff, and I had decided to take a day off from that so he could get caught up! My list can get long :-) Then we got embroiled again in the cemetery bruhaha so I got off track.

So a day off from Silly Cemetery Stuff and back to Thankful Thursday.

Today I am grateful for:

Our upcoming road adventure
My next book being underway
Good health
Great Bloggi Friends
A husband who still makes me laugh even after 30 years together
All the other nice cemeteries in the U.S. where they like it if you walk there :-)
So many blessings, I can't count 'em all!

Have a good one, everybody!

Not so fast Mr. Cemetery Director...

2012-02-08T08:52:00.000-08:00

This is an update to my post earlier in the day. We had heard from a bureaucrat at the VA and thought perhaps we were at the end of options regarding the whole "you can't walk in the cemetery thing." That's what I wrote about this morning - and thank you all of you who left comments. I have to say that I felt deflated. But then ... I got angry... and it takes a LOT to make me angry.

We have replied to the VA bureaucrat and pushed back. We have some other steps to take - as some of you suggested - letters to the paper and such. There is a local TV guy who is interested in this - we had just wanted to give folks a chance to make the right decisions on their own. That hasn't happened, so we will continue in whatever ways we can, as long as it makes sense to do so. This is wrong, and we aren't going away easily!!

This is what I put up this morning:

So we got an email from the VA today saying that although the regulations covering National Cemeteries CLEARLY allow walking, hiking and casually strolling in the cemeteries, the individual Cemetery Director has the discretion to decide NOT to allow walking there if it appears to HIM that you are walking there primarily for exercise.

So, HE gets to decide what YOUR intent is. We walked there because my husband is a veteran, and because it is a peaceful and spiritual place. We liked to stop and pay our respects along the way. At Christmas, we laid wreaths at the markers for the Unknowns. We were quiet and respectful. Were we getting exercise? Sure, but so what! Every time you put one foot in front of the other, it's exercise! We weren't running or skipping or jogging. RVPainter is almost 72, and I have trouble keeping up with him, but he's not THAT fast :-)

I don't think there's much else we can do with this - RVPainter and I will discuss and decide about that. It feels very wrong, but it appears that the VA is standing behind their ~~dictator~~ man.

If you're not up to speed on this little drama of ours, you can read the original story HERE

It's Tuesday and I Don't Have a Clever Title for this Post

2012-02-07T06:03:00.000-08:00

It's spitting snow out there. Hubby insists this is because I decided to put my winter coat in storage. Well, the yoga studio will be nice and warm this morning anyway.

We got the sorry news recently that one of our beautiful yoga teachers has breast cancer. She is in her early 50's I think, but like most yoga teachers, looks 30. I am sad that she has to go through this, but thinking good thoughts for her full recovery. Lots of ohms going out for her. xxxooo

I'd taken myself off the yoga teaching schedule when I was finishing writing The Christmas Village, and then stayed off because we will be leaving soon. But I sub for other's classes and I'm doing several this month. It's nice to be able to teach some farewell classes.

Hey did I tell you that a famous actress practices at our studio? She came to my book signing too :-) Think "Love Story."

Today is work until about 2pm,

That's our studio, but I'm not in this picture

then handstand practice,

I CANNOT do THAT. But I'd like to.

then chanting class. I'm always tired by the time we get to chanting at 4:15, but I always feel better - relaxed - afterward. I call it my choir practice.

Okay, off I go! Have a great Tuesday. And take it easy today - there's a full moon and the energy is strong. So that's when you need to back off and have a little rest. Me, I'm always in favor of a little rest.

Monday Miscellaneari

2012-02-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

I am still into creating new words after having so much fun with "bognati" yesterday, hence my new word Miscellaneari. Doesn't it sound more interesting that the usual word? Though I think that simply adding an "i" to the end of most words makes them more interesting (perhaps there is a new game in that!)

Several people came up with great definitions for bognati yesterday - among them, a bog filled with gnats, and a bog in Cincinnati!

I think that my Nail Polish Story is supposed to go up today, but it's not there yet, so I'll let you know later when it is.

There is, however, a wonderful review for The Christmas Village over at Literary R&R. I'm always delighted when the grown-ups enjoy my book as much as the kids do! I keep saying, "It's not just for kids," but it's nice when someone else says it for me.

Hope Monday treats you well.

Bognati (Say what?)

2012-02-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

While blog visiting this week, I came across something that was fun - creative in a silly sort of way. So I'm ~~stealing~~ borrowing it. I can't recall whose blog it was, so I hereby acknowedge YOU, without knowing who YOU are, for this fun idea.

What he/she did was take those funky words that we have to input to prove that we are thinking human beings when leaving a comment, and came up with definitions for them.

So here are a few that I came upon over the past few days:

burbons: bonbons made with bourbon

biliki: licking the envelopes for your bills

purbing: curbing your puppy

well, this one got off the leash ...

I also like this one, but I can't for the life of me come up with a definition, so I am putting it out there to you. Please define:

bognati

Look forward to your brilliant definitions!

Awoke to Snow

2012-02-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

We awoke to about 4 inches of snow on the ground here in Santa Fe. RVPainter attributes this directly to the fact that I decided to pack my winter coat in storage yesterday, saying, "I can get by with my nice sweater coats."

I am delighted with this snowy day, as we have no place that we have to go, and I planned to write anyway. Hopefully RVP will do a painting too. I love it when he's over there at his easel and I'm over here clacking away on the laptop.

RVPainter made a nice sale of a large painting so he is very happy today, even though he is NOT happy about the snow. I said, "Forget the snow, embrace the Snow DAY!"

This is the painting he sold. Hmm.. interesting, he seems to like to paint snow.

Got my iPhone late yesterday and believe it or not, it is operational already! They actually make it quite easy. Today I have to get a new line for my old phone so I can call RVPainter and say things like, "Don't be a Snow Poop!"

Actually, the sky is already lightening up, and I bet the sun will come out and we'll be all melty by noon. That's how it works in Santa Fe - we get, on average, 300 days of sunshine a year. That makes all the difference. The snow will stay on the mountains and they will look gorgeous! I'll try to remember to take a picture.

Otherwise, I really want to make headway on my book today, as my horoscope said that I'd be going into an unprecedented creative spell starting February 3rd. Must take advantage of that! (Let's hope they are right).

Have a great Friday everyone!

Making it easy and getting stuff (almost) free ...

2012-02-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

I've been eligible for a phone upgrade for quite a while now, but I hadn't done it because then I would have had to get a more expensive phone plan and data package that I don't really need. But now that we are going to be on the road, it makes sense for me to have a Smart Phone that can do computer-ish things when we are without wifi. And, RVPainter, who doesn't have a cell phone, will need to have one so that we can call each other if one of us goes off somewhere and needs to get in touch.

So! I am getting an IPhone! And RVPainter will get my old Samsung. With my upgrade and another $50 discount that I'm getting because the folks at Verizon apparently like me a lot, the phone is costing me only $49.99. That's practically FREE! We will have to have a family plan and get the data package, but when all is said and done, it's not too bad at all.

I guess it will look like this :-)

I'm tempted to say "I won't need all those apps," but I think that there will actually be some apps that will be very helpful to us. It's all part of Making Things Easy - I think the IPhone will make things easier for us and of course we do need to have a phone for each of us.

If you IPhone users know of apps that you think would helpful for people who are "on the road" a lot - please let me know. I'm hoping there is an app for finding all of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives spots on our route!

This diner is in Brunswick, Maine - I've eaten here.

Reds' Eats is in Wiscasset, Maine. It's more of a "dive" because it's not a diner and you can't "drive-in,"
you can only "walk up." When we lived in East Boothbay, Maine, RVPainter did a painting of Red's
with a scene like this and we had prints made up that sold really well. We had a gallery at our house
in East Boothbay, I don't know if I mentioned that before. We had a ball with it.
It was called The School Street Gallery, because it was a gallery and it was on School Street. Clever, huh?

Our Dreamcatcher Logo

2012-01-31T05:22:00.000-08:00

The other day I told you about our Dreamcatcher logo for the RV. Well, I was able to get a photo of the design (thanks, honey). This will go on the back of the RV. RVPainter also sprung for t-shirts and sweatshirts for us that have this logo on the back. Mine are mostly RED.

I think this is going to look pretty cool...RVPainter had it designed
by some folks in Albuquerque, using one of his as a model

It's Tuesday, so I work and then this afternoon my friend Patti and I do handstand practice.
I can do a great handstand once I'm up there, it's the getting up there that I have trouble with.
It's psychological. So we help each other.
I kicked up for the first time right around the time I turned 54, and could do it for a while,
but then I lost it. Head games!!

After handstand practice, we have Yoga Sutra class. The sutras are all the words of yoga wisdom compiled by this fellow, Patanjali. He must have been a very patient and meticulous guy, because there are hundreds of these sutras. You chant them, because it helps you remember them and then you talk about what they mean. A lot of people think yoga is a "religion" but it's not. The sutras say things like, "Now yoga begins," and, "practicing yoga quiets the chatter of the mind." They basically talk about how yoga practice helps us make life less of a struggle.

Anyway, I'm not that much into the meaning, I like the chanting part. It makes me feel really relaxed. And there are only three notes: low, middle and upper, so I can stay on tune!!

It's Time! Go! Run! Now! A to Z Sign-up is OPEN

2012-01-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

Sign-up for the April A to Z Blog Challenge NOW! Go HERE, or click on the button above. Last year, I was number more-than-one-thousand on the sign-up list, but this year I am #112. Even with that high number, I (eventually) made a lot of new friends. I plan to have a whole lot more fun with it this year, as it begins just as we are starting the Road Trip.

Yesterday I watched the Driving Your RV Videos. There are seven short videos that explain and show you how to maneuver the RV. OH MAN! There is more to this than just getting behind the wheel! They have some very cool tips and techniques for turning, pulling into your space and such. The videos are extremely well done - very clear. I am so glad I watched because now all you people will be much safer with me on the road!! In any case, I plan to stay to the RIGHT and go very, very SLOW. If you have any interest, HERE'S THE LINK to the videos.

It's Monday, and so I am off to work at YOGASOURCE. It's such a lovely and peaceful place and on top of that, we get to do yoga! If you click on the link, you'll see the front of the studio - that's where I'll be today - it's almost like you could actually see me in there, waving to you! In summer, sometimes I put my mat down right out front there and throw down some poses.

Talk to you later! Mondays can be tough, hope yours is easy.

Tiddly-bits

2012-01-29T07:55:00.000-08:00

I love Sundays! It's the one day where it feels like you have permission to goof off ... and I LOVE to goof off ....

That said, I plan to write!

The other day I took a break from Serious Writing (writing with intent to have something of substance when finished) and instead indulged in Playful Writing (writing with no intent but to play around with words and see what happens). Sometimes Serious Writing is also Playful, but not always!

Anyway! Fellow Bloggini and Generally Fun Person, Becky Povitch, (go see her, you'll like her) shared a couple of Playful Writing opportunities on her blog last week, and so I wrote stuff for two of them.

One is the Erma Bombeck Competition, in which you Bend It Like Bombeck - 450 words in the Bombeck style - humor or human interest. That one costs money to enter, but if you've got a little Erma in you, it's worth the fun because the winner gets $500!

The other is Nail Polish Stories, which describes itself as "A Tiny and Colorful Literary Journal. " You write a 25-word-exactly story inspired by a color of nail polish. Silly idea? Well, maybe, but it's a good example of how you can get a story idea from just about anything!

Anyway, I wrote a Nail Polish Story, and they like it, so it will be in their February issue. Just trying out a couple of nail polish colors there in the font. I'll let you know when it posts so you can go read it. It won't take long to read, because ... it's only 25 words! That'll take, like, 10 seconds, max.

So my Sunday plan goes like this:

Put up blog post
Enter HGTV Dream Home Giveaway
Serious Writing (though hopefully it will be fun) - two hours
Walk in the Santa Fe sun, though NOT in the Santa Fe National Cemetery (yet)
Nap with golf on the TV
Watch "How to Drive Your RV" video
Edit the Serious Writing while eating popcorn
Sunday night TV: The Good Wife and Downton Abbey - woohoo!

When the Amazing Race comes back on, Sundays will be Pretty Much Perfect.

Hope your Sunday is Pretty Much Perfect too!

Dreamcatchers

2012-01-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a conference call with the folks at Nexus who are builiding our RV out there in Elkhart, Indiana. Just going over the final changes and $$. It's a lot like having a new house built, just not as many details or dollars, but you always end up adding something on! After that conversation, it really feels like we are getting close ... which we are! It's just coming up on two months away now.

We are naming our new home DREAMCATCHERS, and we're having a dreamcatcher logo put on the back of it. So if you see it on the road, that will be us!! Wave!!

The logo was a splurge that RVPainter is paying for with $$ from a recent sale of a painting. He has a strong attraction to Native American culture and has always loved dreamcatchers for what they symbolize: Your good dreams go through the middle hole so they can go out into the world and come true. The bad dreams get caught in the web where they perish at the first light of dawn. The feathers symbolize the breath of life.

It seemed like an appropriate symbol for our RV and our upcoming journey - our good dreams coming true all along the journey. I wanted to show you the logo design, but it's in pdf and I can't figure out how to insert that here. So instead, here is a picture of RVPainter's dreamcatcher that was used as the model for the design, and when I can figure out how to show you the design itself, I will!

Rules for the Road

2012-01-27T07:42:00.000-08:00

RVPainter and I have come up with some 3-word sayings that are like mantras for our new way of living. They are:

Keep it Simple

and

Make it Easy

Those are the two primary ones. We've learned over the years that we have the ability to overcomplicate and make things harder than they have to be. So when we are making choices now, we test ourselves against these two criteria. Does it make it easy? Is it simple?

We also like "Get stuff free" and "Best for less" as rules for the road. The best things in life often really are free, and we plan to take advantage of that as much as possible. And, even though we will be on the road and living in an RV, we don't want to live like paupers. This gal likes her luxury, though luxury for me can be rustic and it can be found in simple things. Luxury can be a really nice beach towel. It can be having a drink and appetizers at a fancy hotel that we aren't actually staying at. We pay for the food and get the luxury and the atmosphere of the fancy hotel for free.

Best for less means that we look for every chance to get great deals whenever we can. We've got all sorts of rewards plans associated with our credit cards and we've joined several RV-related clubs that allow savings on the RV resorts themselves.

In other news: The Secretary of VA Benefits for NM has emailed RVPainter, and he is going to talk to the Director of the cemetery. The Secretary is "state" and the Director is "federal", but the Secretary seems sympathetic and said that he LOVES to walk in Arlington National Cemetery. I think he'll work this out for us, but RV is skeptical. He thinks the Director is a tyrant who won't back down. Guess we'll find out!

If you have any other rules for the road for us, please pass them along!

Where Did January Go?

2012-01-26T07:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Wednesday ... no wait! It's Thursday! And it's almost the end of January!! How did that happen? I've been a lazy blogger this week. Our little cemetery drama is still playing out and it tires me to be in battle. My dad was probably the most passive person I've ever met - he'd avoid a conflict at all costs. I'm not quite like that - I have learned to stand up for myself, and if someone does wrong to me or a loved one, I'll speak my mind. But I'm really peaceloving and I have to admit that carrying on a conflict for any period of time exhausts me! This issue with the cemetery is a matter of principle, so we are seeing it through. The Secretary of VA Affairs for New Mexico is supposed to get back to us today. We'll see, and I'll let you know!

Otherwise, today is a writing day for me, so I must away! Hope you have a good one.

Counting Down the Days

2012-01-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

Well, in spite of our run-in with the ~~Dictator~~ Director of the Santa Fe National Cemetery on Saturday, we actually had a delightful long weekend. There's no new news on the cemetery-walking-can-you-or-can't- you front, (of course you can!!!) but we'll let you know how it all plays out. Thank you all for your cheers and your vocal support.

Over the weekend, when we weren't causing trouble, I wrote some and RVPainter painted some and we rested some and went to movie and out for a mocha and packed up some more stuff and threw away some more stuff. Where does it all come from?

We aren't heading out to get the RV until April 4th, but I only have 29 more work days. (Not that I'm counting.) That's because I only work 3 days a week, lucky me. I love my job at YogaSource and I'll miss everyone here very much. It's just that counting my work days makes for what looks like a nice small number before it's time to go. Smaller than 72, which is the number of ACTUAL days. I think. Unless my calculator messed up. Blame the calculator.

The sun is shining in Santa Fe and the sky is bright blue. Nice day for a walk :-)

Hope you all have a great week!

Kicked Out of the Cemetery

2012-01-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

Well! Have I got a tale for you! Yesterday, my husband and I took our daily walk over at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. It's a beautiful and peaceful place. It meanders up and down hills and there must be thousands of white gravestones. We walk along and each time, we read the names, or when we stop to rest, we take note of the service given to our country - WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam. We notice how long their lives were, or how short. We wonder about them. Often we say little prayers for them. We stay on the pavement; we do not disturb the graves in any way.

Yesterday, as we passed the stone house in the middle of the cemetery, an offical cemetery vehicle pulled up. A man began unloading things from the truck onto the steps. As we passed, he stopped us and said, "As the Director of this cemetery, I'm afraid that I have to tell you that it is unlawful to take walks in any national cemetery in the United States."

To which we said, "WHAAAAAAATTTTTTT? You can't be serious!"

He went on to say that this is true of ALL national cemeteries, that you are not allowed to do anything that is considered "recreation" or "exercise" in a national cemetery and that this includes walking. He said that he had been watching us for several days and it was clear that we were there to walk, not to visit any particular grave.

At this point, we were both shocked and getting angry. We asked him, as taxpayers, who pays for this cemetery? He said that we all do. We said that my husband, Dick, aka RVPainter, is a veteran of service in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era. He didn't care. He said, "Write to your congressman."

We said, "We will."

When we got home, I wrote to the VA, which oversees the national cemetery system. I also looked at Arlington National Cememtery's website, where they say that people "walk through the cemetery like a botanical garden." They do have specific rules about biking, but not walking. I wrote to the VA Cabinet Director under Governor Susanna Martinez. I wrote to our congressman.

Then I found a website that actually lists the regulations pertaining to national cemeteries. This is found in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, current as of Jan. 12, 2012. Part 12 of the regulations pertains to national cemeteries.

Part 12.11 covers recreational activities and says:
"Engaging in recreational activities is prohibed."

Part 12.3 provides definitions, including the definition of recreational activity. The following is the exact wording of that definition:

Recreational activity means any form of athletics, sport or other leisure pursuit or event, whether organized or spontaneous, that is engaged in by one or more persons for the primary purpose of exercise, relaxation or enjoyment, including but not limited to the following: jogging, racing, skating, skateboarding, ball playing, kite flying, model airplane flying, throwing objects through the air, sunbathing, bicycling and picknicking. This term does not include walking, hiking or casual strolling.

There it is. Specifically excluded from the definition of "recreation" are walking, hiking or casual strolling. That's what we were doing.

Now, I don't know why the DIRECTOR of the cemetery would not know his own regulations. Perhaps he just doesn't want people walking through HIS cemetery.

At first, we were upset because we thought we had come up against a very stupid rule. Now we are upset because we think we've come up against a person who thinks he has the right to impose his own rules, ones that are not actual rules! Maybe we're wrong about this, but I don't think so. I KNOW you can walk through Arlington National Cemetery! Anyway, Dick plans to call him tomorrow and tell him what we've found with the regulations, and that unless the Director can provide a legal, legislative document that contradicts what we found, we plan to continue our peaceful walks through the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Stay tuned. Oh, and pop over to RVPainter's blog to see what he's been saying about this.

The Sequel

2012-01-21T07:10:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited about my decision to write a sequel to The Christmas Village. Many people said they didn't want the book to end and wanted more. And, I did leave one unresolved issue that could factor into the next book ...

But, just because people WANT more, doesn't mean you should give them more! You know the old saying, "Always leave them wanting more ..."

Still, I miss my characters too, so part of me has been drawn to the sequel idea all along. A big part of my reluctance was the fact that I didn't have an idea for the next story. And it's very important to me that a sequel be as good as or better than the first, and we all know that's not often the case. If I can't write a sequel that I think is as good as The Christmas Village, then it's not happening.

Having said that, and I just did, (I stole that line from RVPainter) I DID get an idea and I've decided to go with it! As usual, RVPainter gets some credit here - whenever I'm a little stuck on where a story is going, we play What if and Maybe and the ideas start to fly. Well we did that, and he really helped me land on an idea I can work with. Play with.

I am almost three chapters into the story and I like how it feels and where it's going. I feel tingly with excitement when I sit down to write. That's how I felt when I wrote The Christmas Village, so I think it's a very good sign!

Anyway, wish me luck. I don't really talk about my writing once it's underway, so you won't hear much about it between now and when I'm done. But I wanted to tell you that this is what I'm doing, because a) you can root for me; b) Now I have to do it because I told you about it; and c) you can tell everyone to buy The Christmas Village and read it so they'll be up to speed when the sequel comes out :-)

There were a couple more blogger reviews for The Christmas Village this week. If you want to check them out, they are

Here: AlwaysReading
and
Here: KidsKornerBooks

Have a great weekend! I'll be writing, but that's all I'm sayin!' What are you up to this weekend??

Practice Makes Practice (or How the Wisdom of Yoga Applies to Life)

2012-01-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

Many people view doing yoga as just another form of exercise, like aerobics or Pilates or Zumba class. But the true purpose of practicing yoga poses is to help us develop focus, to become more centered in ourselves, more mindful of our actions and words, more observant and accepting of ourselves and others and more able to deal peacefully with the constant chatter of the world and the constant chatter in our own minds. We practice physical yoga "on the mat" so that we can take the spirit of yoga into our daily lives, "off the mat."

So, here is a bit of yogic wisdom that I think applies just as well to writing or any other kind of creativity as to doing yoga poses. In fact, it applies to pretty much every aspect of our lives:

"PRACTICE MAKES PRACTICE."

It's human nature to practice things with the hope of "mastering them." Yoga students are no exception - we secretly hope to eventually be able to do the perfect triangle pose or backbend. But mastery or perfection are not real things, because they are both relative and fleeting. We might find ourselves doing a lovely pose, the best we have ever done. But it will never be perfect, and it will not last longer than the five or ten breaths for which we can hold it.

As a writer, I know that the more I write, the better my writing will be. I may have moments when the writing flows and is beautiful and free and uninhibited. I might even come up with what feels to me like a perfect turn of phrase. But my idea of perfection is relative, because yours is most likely different.

So there is no "mastery" or "practice making perfect" in writing, or painting or any other creative endeavor. Neither is there any mastery of life - no amount of practice will enable us to perfectly handle all people and situations with our perfect words and actions. There is only the yoga of life: practice makes practice. You see?

Okay, I have to go practice writing now ...

Getting Inspiration from Other People's Creativity

2012-01-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Somebody recently had a great post on their blog about ways to stimulate creativity when you're feeling uninspired. I forget whose blog it was - if it was you, kudos, because it was a good post! (Feel free to take credit here in the comment section.)

I find that when I need a creative jolt, it often helps me to check out what other people do - folks whose creative talent is different from mine. I love to follow quilters and bakers, painters and photographers, gardeners and crafters. I really love the crafty folks - they amaze me!

So here are just a couple of bloggers I follow whose creativity often makes my jaw drop with admiration:

Just Jingle - she's Jennifer Ingle and she loves glitter! She makes cards and stamps and, well, just the coolest fun stuff. Man, is she talented. Go see her HERE.

Creative Grammie: She's Wayna and her post today shows crepe paper flowers she made. They are just lovely. She's going on a trip, so she won't be blogging much the rest of the month, but go check her out anyway: HERE.

Memorable Meanders: And then there's Jo, a So. African now living in Kenya. She seems to be good at everything, but mostly what I like about her blog are the photographs she takes of the animals and people in Africa. You can find her HERE.

And it goes without saying that you should pop over and visit my cute (he doesn't like being called cute), sweet (he'd really hate that) and talented (he'd be okay with that) husband, RVPainter. He's funny (he'd like that too) and the curmudgeon stuff is just an act. Mostly. You can find him HERE

Do you follow bloggers who are creative in a different way from you? I'd love to hear about them! Because I'd like to follow them!

2012-01-16T11:46:00.000-08:00

It's an off and on snowy day here in Santa Fe, the kind where you feel like lighting candles and curling up in a comfy chair with a book and some cocoa. And some popcorn and cookies. And Doritos. And perhaps a pudding cup.

So, feeling a bit lazy, I thought I'd just share with you a lovely painting that my husband, RVPainter, painted Plein air up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that tower over Santa Fe. Those are the mountains in that photo in my previous post "Interlude."

This painting by RVPainter is called "Winter in the Sangre de Cristos." It's acrylic done with palette knife on gallery-wrapped canvas, 36"high by 24"wide.

Winter in the Sangres
Acrylic in palette knife on gallery-wrapped canvas
36 by 24
by J. Richard Secor

Interlude

2012-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

I've been processing a lot of change over these past months (haven't we all??) We are uprooting - something that has always been hard for me. I'm quite attached to the idea of HOME. I spent the first 44 years of my life in New England before we moved to Arizona. We spent seven years there and we've been in Santa Fe, New Mexico for coming up on five. And now we are moving on.

When we came to Santa Fe, we were sad about a number of things, mostly the loss of family. We wanted a fresh start in a place we both liked, a place with seasons and fresh air. Santa Fe is a terrific place to land under any circumstances, but particularly when you need to heal. It's surrounded by glorious mountains. It's the capital city of New Mexico, yet it's like a small town. It has galleries and restaurants and yoga and lots of sunshine. It's full of eccentrics and brilliant weirdos. We've been very content here.

Yet I now feel oddly content with our decision to leave. It's like our time in Santa Fe has been just an interlude, a bit of a time-out if you will, to allow us to heal and grow. And we have - exponentially! In our four years here, so much has happened: Both my parents, who'd been ill for a long time, passed away. I became a yoga teacher. Dick aka RVPainter completely changed his medium and style of painting. I wrote and published a book.

I feel as though Santa Fe harbored and sheltered us and brought us through to the other side of sorrow, to a place where we could feel hopeful and happy again. And now it's time to go.

It's time for this little housemouse to come out and be in the world, and I'm ready. Just after Dad passed away in 2009, I read my "Free Will Horoscope." The advice was to follow the wisdom of the great sage, Dennis the Menace, who said, "WAKE UP! Let's go everywhere and do everything!"

So that's what we're gonna do now, and I'm chomping at the bit to do it.

This was the view of the mountains from the house we sold.
I always felt like that heart was smiling on us the whole time we've been here.

There's Always Room for One More Thing

2012-01-13T07:08:00.000-08:00

So some of you will remember my picture of our 10' by 10' storage unit where the stuff of our life now lives. We sold our house at the end of September, got rid of a TON, no TWO TONS of STUFF, and then put the stuff we couldn't part with into storage. Now we are down to just 2 1/2 months left in the apartment we're renting, so we have to get rid of more stuff and figure out how to get the rest into that storage unit. Mainly there's the big comfy antique wingback chair that I'm sitting in even as we speak, along with a few small tables and lamps.

The biggest problem has been the pew. It's a beautiful antique bench that is a) very large and b) very heavy. It takes up a lot of real estate in the storage unit. Here it is:

We thought about selling it, but in this economy there are no takers. We thought about consigning it, but we'd get so little for it. Then we realized, "Hey, if we're going to pay for a storage unit, shouldn't we keep the GOOD STUFF like the pew and figure out something else to get rid of?" I mean, should we really pay $1500 a year to store our Christmas ornaments and some lawn furniture?

So our mission today, which we accepted, was to REARRANGE THE STORAGE SPACE so the pew could stay, and when the time comes, my comfy chair can fit in too. I am proud to say that I am a whiz at space organization and when people say, "There's no way it will all fit," I say, "Oh ye of little faith!"

My motto is:

THERE'S ALWAYS ROOM FOR ONE MORE THING.

I am yet to be wrong about this.

This is how it looked when we got to the storage unit this morning. That desk that Buddha is sitting on is actually sitting on the seat of the aforementioned pew:

We took out about half the stuff, rearranged and repacked it back in, and now it looks like this:

What's that you say? It looks worse, not better? Ha! Well, okay, it does look worse, but it's actually much better. Really. The pew is now along a side wall with all the stuff we'll need in the RV piled on it. When the time comes, we'll be able to take out the RV stuff, rearrange this 'n that and slide my comfy chair right in. Seriously. We will. 'Cause there's always room for one more thing.

WHY CHOOSE CELERY TREE? Q and A with L.A.Devaul, co-founder of CeleryTree.com, a new online bookstore and writer's community

2012-01-12T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone - we're picking up where we left off yesterday - author L.A. Devaul introduced us to the Celery Tree concept and now I've asked her a whole bunch more questions about it. Here we go:

ME: Okay, I'm going to jump right in today with my most burning question: Why would Celerytree be a better option for me than selling my book on Amazon.com or Smashwords?

L.A.:That is an excellent question, and the answer is multifaceted. First of all, let me just say that Celery Tree is and always will be, a beautiful, ad-free site, which creates a friendly, comfortable, bookstore feel. But that is only the beginning. The most important aspect of Celery Tree that makes it different, is that it is all about the authors.

My mother and I are the founders of Celery Tree and as authors ourselves, we noticed that authors work very hard to not only write, but to market their work. Amazon and Smashwords are big sites where authors can easily get overlooked and lost. We wanted to create a comfortable place where authors could centralize their marketing efforts, support each other, and make more money per sale (90% of net). That is why we created Celery Tree.

ME: So, it sounds like you envision the main buyer of books on Celerytree to be other writers - is that true?

L.A.: In the beginning, it will probably be that way, but in the long run, we believe both readers and writers alike will appreciate the coffee shop atmosphere Celery Tree offers. Non-author buyers must open an account to purchase from the site, but these accounts do not require a membership fee, they don't have to buy six books a year, they don't expire, and it makes them able to freely post reviews and participate on the forums.

ME: How are orders for print books filled when someone orders my book on Celerytree?

L.A.: This depends on whether you or your publisher are acting as the distributor. Most publishers offer their authors the option to buy their own books at a reduced price. The authors can turn around and sell the books for whatever price they want and keep the difference. So if you are acting as your own distributor, you will be e-mailed the order information and you will ship the book. The cost of shipping, and the monies from the sale will be added to your account.

However, if you don't want to bother with all that, you can have your publisher act as the distributor. They get e-mailed the order information, they ship the books, and they pay you the royalties from the sale.

ME: So, is Celerytree open only to traditionally published authors, or are independently published authors welcome too? And a follow-up to that: I read something on your site about Celerytree "approving" an author's book. How does that work and what would make you decide NOT to carry an author's book?

L.A.: Celery Tree is open to both traditionally and independently published authors. It is open to authors who only have e book versions, or only print, or both. The only caveat is: if you are acting as distributor and you are selling print copies, you must either have a minimum of 25 books on hand to fill orders.

As far as "approving" books, we do not seek to sensor, we only seek to weed out spam and garbage ie. books that are not professionally bound (in a three ring binder, stapled etc.), books promoting illegal activities or hateful propaganda, ebooks that contain viruses or links to external websites.

ME: Who is responsible for managing the Celerytree website?

L.A.: We are a team, who likes to call ourselves The Celery Tree Family. We have a programer, responsible for the inner workings of all that mystical computer stuff. We have a designer, responsible for making everything pretty. We have the business expert who does all the money stuff and talks to publishers etc. And then we have the founders, my mother and me, who take care of the authors. I am responsible for reviewing submissions and posting book information to the site. And my mother is responsible for membership, answering questions, posting author information, and overseeing the site as a whole.

OKAY EVERYONE, I've asked the questions that immediately came to my mind about Celery Tree. If you have additional ones, Karen Gowen will be available at karen@celerytree.com to answer your questions about Celerytree.com during the Big Blog Tour. Please email her with any questions you may have at this time on joining, registering, buying books, submitting books or any other issues.

You can also leave comments and questions here, and we'll make sure those get to Karen and Leisel (aka L.A.)

L.A. Deval Introduces Us to Celery Tree

2012-01-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! Welcome to the Celery Tree Big Blog Tour! What the heck is that, you ask? Well, we're about to tell you!

Today I have a visitor - author L.A. DeVaul. She is co-founder, with her mom, Karen Jones Gowen, of CeleryTree.com, a new online bookstore and community for writers. I'm hosting them on their blog tour in two parts:

Today Liesel is introducing the CeleryTree concept.

Tomorrow's post is called "Why Choose Celery Tree?" As a writer considering which sales venues make sense for me, I had a whole lot of questions for Leisel, so I've asked them! And, lucky for us, she's answered.

I'm sure you'll have some great questions too, and Karen Gowen will be available at karen@celerytree.com to answer them throughout the Big Blog Tour. Please email Karen with any questions you may have about joining, registering, buying books, submitting books or any other issues.

Okay, let's here what L.A.Deval has to say!

Hello, Melissa and Melissa’s followers. Thank you for having me on your blog today. I am L.A. DeVaul, author of Roxanne in La La Land and co-founder of CeleryTree.com. Here is some information to introduce you to CeleryTree and familiarize you with the concept:

Why do we need another online bookstore?

When my mother, Karen Jones Gowen, and I first came up with the idea for this website, we were thinking of all the writers blogging and supporting each other. CeleryTree.com grew from the simple solution we needed for a centralized location where readers and writers can meet and talk, and buy and sell books.

CeleryTree.com is a beautifully designed, ad-free site with forums, book reviews, author pages, and links to everywhere online where you can find an author’s books.

Why is it called Celery Tree?

We liked the image of something simple and earthy (celery) and also the image of growth and expansion, but in a pretty way, not a weedy way (tree).

What is required for membership?

The cost of membership is $35 a year and purchasing 6 books in a twelve month period. And get this: authors get to keep 90% of every sale. That is better than I could do selling directly from my personal website.

My advice? Leave the jungle and join Celery Tree.

FROM MELISSA: Liesel, thank you for sharing the Celery Tree concept. And thanks for answering my follow-up questions that will post tomorrow. Look forward to seeing everyone back here then for the Q and A. In the meantime, you might want to pop over to Celery Tree and read more about it there. But before you go, please leave Liesel a comment so she'll know you came by.

Have a great day everyone!

And Now for Something Completely Different ...

2012-01-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

This week I'll be hosting author L.A. DeVaul on her Celery Tree Big Blog Tour. What the heck is a Celery Tree, you ask? And how would one go on tour? Well, L.A. Devaul aka Leisel is going to explain all about it over the next two days. Here's the scoop:

Tomorrow (Wednesday), Leisel will introduce you to Celery Tree, a new and innovative concept for an online bookstore and writer's community. She calls it a "village" and I like that description!

On Thursday, I'll post a Q and A between me and Leisel - as a writer looking at the potential opportunity of Celery Tree, I had some questions!

Throughout the Celery Tree Big Blog Tour, Karen Gowen (Leisel's mom and co-founder of Celery Tree), will be available to answer your questions. I'll give you her email address in tomorrow and Thursday's posts.

If you want to be ahead of the rest of the class, you can go check out CeleryTree.com now!

In the meantime, let's ponder these thought-provoking questions:

Does celery grow on trees?

Is this what a celery tree looks like?

RVPainter Done Good

2012-01-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the RV and boat show down in Albuquerque. When we went to it last year, our dream of buying an RV was only that - a dream. We thought there was slim hope of selling our house in this environment. But here we are, house sold, RV under construction, and ready to roll in less than three months.

What we realized at the show today was that there was nothing we saw there that we liked better than the Nexus Phantom we decided to buy. Phew! There are bigger RVs for sure, but it's not all about bigger for us. We got a well-designed, well-built, brandy spankin new RV for the price of what you pay for some used ones.

That's because Nexus sells directly to the buyer without going through a middleman. That's got to cut out something like $30K from the price. We toured the manufacturing plant in Elkhart, Indiana last October, and couldn't have been more impressed. We met the people - real, hardworking, experienced people - who are building our RV right now.

RVPainter gets all the credit for this. He found Nexus and did the research. He checked it all out. And he did good. Really, really good.

Here's a picture of RVPainter talking to Claude, one of the owners of Nexus, at their plant last October. That RV in the background is pretty much what ours will look like.

It's Baaaaa-aaack!

2012-01-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

During this morning's blog visits, I discovered that folks are already spreading the word out about the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. I'm sure many of you participated last year, but in case you aren't familiar with it, here's what happens: Each day in April you put up a post that relates to a letter of the alphabet, as in "A is for Anything You Want to Write About Today." And so on for B, C all the way to Z.

I participated last year under the absolute worst circumstances: my mom had just passed away and I was put on a very intense jury trial! HOWEVER! Doing the challenge both distracted and focused me each day. I even wrote about the trial after it was over (T is for Trial, V is for Verdict). To this day, my "O" post, O is for Opposum and Ogden Nash remains my most viewed post ever.

It was tiring, but I learned that if I could write daily through that tough time period, I could write anywhere, anytime and through any set of circumstances. Most of all, I met a lot of wonderful bloggers through the challenge.

So I'm passing the word. If you'd like to participate, go to the A - Z April Challenge website and follow it. You'll see the list of wonderful blog hosts and the instructions there - sign up doesn't take place until the end of this month. Here's the link: Blogging from A-Z April Challenge

And this is how I looked by the end of the challenge last year, but don't let that scare you :-)

Small Pleasures

2012-01-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

RVPainter informs me that the RV has only about 300 square feet of living space, not 400. No problem!! I will be a role model for efficient living. Harvard Business school will use me as a case study!!

So, just to be clear: that's not my closet full of shoes in the previous post :-) Truth is, because I do yoga, teach yoga and work in a yoga studio, most of the time, I'm barefoot and that's how I like to be!! When I must wear shoes, clogs are my footwear of choice. And I like nice sandals and boots, but 2-inch heels are about as high as I can go now. So those aren't my shoes, but these ARE my nice socks that I bought yesterday:

Nice socks are among my favorite things. These are Smartwool socks that are warm and comfy and have nice padding for walks and hikes. I'm also very fond of the faux fur throw on which my socks are lying. Laying? I always have to look that up. Anyway, I got it at World Market with my 10% discount coupon. It feels like you are snuggling up with a very large kitten and it will add a touch of Posh when I'm lounging around the RV. Here's a better look at the throw:

I get all excited about things like socks and faux fur throws, and RV painter gets excited about things like a "Hose Y with Shut off," "O rings," and "Ground Fault Outlet Testers." He says we need these in the RV. In case you have no idea what theyare, here's a picture.

I know. I still have no idea what they are either. Sometimes when RVPainter tells me about the tool thingys, my eyes glaze over. I hope you don't feel that way about my socks and throw!!

Living Small

2012-01-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Our RV (currently under construction at the Nexus plant in Elkhart, Indiana) will be a 31 foot Class C. Class C means that it's on a truck chassis - in this case, a Ford truck. Class A's are the ones that look like buses - it's not one of those. I think there is about 400 square feet of living space in our RV.

You can check out the floor plan HERE.

We are biding time in an apartment here in Santa Fe. The apartment, which we fondly (sort-of) refer to as the Tiny Little Unit (TLU) has about 850 sq. feet. It's a perfectly decent little place, but not very efficient, functionally speaking. So even though the RV will have HALF as much space as the TLU, I think the RV will actually feel more roomy because it is so well-designed. The kitchen area especially will feel like a dream compared to the TLU. Plus it's a lot prettier inside the RV, which has cherry cabinets made by an Amish carpenter from the Elkhart area. It's Amish country there - did you know that? I didn't!

It's a challenge to skinny your life and your lifestyle down to what it will take to live - and still be comfortable - in such a small space. But we are challenging ourselves to be minimalistic. I'm already having fun outfitting the kitchen with things like lightweight mixing bowls that nest, and a collapsible collander and measuring cups. I shall be the Queen of Kitchen Efficiency!

And I figure that if I save some weight in the kitchen, I'll be able to bring more of my shoes ....

A GIRLS GOTTA HAVE HER SHOES :-)

New Year, New Look

2012-01-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

So it seemed like time for a change with the blog, especially since my whole life will be changing, and the sorts of things I write about here will change along with it. I played around with a new template and colors and background picture. Honestly, I really didn't find anything I LOVED, but this looks fresh and happy so I'm good with it for now. You probably can't tell, but the picture behind the blog is one of those where you are looking far down a road until it disappears at the horizon. It seemed appropriate for our upcoming Road Adventure.

Also bought some new make-up today - I'm kind of a minimalist with the stuff and I never buy expensive brands so it's a semi-annual trip to Walgreen's for me. I'm feeling a bit haggard, so I thought I'd spruce myself up to go with my spruced-up blog. If I look a LOT better, I'll have hubby take a new profile pic :-)

Oh! And I posted a little map that RVPainter drew that shows the first 6-8 month leg of our journey drawn out. It's down toward the bottom of the blog.

Every Day is the First Day of a New Year

2012-01-02T09:29:00.000-08:00

So in case you didn't get off to a good start, you can start over again today!!

Speaking of starting over ... this year is one in which RVPainter (the hubby) and I are making a new and very different start in our lives. We sold the house last fall, and are biding time here in Santa Fe while our RV gets built. It will be ready for us to roll in April. We'll fly to Indiana to pick it up, then make our way back to Santa Fe to get some stuff and practice playing house in it for a few weeks before we head off.

The first part of our journey will take us east. Our first stop is San Antonio, Texas. From there we head to Charlotte, Virginia Beach and up to Massachusetts for Memorial Day. We've got family and friends in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, because we're originally from Mass. After that, it's up through the coast of Maine and into Nova Scotia. I have always wanted to go to Nova Scotia!!

And that's just the first leg!

As we head off on this adventure, this blog will evolve to be mostly about our trip. Think of the places we'll go and the people we'll meet, not to mention all the good food we'll eat. I'm nuts for a lobster roll and some onion rings just about now. And beaches. I miss beaches so much! We'll be seeing lots of them on this trip.

Of course, I'll be writing and RVPainter will be painting all along the way.

I hope you'll enjoy coming along with us on this adventure. RVPainter will blog about it too, and he's much funnier than I am. You'll be able to get two perspectives on the same events - HIS, and the correct version :-)

So this may be the 2nd day of the new year 2012, but it's the first day of another new year, and so is tomorrow and the day after that. What if we approached each and every day that way?

My 2012 Wish List

2012-01-01T07:53:00.000-08:00

More hope and less worry

More joy and less heartache

More abundance and less loss

More adventure and less stagnation
More friendship and less isolation
More forgiveness and less resentment
More care for our planet and less wastefulness
More talking and less texting
More good stories about real people and less"Reality" TV

Added by Accidental Writer:
More love and less pretention
More integrity and less self promotion
More compassion and less prejudice
More understanding and less ignorance
More equality and less domination
More peace and less diplomatic imperatives

Added by jabblog:
More listening and less talking
More kindness and less egocentricity
More contentment and less moaning

Added by Tracy Jo:
More quiet moments and less noise
More connecting and less loneliness

Please add on...

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

That's my DH (Dear Husband)

Doing the traditional ceremonial

RING IN THE THE NEW YEAR DANCE

for you.

Wishing you all good health, happiness and prosperity in 2012!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-21T06:02:00.000-08:00

WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND ALL THE JOYS OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON!

Thank you all for your friendship and for your support during this year of change, transition, success, loss and general all-around craziness! Thank you for supporting my book through your blogs and with your purchases of it. Thank you for your comments and your humor. Thank you for writing great blogs that I love to visit - I am in awe of your talent and creativity.

I hope that you are surrounded by love and laughter, and that your heart is filled with peace and joy.

Holiday Bloggini Break

2011-12-17T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a bloggini break over the holidays, so I just want to wish you all the happiest of holidays, a very Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year.

Like every year, this one had its ups and downs. Mom passed away after disappearing into Alzheimer's for almost 10 years. I miss her every day. But I feel like Mom and Dad are watching over me together again, and it comforts me. I'm also grateful for all the blessings this year has brought. My book - my dream of a lifetime - is in the world and being well-received. Though it's been hard work, I've enjoyed EVERY SINGLE MINUTE of this launch.

This year I've reconnected with long lost friends and made so many new ones. I'm especially grateful to all of you who hosted me on your blogs during my book blog tour or who wrote wonderful spontaneous reviews, and to all who followed along or showed up here just to say hello. I love it when I go to comments and see your names there. Thank you for the friendship you've extended to me.

I really need to start writing regularly again, so that's what I'm going to do now. I feel the excitement of my new story starting to tingle, and that's the perfect place to be. I'm going to goof off a bit, get some rest, and then begin.

So, though I may not be posting much here for a while, I will probably still be dropping by all your blogs to see what you're up to. I love your words, wit and humor.

Sending lots of holiday hugs you way.

DEJA VU BLOGFEST: Finding Our People

2011-12-16T07:15:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in DL Hammons' DEJA VU BLOGFEST today. The idea is to "recycle" a past post. This one was originally a guest post over at Becky Povich's blog, and folks seemed to like it. So, it's Deja Vu All Over Again, Folks!

FINDING OUR PEOPLE:

In recent years, actress Shirley MacLaine has become known as much for her unusual beliefs about aliens and spirituality as for her movie roles. She lives here in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and when her book came out a few years ago, I went to the book signing. Yes, she has some offbeat ideas, but I discovered that she makes a lot of sense about certain things. The one thing she wrote about that really resonated with me had to do with this idea of “finding your people.”

The gist of her point was that we are born into a particular family, but that we spend most of our life looking for “our people” outside of that birth family. Some of our family members may be “our people” and some may not. I think there are many people who feel so different from their other family members that they wonder if they were adopted, or if they really were abducted by aliens!

So, off we go into the world, seeking out those to whom we feel connected on a deep soul level. In romantic relationships, we call them our Soul Mates. But this idea of soul mates can go beyond just romantic partners – it can apply to all those in our lives whom we truly call Friend. These are the people who see our flaws and still celebrate us; the ones who show up for us; the ones who sincerely root for us; the ones who “get” us.

A few years ago, I became a yoga teacher. I started teaching at a studio here in Santa Fe, where the teachers have well-established followings. I began by subbing classes. Sometimes no one would show. Sometimes a person would come in, see that there was a sub, turn on her heels and go. Ouch. But then, new people came. And the next time I subbed, they came back. They told people the new teacher was pretty good, and the next time, a few more came. Eventually I had my own classes, and I developed a following. My people had found me and I had found my people – the ones for whom my style of teaching yoga resonated.

I think it’s very much the same for us as writers. Sometimes we want to achieve some concept of “success” so much that we write things that we think will please a certain audience. Are vampires still in? Should I write about vampires? I heard that zombies are the new vampires – shall I write about zombies?

What we need to do is take a deep breath, pause, and ask ourselves: What kind of books do I like? What kind of book have I dreamed of writing? If I love zombies, and have a great idea for a story, I should write it! But only because it’s truly what I love, not just because I think there is an audience for it out there. Because if my heart isn’t in it, then I won’t truly find “my people,” and my people won’t find me .

So, like the yoga teacher, showing up to share what I know and hoping that students will come, find something of value, and return again, as a writer I write what moves me and hope that among the many readers who try me out, one or two will like my work enough to return. Like yoga students, our readers may not show up in droves, they may show up one by one. But over time, those ones and twos become threes and fours, and eventually, we’ve got a following. By being true to ourselves, we’ve found our people.

P.S. When I was little, Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman was my favorite book, so I guess I've always been looking for my people!

A Perfect Start to My Day

2011-12-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

This morning I opened my email to find this note:

Dear Miss Goodwin,

My name is Peter and I am in the 3rd grade. My mother just bought an autographed copy of "The Christmas Village", because we read it in class. I couldn't stop reading it ! It was just hard to put down. Everyone in my family wants to read it. I think you should write Part Two ! I also think you should win an award for it. Thanks for writing a great book.

From Pete (age 9).

Not much could take the smile off my face this morning. Hope your day starts off well too (and stays that way!)

Wise Bear William - A Beautiful Book for the Little Ones

2011-12-11T17:10:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to recommend my friend Arthur Wooten's beautiful picture book, Wise Bear William, A New Beginning, as the perfect gift for the little ones in your life. The story is funny and sweet, and has a lovely message about recognizing what makes each of us unique and special. The illustrations by Bud Santora are absolutely gorgeous!

Here's a bit about the story: Toys that were so loved when new have been long forgotten in the attic. But rumor has it that soon the children will be coming to rescue them. Each toy hopes to be selected by a child, but each is a bit bedraggled and in need of sprucing up. The toys work together to help each other look their best for when the children come. Each toy has a quirky and endearing personality, and you'll come to feel as though they are almost real. Wise Bear William is a heartwarming story about being able to acknowledge our shortcomings with humor, and about realizing that it's what inside that truly matters.

Arthur Wooten is a playwright, screenwriter and humorist. He is the author of several critically acclaimed novels, including Birthday Pie, Fruit Cocktail and On Picking Fruit. Wise Bear William is his first book for children.

Bud Santora is a versatile and immensely talented designer and illustrator who has won an Emmy for costume design.

Click here to buy your copy of Wise Bear William.

Arthur Wooten
Author of Wise Bear William, A New Beginning

Dreams of Trains, Toys & Donkeys at the Children's Museum

2011-12-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, I'll be reading/signing The Christmas Village at the Santa Fe Children's Musuem, from 2 to 4pm. And, I've decided to donate $1 per print copy sold during ALL of December to the Museum - that's whether it's sold there, or on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Sales have been good so far, so I'm looking forward to writing them a BIG CHECK!

It's the museum's annual holiday event called, "Dreams of Trains, Toys and Donkeys." I am not the donkey! It's a major fundraiser for the museum, which, like most non-profits, is struggling for its life these days. I'm delighted to be able to be there and be a part of helping this wonderful institution survive and thrive.

Here's the link to their website, with information about the holiday event: Santa Fe Children's Museum

Today, I'm off to teach Restorative Yoga and Gentle Yoga. Look forward to turning some stressed-out folks into blissed-out folks.

Have a great Friday!

Melissa

Under the Tiki Hut

2011-12-07T05:29:00.000-08:00

I'm the Under the Tiki Hut guest poster today! If you haven't visited Carol Kilgore's fun Tiki Hut blog, you must! I mean, who doesn't want to be under a Tiki Hut at this time of year? Especially after Monday's snowy snafus, and yesterday's frigid temps? We're talking 7 degrees here in Santa Fe yesterday - that's unheard of! But you heard it here!

Every Wednesday,Carol invites a writer to be the guest blogger, and you have to write A) From the perspective of a character from your book and B) the character has to be under the Tiki Hut on a beach and C) at this time of year you have to bring the holidays into your story!

So hop on over, because my main character from The Christmas Village, young Jamie Reynolds, is Under the Tiki Hut today!

Jamie was under th Tiki Hut a minute ago ... better pop over
to Carol Kilgore's blog and find out where he went!!

Comedy of Errors on a Snowy Day

2011-12-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

I grew up in New England, where we are used to snow. We expect it. We know what to do with it. Here in Santa Fe it's different. We get winter here, with snow and cold. But for some reason, Santa Feans like to pretend that Santa Fe doesn't get snow, so they don't plan for it, don't much plow it, and sort of pretend it just hasn't happened! Also they drive as if nothing at all was different - which is to say, they speed in residential sections, pass on the right and talk on cell phones while driving, eating and making illegal u-turns.

Yesterday we awoke to a snowy morning. We live at the top of a hill now, and the lot wasn't plowed and I wasn't game to take our new car down an icy hill right off, so I moseyed at home rather than going straight into the yoga studio. (I work there on Mon/Tues/Wed mornings). The first teacher cancelled class anyway, so no worries about rushing in.

Eventually the snow looked to be tapering off, so I went in. Going down the hill was treacherous, and I had to move far over so the big car coming UP the hill wouldn't whack me as he fishtailed all over the place. But once down, the roads were ... clear! As in, bare. As in, you'd almost not even know it had snowed.

Smooth trip to the studio, only to find upon arrival that we had no heat! The 9am teacher had to keep them doing sun salutations to stay warm. I also learned that five hearty souls had actually made it in to the 7:30 class - which had been cancelled - despite our instructions to please call in on snowy days to listen for a cancellation message. Of which there had been one, but ...oh well. Funny thing is, the Monday 7:30am class usually has 2 people, but of course on the SNOWY DAY, 5 people decide to come ...what's up with that??

To boot, I also discovered that helpful students had been answering the studio phone when it rang, before I got there. Which is actually NOT helpful, because the students told people the classes were taking place, when in fact, some later classes were cancelled. Had they left things alone, the callers-in would have gotten the message on the machine telling them this ... So, not so helpful!

Anyway, it's all rather funny and typical of our quirky yoga studio. One of the owners and I were talking later about how we could be our own Reality Show about a yoga studio where we plan for most things but whatever we forgot to plan for is what happens, and where everyone who comes is part of the family and tries to be helpful in the worst possible ways. I think it would be "Must See TV." It's just about the best place I've ever worked, because we do our best and then throw up our hands and say, "Well, who woulda thunk THAT would happen," but most of all because we always end up laughing.

Hope you have a smooth day today!
.

Snowy Monday!

2011-12-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

We woke up to snow this morning. I'm supposed to work at the yoga studio today, but the early classes are cancelled and I'm more than happy to have another cup of coffee and diddle around here in Bloggiland while we see what develops.

My WOW Book Blog Tour wound up last Friday, and I can't say enough good things about Robyn and Angela, my tour organizers, or about the great bloggers who hosted me. The tour was a great way to promote my book, but the best part was making friends with the hosts and their friends and followers.

Some hosts who had originally asked for just a guest post or an interview ended up spontaneously reviewing The Christmas Village., because they enjoyed it so much! I'm especially grateful for that, because their excitement about the book is so heartfelt and sincere that their enthusiasm becomes contagious. When people review your book because they WANT to tell the world about it - well, there's not much that's better than that!

Later this week, I'll list all my hosts and their blog links. If you didn't have a chance to check them out before, you'll definitely want to pop over and make some new friends. And, if anyone out their would like me to host them here on my blog, please let me know!

Today I've got interviews at two very different blogs with rather similar names:

Megan Warburton's Storybook Love Affair
AND
Deirdre Eden-Coppel's A Storybook World

I just love anyone who's got the word Storybook in their blog title, because you know they love books! Stop by and say hello to these lovely ladies and check out their great blogs.

Hope you all have a lovely week!

The Tides of March

2011-12-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

We woke up to snow-covered ground this morning here in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The sun is coming out now, so we're looking forward to walking around the Plaza a little later this morning, and maybe there's one of those Starbucks Peppermint Mochas in my future too ... It's definitely beginning to look and feel a lot like Christmas.

Today I want to introduce you to my husband, artist J. Richard Secor, who blogs as RVPainter. His blog is a quirky combination of art talk and painting demonstration, RV tidbits, and faux-curmudgeon bluster (really, the crabby old man routine is just his schtick - he's a very nice man - but don't tell him I told you that!) He paints in acrylic on paper and canvas. He didn't even start painting until he retired early from banking at age 54 - so Late Bloomers everywhere - take heart!

Richard started out working in watercolor when we lived in Maine. He painted a lot of lighthouses and seascapes back then, and his palette was quite soft and pastel-ish. When we moved to Santa Fe from Arizona four years ago, he took a long break from painting, and wasn't even sure he would pick it up again. Well, of course, he did. And when he did, he was drawn to the more vibrant colors of acrylic paint.

Lately, he's been drawn again to painting seascapes - maybe because we are looking ahead to our RV adventure next year, when we'll be visiting many of the east coast seaside haunts where we were very happy. The painting I've posted here depicts a moody Maine seascape, and it's called, The Tides of March. You can see more of his work and chuckle along with his crabby artist demo here: RVPainter Blog.

His artwork is always for sale and it's so inexpensive, it's ridiculous!

The Tides of March
J. Richard Secor
12 x 16
Acrylic on Heavy Linen Paper
$125

It's Not Christmas without the Christmas Pudding

2011-12-02T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's the last stop on my month-long WOW Blog Tour, and it's been a real whirlwind of writing and meeting great people. My guest post is one of my favorites on the whole tour - it's called, It's Not Christmas without the Christmas Pudding and it's over at Megan Warburton's Storybook Love Affair. It's a personal story about my own Christmases past, about family, and of course, about the Christmas Pud.

I hope you'll stop over to read it and give a shout-out while you're there. Megan's blog is really delightful - she has a new follower - ME!

There it is - the Christmas Pud, looking so pretty
but I still say "YUCK" to what's inside!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

2011-12-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

It's Thankful Thursday again - boy does time go fast! And throw in the fact that it's December 1st! Can you believe it? Where did 2011 go ....

Today my WOW Guest Post is over at My Reading Room, and my piece is about working with themes in your writing. It's called "Themes that Resonate." On Friday, my post is a fun one called, "It Isn't Christmas without the Christmas Pudding," and it's at Storybook Love Affair, with Megan Warburton - she's all the way over in Australia!

Since it's Thankful Thursday, here is my list of today's ten thankful things:

I'm grateful for:

Good health - my own and my husband's
The start of the holiday season - I'm ready for it!
My husband, Dick, aka RV Painter, who keeps me laughing (check out his faux-grumpy-old-man personna over at http://rvpainter.blogspot.com/)
All the wonderful bloggers who graciously hosted me on my Blog Tour
Elaine, the librarian at the Carlos Gilbert Elementary School in Santa Fe, where this morning I'll be reading part of my book to 3rd and 6th grade classes
Our upcoming RV adventure - we've started booking our stays at parks next year!
Tony from the Liverpool Blue Coat School, who tracked down a woman who was my mom's friend at the school in 1939
Parents who kept me safe, but let me find my own way
The mint chocolate flavored, dark chocolate coated cookies I found at World Market
Good friends, old and new - so glad to have you all in my life

What are you thankful for today? P.S. Hope it's a good one!

Entering the Market of Writing for Children

2011-11-30T05:49:00.000-08:00

If you want to gain experience and credentials as a children's writer, my post "My Experience Entering the Market of Writing for Children," over at Finders and Keepers can help you. Every writer has a different journey, but I've shared some tips that I think will helpful to anyone. In fact, these steps apply to trying to get published in any type magazines, now that I think of it. Check it out, and say hi while you're there!

Hope you all have a very happy Wednesday!

Book Review at In the Pages

2011-11-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last week of my WOW blog tour, and it's been a whirlwind, but a fun one! Today, there's a review of The Christmas Village over at In The Pages. Stop on by and say HI!

A Reminder of What it's All About

2011-11-27T07:07:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, the loveliest thing happened. I got an email from a woman whose 10-year-old daughter had started a book club last year, and the club has grown to 20 girls. Each month, the girls submit three book reviews each and then the group votes on which book to read the next month. And, they picked The Christmas Village! The Mom asked me if I'd be willing to write to the girls and tell them a little about myself and how I came up with the idea for the book.

What a wonderful reminder about why we do this - of course we want our book to SELL, but really, it's because we have created something from imagination and words and our hearts and souls, and we think it is the best of ourselves that we can give, and we want to share it. This girls' book club is what it's all about, and I couldn't be any happier if I sold a hundred books this weekend!

I'd also like to share a book recommendation with you: It's August Farewell by David G. Hallman, and it's a memoir of the16 days between the time his partner, Bill, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the day he died. But it's more than just that - it's a love story about two people who shared 33 years together, in good times and bad, and in sickness and in health. Hallman tells the 16 days in present tense, so we feel like we are going through it with him. He intersperses that with vignettes from their 33 years together. It's sad and moving and uplifting and spiritual, and it reminds us that, no matter our differences, when it comes to love and loss, we are all very much the same. August Farewell is beautifully written, and I loved it.

I'm thrilled to be highlighting Kai Strand, author of the children's books, The Weaver and Save the Lemmings. We're meeting Kai at an amazing time in her writing career: The Weaver is a finalist in the EPIC e-books awards, and Save the Lemmings ... well, please read my interview with her in the post below to find out Kai's BIG NEWS about that! Her story will give writers everywhere hope!

READ ON ....

Author Highlight: Kai Strand

2011-11-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Author Kai Strand

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR KAI STRAND

ME: Kai, you were just at a huge book signing event in Oregon, where they were hoping to set a world record for "Most Authors Signing." Was the record set? And tell us what that event was like!

KAI: Yes, I participated in the Oregon Book and Author Fair in Central Point, Oregon. What a fun day. There were over 60 authors there, and the titles ranged from picture book to scoliosis and all points in between. It was fun to chat with book enthusiasts and other authors. My tablemate, Ivy Smith and I got to know each other well, sitting next to one another for 7 hours or so. We did indeed make an attempt for the world record for most authors signing their individual titles at the same time. All the data has to be verified by Guinness World Records, and I can’t wait to find out if we qualify. Wouldn’t that be FUN to be in the Guinness Book of World Records? Now I have a copy of The Weaver with the official world record attempt stamp and my signature.

ME: Yes, being in the Guinness World Records would be a great thing to be able to tell people! Now let's talk about your middle grade book, The Weaver. It looks absolutely charming! Please give us the story summary, target age group and where we can buy it.

KAI: Thank you, Melissa. And charming it is…let me explain: Mary Wordsmith lives in a town of storytellers, known as word weavers. Her mother is the most revered word weaver of them all, but poor Mary suffers through her third year of Novice Word Weaving. She can’t tell a good story to save her life.

One day she meets a strange little creature that grants her a wish. But instead of weaving a better story, Mary is now weaving strange little yarn charms to accompany her still pathetic tales. Now she has two problems to overcome.

The Weaver has a little magic and a lot of storytelling. It is written for children 9 – 12 years old. The Weaver is available in paperback, hardcover or as an ebook through:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Fictionwise
Or direct from Guardian Angel Publishing

I’m excited to say The Weaver is a finalist in the EPIC eBook Awards!

ME: Congratulations! That's terrific! The Weaver sounds terrific - everyone - go buy it NOW!! Tell us a bit about the EPIC award.

KAI: Thank you! It is exciting. EPIC stands for Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition. They’ve been around since 1998. Their purpose is to provide a strong voice for electronic publishing. They hold EPICon annually and they’ve been recognizing leading books in the electronic book industry with an annual awards banquet. You know that saying, “It’s an honor just to have been nominated”, well, let me tell you, it is an honor for my book to have made it as a finalist! I have to wait until March to learn if it has earned the title of winner.

ME: Okay, we've kept people in suspense long enough about your VERY BIG NEWS. So, drumroll ...Tell us about it!

KAI: Yes! I’m thrilled to announce the sale of my middle grade novel, Save the Lemmings, to Featherweight Press. When Natalie’s Texty-Talky invention makes her an overnight sensation, the media digs until they find a way to smear her goody-goody image.

ME: Congratulations - again! That is such wonderful news, and so encouraging to everyone out there who is hoping to sell their book - it does actually happen! Let's switch gears for a minute and talk about how all this got started. From what I read on your blog, it sounds like you had an idyllic childhood growing up in Wisconsin. Did that affect your desire to write for children, or in what ways has it affected your writing?

KAI: It’s funny that you asked that. I’ve considered my idyllic childhood a hindrance to my writing more than a help. I don’t have any issues or angst to share. It’s horrible. Okay, I’m really, really kidding about it being horrible that I’ve had a great life.

Growing up in Wisconsin instilled a real wholesomeness in me that I’ve never lost. People in the Midwest are so kind and genuine and that really impacts your values. Plus my parents always stressed honesty and being forthright. I try to bring that truth and honesty into my writing. I think it is so much harder and far more courageous for people to be honest and truthful, so it is important for children to be exposed to it in real life as well as through fiction.

ME: Actually, I've seen a cartoon where a girl is writing a letter to her parents, telling them that, because of the happy childhood they gave her, they'd ruined any chance that she could ever become a great writer! There is a lot of mileage to be gotten from angst, I guess! Okay, I also see that you have FOUR children! How often do real events from your daily life with four kids show up in your stories?

KAI: Aspects of real life show up a lot in my stories. Not only events with the kids, but from my childhood and stories I’ve been told by friends, family, etc. But it is usually only bits and pieces. I have so much fun with my kids and I thoroughly enjoy the people that they are. How can I not let that impact my characters and the stories I want to share? Heck, everybody should have as much fun as we do.

ME: Are you working on a project now, and if so, can you tell us a bit about it?

KAI: I’m finishing up edits on another Weaver tale, that I hope and pray meets the expectations of my fabulous publisher.

I’m also writing a very personal story that reduces me to tears every time I work on it. It’s loosely based on a friendship circle in my life. Even though the characters in the book aren’t me and my two friends, it is close enough to us to make me laugh and cry. There is a loss in this story that is especially difficult for me to address. But it is a beautiful, beautiful story and I hope I can do it justice and one day share it with the world.

Then, when I need a break from the heavier topics, I switch out of my middle grade hat and into my young adult writer’s cap and work on the second book in my super villains series. Talk about fun! Teens with super powers who, because they are villains, get away with being bad? Yep, lots of fun!

ME: This is a remarkable time for you - tell us how you're feeling about everything that is happening .

KAI: This is an exciting time for me as a writer. I was laid off from my day job at the end of June and haven’t found any comparable work since. However, the extra time at home has allowed me to really concentrate on my writing career. I’ve been able to write and submit short stories to magazines, which is something I simply didn’t have time to do before and I have more time to research publishers for my completed titles. The extra time has allowed me to really focus my efforts and it feels like I’m finally seeing a forward progress in my career. I think 2012 will be a banner year for the writer me.

ME: It's amazing how things sometimes open up for us just when we're at those scariest of moments? You've taken a downturn and turned into an inspiring story of persistence and success. Let's finish up the interview with anything else you'd like us to know.

KAI: If your readers are interested in finding out more about my wholesome upbringing or learn where some of my shorts have been published or read more about The Weaver, they can visit my website, http://www.kaistrand.com/. I love to hear from readers, too, so feel free to stalk my Facebook page or send me an email. All my contact info & upcoming events can be found on my website.

Thanks for hosting me, Melissa. It has been so much fun chatting with you and your readers.

ME: Kai, you are a gem, a wonderful writer and a kind and generous person. I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing your books soar to great success.

Remembering a Happy Time - My Memoir Collaboration with My Dad

2011-11-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Today my WOW blog tour guest post is over at the Women's Memoirs website. It's the story of how I tried to help my dad find a reason for living after a massive stroke left him paralzyed in body, but still sharp of mind. We collaborated on several memoir pieces that eventually were published. You can find our story here: Women's Memoirs

Here are a few pictures of my dad at Cuttyhunk Island, a place that he loved and which we wrote about together.

Standing in front of the seaplane that took Dad and his survey crew to and from Cuttyhunk.
That's Dad on the right, he'd be in his early 40's here, but he looked very young.

Dad's crew clowing around in front of the Jeep that Dad almost put "in the drink."

Mom and Dad in their 70's, at the home in Andover, MA that they shared for more than 50 years.
Dad was 86 when he passed away in 2009

A Thankful Week

2011-11-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving week! On the one hand, I'm wondering where the year has gone. On the other, I feel ready for the holiday season to roll in. It's been such a tough year for people - I don't know anyone who hasn't had a rough time in one way or the other. It's been up and down for me too, what with Mom passing away in March. But I've been blessed too and so I'm feeling like I just want to feel content with things being rather plain and simple this year.

I'm especially grateful for the wonderful bloggers who have hosted me on the WOW Blog Tour. And Robyn and Angela at WOW did an amazing job setting it all up - if you need a tour, please check them out! Here's where I am visting this week:

Memorable Children's Books and Gifts is highlighting The Christmas Village, and there's a review there of the book as well. As the name suggests, they have lots of great books and gifts for kids. Here are the links to the blog and website:
Blog: http://mymcbooks.wordpress.com/
Website: http://www.mcbooksandgifts.com/

On Tuesday, there's a review of The Christmas Village" over at 365 Days of Christmas.

Wednesday, I'm the guest over at Women's Memoirs, where I'll be talking about the memoir collaboration my father and I did after his stroke - we did two pieces that were published in the Martha's Vineyard Gazette and the Andover Townsman. The post is called, "A Collaborative Effort - My Dad/Daughter Memoir Publishing Experience."

And on Friday, we wrap up the week and give thanks over at Words from the Heart, where I'll be writing about gratitude.

Thank you so much for visiting with me and for hopping over to these other blogs. It's not just all about me (WHAT??? Not about ME???) - these folks have terrific blogs and part of the fun is discovering them.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Pictures from Andover Book Signing Weekend

2011-11-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

Here are pictures from the book signing at the Andover Bookstore on Saturday, November 12th. What a terrific time we had! There are more pictures from the earlier part of the signing, when I did a reading, but someone else has them and I have to get them. These photos are mostly family and friends who were there later on. My blog tour itinerary is off to the left and the previous post - please visit all these great bloggers and say hi! Okay - pictures!

My beautiful neices, Elizabeth & Olivia, and their dad, Terry Hart

High school friends, Mary Lou and Jim Tremblay

Dear friend, Sue Thomson

Old friends reunited

Andover High friends

Good friends together again

Silver and Gold

2011-11-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was one of the best of my life! Yes - in large part because I had the book signing in my hometown and it was a huge success. But more so because I was with family, and was reunited with many old friends from school and jobs long ago. I spent time laughing with friends I had gone to school with from grade one through high school. And I got to hug work friends I hadn't seen in more than 20 years.

The signing itself was very successful. When I'd asked how many books to send, the fellow said, "Oh, send 20 or so." I thought, NAH! I'm sending 100. Good thing I did, because we sold 75 books on Saturday! I think the only time they did better than that was when Jay Leno - also from my hometown of Andover - did his book signing there!

My Blog Tour continues this week at some wonderful blogs. I hope you'll stop over to visit. The title of this post comes from that old song we used to sing as a round in Girl Scouts, "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." I'm grateful for reuniting with old friends, and I'm grateful for the new friends I've made here in bloggi land. I'll post pictures from the signing later, but for now, here's this week's Blog Itinerary:

November 15: Donna's Book Pub
Guest Post: The two writing techniques that improved my writing the most

November 16: Sue Fitz's Books Books The Magical Fruit
Guest Post: Channeling Your Inner 10-Year-Old

November 17: Margo Dill's Read These Books and Use Them
Guest Post: Every Town Has a Story (finding ways to encourage kids - and grown-ups, to write)

November 18: Jill Franclemont's All Things Jill Elizabeth
Guest Post: Heroes & Villains - two faces of the same coin

Hugs to all,
Melissa

MELISSA'S BIG DAY

2011-11-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody,
Well, today is a day of dreams come true - my book signing at the Andover Bookstore in my hometown of Andover, Massachusetts. I'm looking forward to seeing friends from grammar school and high school - people I haven't seen in 40 years! And our old neighbors too. And I'll be at my favorite place on earth that doesn't have palm trees - the bookstore! It's the old-fashioned indie kind, with a real fireplace, wing back chairs and nooks and crannies. We'll try to get some good pictures.

Thanks for all the kind words and support!

Hugs to all! XO
Melissa

THANKFUL THURSDAY

2011-11-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it's Thursday again already!??!! In a few hours, I'll be flying to Massachusetts for the book signing in Andover. I'm looking forward to seeing friends I haven't seen in years - we're talking 40 years for some! And, looking forward to spending time with my family too. The last time I was home was for Mom's memorial service in March, so it's nice that we'll be getting together for a happier reason this time.

My blog tour continues with a guest post Today at Nancy Brown's Capability Mom blog - the topic is "The Benefits of Being a Late Blooming Writer." Those of you who feel like you are getting a late start at writing - or whatever your calling is - take heart! There are reasons why it can be better to come into your own later in life.

And Robyn from WOW put a nice post about the book on her blog too. You can find it here: A Perponderance of Things.

Okay, back to Thankful Thursday! This week, I'm grateful for:

Having had four years with my adorable MINI, which we traded in today for a Honda Fit. But I'll always love MINI, and when you see her, you'll understand why! (There's a photo of her at the end of the post.)
Being able to spend time with my beautiful neices, Olivia and Elizabeth this coming weekend
That I really am going to have a book signing at my favorite bookstore on the planet: The Andover Bookstore in Andover, MA
That first cup of really good coffee in the morning
My friend Darla, who always makes me laugh
A big fat issue of Instyle magazine to read on the plane
Animal crackers
Having the parents I had, who gave me the most wonderful gift imaginable: a happy and carefree childhood
Angela at the Santa Fe library, who was extraordinarily helpful to me
Tony from the Liverpool Blue Coat School in England, who found the 88-year-old woman who was mother's friend there more than 70 years ago

MINI, please come back, please!

My Mother's Friend

2011-11-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

If you've been following for a while, you know that I had been trying to find out more about my mother's experience in England and Wales at the start of World War II. At the time, she was 14 years old and attending the Liverpool Blue Coat School - a boarding school for "orphans and fatherless children." Mom qualified as a "fatherless child", because her father had disappeared. Her mother worked as a governess in the U.S. and sent Mom to England to be cared for by relatives. But she ended up being shuffled around and wound up in boarding school. In September 1939, on the eve of WWII, millions of children were evacuated with their schools from major cities to the "country." Mom was evacuated, with her school, to Beaumaris, Wales.

I've been in touch with Tony from the Blue Coat Brotherly Society, who has been wonderful. He found a woman who remembers my mom! Her name is Carrie and she is 88 years old. She wrote me a letter, saying that Mom was her dear friend. The students had been sent back to Liverpool in 1940, because the expected bombings didn't come that first year of the war. But Mom didn't go back to the school. Instead she returned to the U.S., and her friend Carrie never knew what had happened. I don't know why Mom never got in touch with Carrie after coming home. Carrie said that Mom was the first friend to sign her autograph book, and she sent me the page from that book, with Mom's handwritten note- which Carrie had held onto all these years.

To have found someone who knew my mother back then was what I hoped for, but I didn't expect it to actually happen.I can't wait to write back to Carrie and tell her about Mom's life after she came back to the U.S.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mom from that time in her life. She's 11 or 12 in the picture with the dog. The small portrait photo was probably her passport picture for the return to the U.S. - on the back it says June 1940 and that's when she came back. The third photo is after her return to the U.S. She would have been 15 then.

My WOW BLOG TOUR continues this week with more chances to win a free book. There's a book review today on Jessica Nierad's Dream Hour Blog, and Friday, my post over at Nancy Brown's Capability Mom Blog is about The Benefits of Being a Late Blooming Writer (It's Never to Late!)

Okay, here are pictures of Mom as a young girl:

Mom, around age 11 or 12

June 1940, probably her passport picture for the return to the U.S.

Back in the U.S. 1940

Time Travel Tuesday

2011-11-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

My WOW Blog Tour continues with a visit over at Meryl Evans Blog. It's a guest post called, "Doing It Anyway." That title is a take-off from Susan Jeffers great book, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, and the post offers a few techniques that I've used to overcome my fear of writing. Stop over to check it out - leave a comment and you'll have another chance to win a copy of The Christmas Village! Many thanks to Meryl for being my host.

SO! I don't know about you, but to me it seems that the older I get, the faster time goes by. It's November 8th already! And there is a bit of snow out there this morning. I am heading to New England on Thursday for my hometown book signing in Andover, Massachusetts on Saturday. They got a lot of snow in that storm last week - hope I don't need to bring boots ....

My parents lived in their little house in Andover for 54 years. That's a LONG time. I've been back there regularly over the years, even though I moved away. It's always a little like going back in time for me - when I'm there, I'm a 10 year old kid again, and everything I loved about my street and my town surges back and swells my heart. This weekend, I will reunite with childhood friends I haven't seen in 40 years! That's a REALLY long time. And I'll be at my favorite place in the whole town - the bookstore. As a child, it was a place that fueled my fantasies and my dreams.

In The Christmas Village, when Jamie goes into the miniature village, he goes back in time to 1932 Vermont. It's the Great Depression and times are hard. But people in the village open their hearts and homes to him. When I first starting thinking about this story, I imagined that it was the Victorian era in the village. But then I started to see the potential for drawing on similarities between things going on today and the hard economic times of the Depression. The book isn't about that, but it makes for a nice subtext to the story.

I'd LOVE to go back to Victorian England! Maybe there's a book there that I need to write.

If you could time travel, what time would you go to and where would it be?

MANIFEST MONDAY

2011-11-07T05:25:00.000-08:00

My WOW blog tour starts TODAY with an interview over at the Women on Writing Blog. This week's itinerary is posted over there to the left.

This is what I'm wondering today: Is it really possible to manifest our destiny? Or is manifesting destiny kind of an oxymoron - if something is already destined, can WE really manifest it??? Does thinking about this make your head hurt???

Over the past 10 years, I've read a lot of books on the subject of manifesting our dreams into reality. It started with a book by Louise Hays. Then I read, You'll See it When You Believe It, by Wayne Dyer, and then later, The Law of Attraction, and Ask and it is Given, by Esther and Jerry Hicks..

They all come at the same idea from different directions: Our beliefs drive our destinies; we can attract everything we want into our lives by setting our intentions and focusing positive thoughts and energy on them; if we ask for what we want, with the right energy behind it, it will come to us.

In my book, Jamie wishes several times that he could live in the Christmas village, and that's what happens. I guess you could say he manifested his desire. But is a wish the same as setting an intention? They seem different to me. A wish seems like asking someone else with power over your life to make something happen for you, while setting an intention feels more like you are asking the powers of the universe to help YOU make it happen. See the diff?

Plenty of people poo-poo this manifestation stuff, but I have to say that I've come to believe in it because it's happened for me enough times now to overcome my skepticism. Some things take longer to manifest than others- it took a long time to manifest my book. I'm still trying to manifest an oceanfront cottage. But in recent years, many other things have manifested quickly and with remarkable serendipity.

I'm not sure that I necessarily believe that we have a "destiny" because to me that seems pre-ordained.Or perhaps there is a destiny, but there are many paths by which we can get there. It's also possible that we can make choices that prevent us from getting there.

Today I'm keeping it simple. I'm just going to try to manifest a nice, easy day. Do you believe in manifestation? What have you manifested in your life, and what are you manifesting these days?

Simple Sunday

2011-11-06T06:59:00.000-08:00

Even though my life has moved away from a strict Monday through Friday workweek, I still think of weekends as, well, weekends. I've always loved Sundays, and still like to keep them simple and uncluttered. I even wish that we would go back to the days when stores didn't open on Sundays. Not necessarily for religious reasons, but just because it meant there was one day set aside for enjoying simple, unrushed, unmaterialistic pleasures. Family, friends, food, fresh air, fun.

Since we moved to the Southwest 10 years ago, I've been far away from family and my New England roots. I think that writing The Christmas Village was a way of keeping close to those roots, since it takes place in Vermont. (I'm from Massachusetts, but the village just spoke "Vermont" to me :-) In the book, 12-year-old Jamie is drawn to the miniature village because it looks like a perfect place where time stands still. When he finds himself IN the village, it's 1932, a time much like today, when people had lost their jobs and maybe their homes to hard economic times. Even so, the people in Canterbury - the village - pull together and help each other out.

When I wrote this story, I know that I felt the pull of days gone by. Those weren't "the good old days" by any means! But there was a simplicity to life and a one-on-one connectness between people that has, if not disappeared, at least diminished. One of the reasons I'm looking forward to our RV adventure is that it will take us all over the country, where we will be able to spend time in person with family and friends.

Today, we're keeping our Sunday simple. We're meeting friends for breakfast, then back here for a quiet day. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and it's not too windy, so a nice walk to work off that breakfast is probably in order. I'll write some posts for my upcoming WOW blog tour (starts tomorrow) and then maybe a nap. My dad, who passed away two years ago, was a great napper. I got the Napping Gene from him. Miss you, Dad. You too, Mom.

What's on your agenda today? Simple? Or not so much?

Either way, hope it's a good one.

That's Mom & Dad in the living room of our home
in Andover, MA, where they lived for 54 years.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

2011-11-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start something new on my blog, and it's called "Thankful Thursday." Every Thursday my post will be about 10 things for which I'm grateful. They won't necessarily be the BIG things of life, more likely the small ones.

I first started making lists of things I'm thankful for about 10 years ago when I read Simple Abundance by Sara Ban Breathnach. I can honestly say that the small act of writing down my blessings changed my life. I gradually turned away from focusing on what was lacking, and began to recognize how lucky I am.

So here we go!

Today I am thankful for:

The clear blue skies of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Having the day off from work
An absolutely wonderful review of The Christmas Village over at Just Jingle's blog
This new start my husband (aka RVPainter) and I are making in our lives (sold the house and buying an RV to travel around the country in next year)
My husband, for so many reasons, but today's reason is for being willing and eager, at the age of 71, to set off on this adventure!
Robyn and Angela at WOW - Women on Writing - who are organizing my upcoming blog tour - those ladies are awesome.
That I will get to see and spend time with my friend Darla next weekend - I haven't seen her in over four years!
To have finally realized what I believe to be my purpose in life - to have written a book that I would have loved to read as a child.
For my family of friends at YogaSource here in Santa Fe
For that earthy smell of autumn leaves on the ground

For really warm socks with bears on them, from a store in Shipshewana, Indiana (that's technically 11 things, but I REALLY love these socks :-)

I've got a guest post on Becky Povich's blog, and we'll be giving away a copy of my book. Stop over there and leave a comment, and you'll be entered. The post is called "Finding Your People," and it's about finding those real and true connections as a writer, with others here in Bloggi Land, and in every aspect of life. Becky is a warm and wonderful lady, and definitely one of "my people!"

Book Signing at the Santa Fe Children's Museum

2011-11-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm delighted to report that I'll be holding a book signing at the Santa Fe Children's Museum (Santa Fe, NM) on Sunday, December 11th from 2 to 4pm. I'll be donating a portion of the proceeds from all my book sales that day to the museum.

I'm very excited for this opportunity to share the joy of my book release with a wonderful cause, that just so happens to be a great fit!

My Experience with Createspace

2011-10-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to share with you my experience self-publishing my book through Createspace, which is the publishing arm of Amazon. I can honestly tell you that it was so much easier than I ever thought it would be.

From the get-go, my sales contact, Jenny, was professional and knowledgeable. When she said, "I will call you tomorrow at 2pm your time," by golly she did! I was a little skittish at first and made her go through "what would happen next" several times. I also made her do this again at various stages of the process, because I would forget what she had told me, despite having taken copious scribble notes. She always explained things again, patiently.

I knew up front what services I wanted: Custom interior book design and Custom Illustrated Cover, and Kindle e-book design. The custom illustrated cover was important, because it's a children's book. Createspace offers copy editing services, but I chose not to purchase them because I'd had an agent who had been an editor, and I felt that together, we had really vetted the book. There are also marketing services you can purchase, such as video book trailer, but I had a connection for that on my own.

This is what I ended up purchasing:
Custom interior design
Custom illustrated cover
Library of Congress number
Kindle e-book conversion
500 Postcards

The deal came with 50 free copies of the book - a very nice bonus. The Library of Congress number cost $75 and makes your book eligible to be included in the catalog of books from which libraries order. I got the Pro-plan, which only costs a little, but increases your royalties a lot. I honestly can't think of a reason why someone wouldn't opt for the Pro-plan.

I was most nervous about things like uploading my files (would the formatting be all right???). But it turns out that as long as you formatted your document like a normal professional manuscript, there won't be a problem. I actually made one of my Team Members stay on the phone with me when I uploaded the document for the first time! As I said, they were very patient with me. :-)

They commit to turning proofs around in a set period of time and they never failed to do so. The interior was pretty easy, because I wasn't doing anything too fancy inside. Most of my time was spent getting proofs of the illustrated cover and giving feedback. I was SO worried that the illustrator they assigned me wouldn't "get" what I was going for, but she did. When I saw the first drawing, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, because I knew that we were going to be all right. I honestly couldn't be more pleased with that cover, had it been done by Monet or Van Gogh!

You have the ability to submit interior changes without charge, up to a point. It's something like 80 text changes, which at this stage of the game, you would hope you wouldn't have! But I'll tell you, I was surprised at how many little things I did find - maybe 20 or so little things over the course of several proofs. Capitalization, a missing word, missing or unnecessary commas. My errors - not theirs!

Another nice thing is that now the Createspace team will not only create the Kindle e-book file, they will LOAD it up for you, for no extra charge. I was very relieved when they told me this. Apparently a lot of writers are like me, they don't want much to do with HOW those technical things get done...I really like it when people do that kind of stuff FOR me. Just call me Princess Melissa.

This experience was overwhelmingly positive. They were professional, reliable and everything happened as it should, when it should. So, that is the gist of it. If you have questions for me about the experience or specific aspects of it, please ask! I'm happy to share.

Melissa

PART THREE: KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST

2011-10-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

This week I'm taking part in the

KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST

It's the brainchild of delightful bloggers Deana Barnhart and E. R. King. You can pop on over to their blogs to get the list of other participants and read their posts.

Now THIS is the one I've been waiting for!

Our assignment today is to present our

FAVORITE ANTAGONIST

from literature.

So let me introduce her ...
She's cold, calculating and controlling.

She's manipulative and mean,
but she disguises it beneath a smooth, poreless mask
of quiet, unruffled calm.

So here she is, ladies and gentlemen ...
Everybody's favorite sociopath ...

The woman voted

"Most Likely to Volunteer to be Dr. Mengele's Assistant "

Nurse Rached

from

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey (1962)

Nurse Rached is the head nurse at a mental institution in Salem, Oregon, where she maintains absolute control over the residents. She rewards total obedience and cruelly punishes any behavior that could threaten the perfect predicability of her realm. Nurse Rached is a quiet tyrant, a sick sociopath hidden behind glassy skin and a crisply-sprayed-to-perfection pageboy hairdo.

Enter Randle McMurphy, a relatively sane inmate with a rebellious streak. McMurphy tries to bring fun and humanity to the ward, and in doing so, threatens Nurse Rached's dictatorship. She retaliates with small punishments at first, but when McMurphy persists, Nurse Rached ups the ante. She gives McMurphy shock therapy to weaken him. But McMurphy is a fighter and his efforts have awakened rebellion in the other, previously docile inmates. Sensing that her enemy's strength is growing despite her efforts to diminish him, Nurse Rached uses the ultimate weapon in her arsenal - she has McMurphy lobotomized.

In the 1975 film, McMurphy was played by Jack Nicholsen. Nurse Rached was played by Louise Fletcher, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for her incredible portrayal of one of the biggest b#tches in literary history. Nurse Rached was voted the fifth worst villian in movie history by the American Film Institute.

PART TWO: KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST

2011-10-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

This week I'm taking part in the

KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST

It's the brainchild of delightful bloggers Deana Barnhart and E. R. King. You can pop on over to their blogs to get the list of other participants and read their posts.

Today, our assignment is to present our FAVORITE PROTAGONIST from literature.

This was a pretty easy one for me ... it's ...

Gregory Peck! Oh no, WAIT! I mean, ATTICUS FINCH!

It's easy to see why I'd get confused though, because when the Pulitzer Prize winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird, was made into a movie, Gregory Peck became Atticus Finch as much as any actor can inhabit a role. Even the book's author, Harper Lee, was so moved by Peck's performance in the role of Atticus,that she gave him her father's pocketwatch.

Here are my reasons for choosing Atticus Finch as Greatest Protagonist in Literature:

Atticus Finch is the quiet-spoken attorney who is appointed to defend a black man against a charge of rape in Depression-era Alabama. Atticus is a widower, raising his son, Jem, and his daughter, Scout. Despite antagonism and aggression from the people in his town, Atticus firmly stands his ground and ultimately proves the defendant's innocence. But the racial situation of the times is such that the man is found guilty anyway. Throughout the trial and its aftermath, Atticus Finch's moral compass never wavers and his behavior sets the hightest standard for integrity.

Atticus Finch is a quiet hero, willing to stand up for what is right,

no matter the opposition,

no matter that it would be so much easier not to.

He sets the example for his children through his actions and his simple words,

such as,

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it."

and
"I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."

My Man, Atticus Finch

from

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST

2011-10-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

I need to play a little bit, so this week I'm taking part in the

KILLER CHARACTERS BLOGFEST.

It's the brainchild of delightful bloggers Deana Barnhart and E. R. King (Get Busy Writing Blog). You can pop on over there to read about the blogfest and read the other participants' posts - this is a really fun one.

Today's post is on: Killer Supporting Characters. They don't actually have to BE killers, they just have to be "killer" in the sense that they are classic, unforgettable supporting characters - in YOUR opinion! I saw E.R.'s post this morning, and I think she may have come up with the best one of all, but I'll still go ahead and give you my vote for

BEST KILLER SUPPORTING CHARACTER:

A Little Drumroll please...............

SEVERUS SNAPE from Harry Potter

Severus Snape - Evil Villian, or Just Misunderstood?

Severus gets my vote because he is such a classic conflicted villian-hero. You are never sure of him - throughout seven books. Right up until to the bitter end, we don't really know if Severus is really and truly bad.....

If not for the sorrow of his unrequited love, would Severus have been a different wizard altogether? A good man, a family man?

If not for his undying love for Lily Potter, would he have been an irredeemable scoundrel? A truly evil, unrepentent Death Eater?

Who the heck knows! Who the heck cares! He's perfect just the way he is - totally conflicted, tortured and royally P.O'd about it.

Such ambiguity, such inner turmoil and angst are the stuff of great characters. Plus, I really have a thing for Alan Rickman. He can be cool, and he can be creepy. But most of all, of course, it's the Voice...

Cool....

Creepy...

Cool...well, maybe a still a little creepy,
but in a cool sort of way....

Make it Easy, Keep it Simple

2011-10-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

This Sunday morning, I've at last been catching up on reading and commenting on other blogs. It's nice to hear other peoples' voices for a change! Interestingly, there seems to be a common theme running through the blogs I read this morning: a desire for simplicity.

This definitely resonates with me. All of the changesthat my husband (that cuddly faux-curmudgeon known as RVPainter) and I have been making have come about because of the desire for a simpler life. The road to getting here has at times felt complicated: Putting our house on the market at the worst time in history; finding temporary digs here in Santa Fe for the winter; getting our RV built; and all that while I'm in the middle of publishing, and now promoting, a book.

But through it all, we have kept these two mantras in mind: Make it easy. Keep it simple. We now test every single decision we make against these two barometers. Is it simple? Does it make it easy? If not, we re-think. We both recognize that we BOTH have the tendency to make things complicated, so now we stop and ask ourselves these questions. Nice to know we've learned something in 30+ years together!

We have another motto: Get Stuff Free. It seems as though ever since we put this one out there, we are getting more stuff for free. Last night, we went - for free - to a gala fundraising event for Cornerstones, a Santa Fe non-profit that raises money to rehab old, historic New Mexico buildings. Dick, aka RVPainter, donated six paintings for the silent auction. A chorus of talented young people entertained us (for free), we munched on free hors d'oeuvres and drank free wine, and dined on a delicious dinner. Free. I love free.

Hope your Sunday is easy and simple, and that you get some free stuff too.
XOXO

It All Started with the Bad Hair...

2011-10-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

Am I the only who does this? I have needed a haircut for over a month - meaning that a month ago, I should have already had a haircut two weeks before. So for 45 days now, I've had bad hair. My usually perky curls have been limp and floppy and dull and gray - not silver as I like to think of them. On top of that, I've looked exhausted - dark circles under my puffy eyes, skin looking about the same color as my hair.

So since I've got bad hair AND I look tired, of course I start dressing badly too. I work at a yoga studio, so I can get away with a lot, but even so I've sunk to new lows: black cropped yoga pants worn with brown clogs and no socks. Tops that don't go with the pants, and my brown Woolrich jacket thrown over it all, because it's warm and makes me feel cozy even though it's the ugliest thing in my closet. Even for Santa Fe, which is known for it's "anything goes" fashion-sense, I've been looking like a promising candidate for What Not to Wear.

Actually, I wish someone had been filming me and sent the video to the WNTW folks, because I'd love to go to NYC with a $5,000 charge card and get new clothes...but anyway....

Today I finally had my hair appointment. My curls are bouncy again and I look 10 years younger. I felt so good that afterward, I went shopping for a Book Signing outfit at the boutique across from the salon. I got a gorgeous belted sweater and a tank to wear under it. I also got two pairs of really nice socks. I'm human again.

So the moral of the story is: Spare society your inevitable downward spiral and get the darn haircut.

VIDEO BOOK TRAILER FOR THE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE!

2011-10-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

And now for the most fun thing so far, the video trailer for my book! My brilliant film-maker nephew, John Goodwin created this for me to put on YOUTUBE. Pass the word, and let's go viral :-)

A Place Called Home

2011-10-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to have a lovely home. When I was a little girl, we lived in a modest Cape Cod house on a street of large, beautiful homes, some bordering on mansions. Our street ran from the town square to the Horn Bridge, which was a short tunnel bridge under the railroad tracks. The bridge was narrow and on a sharp curve with a blind spot, so you had to honk your horn before going through to let the folks on the other side know you were coming. Hence the name.

But I digress! Around the age of eight or so, I became keenly aware of the difference between our little house and the big ones up the street. Walking home from school, I'd fantasize about the insides of those houses, even imagining how I would decorate the rooms. Okay, I was a little weird!

My grandparents had a lovely home, and it was only recently, when we were selling our house here in Santa Fe, that I realized how much the home that Grandma Goodwin created had influenced me. Lovely and gracious are the words that come to mind. All my life, I've been trying to create a lovely and gracious home like Grandma's.

My mom, God bless her, wasn't that great a housekeeper. I was the one who would go around picking up the house, placing candlesticks on the mantel, arranging flowers in a vase on the table. Always trying to make our humble house nicer.

Well, I have now had a number of lovely homes - four of them, in fact. I've had spacious rooms, filled with light and lovely furniture and art. I've created pretty gardens and had glorious views of the ocean or the mountains. I've worked hard to afford those homes, but I've also been lucky and blessed.

Now, we've sold our Santa Fe home and tomorrow, we fly to Elkhart, Indiana to go over the specs for our next home: an RV.

Okay, that's a big change for a girl who gets very attached to places and is pretty much a homebody. But I am oddly up for this adventure, because in some ways it feels like I'll be going home. We've lived in the southwest for more than 10 years now, and I am ready to head back east and spend more time near the ocean. To me, that's home. I also like the idea that we will be passing through all the places where we have family and friends. That's home too.

This process of letting go of our Santa Fe home - in both the literal and figurative senses - has been liberating. I've realized how much a house can own you, how limiting it can be to always be in one place, how much we sometimes give up for the sake of having one. Don't get me wrong, I still love the idea of having a house of my own, and there is great comfort in being attached to a particular place and the people there. I think what I am understanding now is the difference between having a house, where you live, and having a home, which is something you can take with you wherever you go. In an RV, I guess you kind of have both!

I'm Looking for Guest Bloggers!

2011-10-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I am looking for people who would be interested in doing guest posts on my blog over the next two months.

With my book coming out, I feel like I am talking about myself and my book ALL THE TIME, and I am getting sick of Me Me Me! So, I'd love to host You You You!

Of course I am thrilled beyond words about the book, but there are all sorts of places I'll be talking about it, and about writing - I'm doing a WOW Blog Tour starting 11/7 that goes into December. I've also got some interviews and book reviews coming up later this month on other sites. So, there will still be plenty of Me Me Me going on.

While I'm doing that, I'd love to support some other bloggers by inviting you to post here. So, if you would like to do a guest post between now and year-end, please leave me a comment or drop me an email.

Hope to hear from you!

Melissa

THE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE NOW AVAILABLE FROM SMASHWORDS!

2011-10-09T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends!

THE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE

is now available for ebook and digital formats on

SMASHWORDS!

USE COUPON CODE:
MR99B
FOR $1 INSTANT SAVINGS
LIMITED TIME OFFER - COUPON EXPIRES 10/15!
YOU CAN PASS THAT COUPON CODE ON TO YOUR FOLLOWERS!

Here's the link: The Christmas Village on Smashwords

Houston, We Have a Book!

2011-10-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, indeedie, my friends,

The Christmas Village

is a BOOK. And the book is available in print NOW on Amazon.com.

Please check it out by clicking on this link:

The Christmas Village Amazon.com Page

And please tell your friends to tell their friends and so on!

WooHOO!

Serendipity

2011-10-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

One of the yoga teachers at YogaSource here in Santa Fe is hosting a book signing party for me at her house later this month. She sent out the invitations yesterday. Today, one of the people on the invitation list came into the studio and told me, "I'm opening a children's book store in early November!" I asked, "Do want me to do a book signing?" She answered, "YES!!!!!" She was almost more excited than I was.

I just love those little moments of serendipity, when it seems like things are just falling into place. We work so hard to put ourselves out there, and sometimes I remind myself to just back off a little, and let the spirits do their work. When stuff like this happens, I feel like I can hear them chuckling.

Have you had any serendipitous moments lately? Don't you love the word serendipitous? Can you spell serendipitous?

That's a picture from the movie, "Serendipity." I love John Cusack. We need more John Cusack.

My Brother's Friend

2011-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

My brother Tom's best friend, Steve Daley, died yesterday. It happened unexpectedly, just like that. Boom. I didn't really know Steve, only through his comments on my brother's Facebook page, which were always witty and honest and pulled no punches. Steve was a writer - a well-known and respected journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Tom met him when they worked together at Porter-Novelli in Washington, DC. Steve's Facebook wall is now page after page of friends expressing their shock and sorrow and sharing their memories.

Tom just posted "I'm SO SAD," and I know that those three little words don't even begin to describe what he is feeling.

I remember when my Uncle Dick died. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time. Uncle Dick was a doctor, and I thought he was the handsomest man in the world. He died in such a stupid way - he choked to death while eating. He was, I think, in his late forties or early fifties. Uncle Dick was my dad's best friend. I remember that day so well, because even now, forty years or so later, I can still see my dad crumpling onto the couch, covering his face with his hands, and sobbing his heart out. I'm not sure anything to that point in life had ever shaken me as much as seeing my father's heart breaking for the loss of his best friend.

My brother has lost his friend, and he is SO SAD. And I am sad FOR him. Here is the link to the Chicago Sun Times story on Steve's death: Steve Daley

We've Moved!

2011-09-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

That's not really us!

My goodness, what a week! We moved out of our house on Tuesday and closed on the sale Wednesday. As one of my FB friends said, "Done and Done!"

As many of you know, this move is a two-step process:
1. Move to apartment here in Santa Fe for six months
2. Buy an RV and hit the road in April 2012.

I learned a couple of important things this week:
1. We still have too much stuff! We threw away, donated and stored a great deal BEFORE the move. But as we loaded and unloaded the truck on Tuesday, it was clear that more had to go. Nothing encourages you to get rid of your stuff as much as having to carry it into a truck and out again! We are opening every box and tub with an eye to what else can go can go.
2. We are not as young as we used to be. 'Nuff said.
3. We are very, very fortunate. It's hard to sell a house in this market, but we did. And many people have had to move out of necessity, not choice. I know how lucky we are to have been able to do this as a positive choice, and I'm grateful.

I have slept better the last two nights in our cozy little apartment than I have for the last six months. Not just because the move was exhausting, but because of the relief of the stress of it all. I feel clear and uncluttered in my mind now too.

In the midst of all that, I got the second proof of The Christmas Village yesterday, and this should be (fingers & toes crossed) the thumbs-up, which means it will be up on Amazon.com by 10/15 and available from me for those who want signed copies, sooner.

I'll be doing a bunch of fun interviews and posts all over BloggiLand now through year-end, so I hope I won't annoy you too much with all that. I'll be asking you to spread the word about the book, and I'm very grateful for all the support you've given me and the smiles you bring to my face.

Hugs n More Hugs!

My Interview on The Christmas Spirit Blog

2011-09-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Michelle Miller generously offered to kick off the countdown to the release of The Christmas Village at her blog "The Christmas Spirit." Michelle loves all things Christmas, and she loves books, so you know she is a terrific person! She also writes a blog called "The True Book Addict."

Michelle asked me some great questions about the book and my writing process, as well as my writing motivation. And, if you leave a comment about the interview, you'll be entered into the giveaway for a signed copy of The Christmas Village. If you go to The Christmas Village Book Facebook page and LIKE it, you'll be entered for an extra chance to win!

Many thanks, Michelle for your generous spirit and kind heart.

Won't you pop over to Michelle's blog and leave a comment? Here's the linky: The Christmas Spirit Blog

Thanks so much!
Melissa

Santa Fe Farmer's Market

2011-09-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

A nice little break from packing, moving or marketing a book ... this morning we went down to the Santa Fe Farmer's Market, which is now located at the new Railyard Park that was built around the the old Santa Fe train station.

The market is a smorgasbord of sensory delights. Today the spicy, woodsy smell of roasting chiles saturated the air. The abundant offerings of fruit and vegetables reflected the colors of early fall: bold red and yellow tomatoes; orangey pumpkins; deep purple eggplants and shiny red, yellow and green peppers.

The Farmer's Market always reminds me that so much that is beautiful in the world is Mother Nature's freely given gift. Here are some photos that I took today - some of the beautiful flowers, fruits and vegetables, and a few examples of what we call "Santa Fe Style," - the very individualistic and rather eccentric way that Santa Feans like to dress.

Enjoy!!

Our Life in Storage

2011-09-22T14:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Buddha watches over our stuff

Does it ever end? The packing I mean. Last weekend, we moved most of our stuff to storage. There it is in the picture - our 31-year-life together in a 10 by 10 storage unit.

Today we made another trip there with a few wayward things that didn't make it on the first go-round. The rest of the day, I've been packing up the stuff that will go to the apartment with us. And you know what? It's still seems like too much stuff!

We have sold some pieces of furniture and donated countless others. Every day we put things out on the curb with a Free Stuff sign, and it's gone in minutes. Dick has donated paintings for silent auctions and given others away to friends. I like the idea that we can visit his art when we visit them.

In spite of how much work this is, it feels good. Once you get started with the purge, it's hard to stop. I'm amazed at how ruthless I can get - more than once, I've clung to some item, but then when it doesn't fit in the 10 by 10, I am miraculously able to part with it! Over the next six months, I'm going through the stuff I've kept and I'm sure the purge will continue.

This view of our stored stuff below looks like it might have been taken on the Titanic after it went bottoms-up...

Creative use of the available storage space

Liberation!

2011-09-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Moving is such a strange and emotional experience. I am the kind of person who likes to stay put, so to think that I have now lived in 9 homes in 5 states is quite surprising. I personally, am flabbergasted by it. My parents lived in their home for 54 years, and honestly, if there had been a category for high school yearbook awards for "Most Likely Never to Move More than 50 Feet from the House She Grew Up in," I would have voted for me!

This current move is a particularly strange one, because we aren't moving to another house. We are moving into an apartment for six months, and then in the spring we will buy an RV and travel for the foreseeable future - as long as it takes us to see what we want to see and get tired of it. So, this weekend, we are moving most of our worldly belongings into storage and I don't know when I'll see them again.

Stuff is just stuff. I know that. We have sold a few pieces, donated much, and thrown a lot away. But there are things I simply can't part with - my mother's china, her tea cup collection, a few family antiques, some pieces that Dick and I bought during our 31-so-far years together.

There is a strange dynamic that kicks in when I am packing to move. While I am emptying cupboards, wrapping fragile treasures in paper and bubblewrap, I am forced to look at my life as represented by these things. This was from our first Christmas Prelude in Kennebunkport, these were Grandma Goodwin's playing cards, this was from our house in East Boothbay, we bought this when we moved here....every "thing" represents a person or a phase in my life, or both. While I am packing, my heart is leaden with sadness. But then, when the boxes are taped up and stacked away, I feel strangely ... free.

It happens every time. While you're doing it, there is sadness. But afterward, there is liberation. It felt wonderful yesterday when the fellows from Salvation Army carted off some furniture. And it felt wonderful this morning when we dragged out boxes for the large-item pick-up.

Stuff is just stuff. But some stuff is the stuff of our lives and we shouldn't feel bad about wanting to keep it. Now that it's boxed up and ready for storage, I am fine. I don't miss it, and I feel lighter. And sometime, on the other side of our travels, I will be delighted to see it again. It will be a bit like Christmas, opening the boxes.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

The Circle Game

2011-09-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

I noticed something on Facebook the other day - maybe it's something new, or maybe I just never noticed before. Over there on the right side was the re-posting of a post I made a year ago. Another day, I saw one from "this day in 2009." Last week, my Phantom Facebook Retro Post was one word: "FINI!" Only I could know that this post from September 2010 referred to the fact that I had just finished writing my book. That was kind of cool, but honestly, I don't really want FB to recycle my old posts and just toss them back at me like that. It's disorienting!

For some reason this all reminded me of the chorus from the Joni Mitchell song, The Circle Game:

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind from where we came
And go round and round and round in the circle game.

The song has been in my head all week, and now, I suppose, it will be in yours.
Sorry!

You are the first to see the cover of The Christmas Village!!

2011-09-10T11:58:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to show you the cover of The Christmas Village! It won't be long now until the book is a book and available for sale. I will keep you posted on that (of course :-)

The Christmas Village now has a Facebook page, and I would love it if you would visit sometime soon and "Like" it. And, if you would spread the word to your followers and ask them to "Like" it too, well, I will just kiss your pretty little bloggi feet! Or, at least I'll send you a Big Virtual Hug!

Here's the Facebook link: The Christmas Village Facebook Page

I'm very grateful for the wonderful bloggi friends I've made over this past year. It's remarkable how we manage to find each other out here in cyberspace, and make lasting and heartfelt connections. We share not just our journeys as writers, artists and bloggers, but also as regular old people who are just trying to navigate through life with grace, compassion and humor. In yoga, we have the word "sanga," which means community. This is truly a bloggi sanga of generous souls who make me think and make me laugh. Thank you.

There will be a separate website for the book once it's available for sale, but this blog is something I do for me, not for the book, and I'll be keeping it.

Thank you again for all the kindness and support that comes my way here in bloggi land. XOXOXO

Book Signing Date Set!

2011-09-05T16:59:00.001-07:00

I'll be holding a book signing for

The Christmas Village

The Andover Book Store

89R Main Street, Andover, Massachusetts

Saturday, November 12th, from noon to 5pm

Hope to see you there, and please tell your friends who live in Massachusetts or in the Southern New Hampshire area!

Click here: The Andover Book Store
The Andover Book Store is a Hugo Bookstore

http://hugobookstores.com/andover

Phone: 978-475-0143

Hurry Up and Wait

2011-09-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

We've had good news on the home sale front - the house appraised for the agreed-upon price, and our list of home-inspection to-do's is short and to-doable. So we'll be to-doing the to-do's pronto mundo. But we're still in a bit of limbo, because the buyers have to close on the sale of their house ...

It's a bit of a conundrum, because, if all goes through, we'll be moving out at the end of the month. So, we've had to find a place to move to (temporary digs until spring) and we've had to start packing. The house is starting to look bare, which on the one hand is painful, but on the other hand, makes it feel less like home, and easier to leave!

And, we will have to move our stuff to storage - potentially before we know for sure-for sure that things are for sure...

It wears me down! Plus packing makes me sad - it's like packing up and putting away a phase of your life. These packed boxes mean the Santa Fe phase is over, and Santa Fe has been a wonderul phase. Sigh. I know, endings are beginnings, and I'm looking forward to this new beginning. It's limbo land that I don't love so much...

On the very positive side though, I chose my book "cover concept" - meaning the style of font for the title, my name and back cover text. This means that the book is very close to FINI! I think we are talking two weeks to holding one in my hand.

And this past week, Tony from the Blue Coat Brotherly Society sent me an email to say that some of the "Beaumaris Girls" had been talking about my inquiries about my mother's time at the Liverpool Blue Coat School and as an evacuee with the school to Beaumaris, Wales in 1939, and they had started (possibly) to remember things about Mom. One of the "girls" - now in their early 80's, had asked for my address so that she can write to me. For some background on this, you can read some of my older posts called "The Kindness of Strangers." Having someone actually remember Mom, and to remember sharing those days with her, would be remarkable, and moving and just a wonderful, amazing gift.

Nothing Happens and Nothing Happens and Then Everything Happens ~ Faye Weldon

2011-08-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that this quote from Faye Weldon shows up on a recurring basis. I love this quote because IT'S SO TRUE!

Right now we are in the Everything Happens phase....

Our house is under contract
And we found a place to rent until spring
When we will get our RV and hit the road
for .... a good while ...
But first the appraisal on the house has to come in all right
And the buyers have to close on the sale of their home
So nothing is a done deal yet
But we are packing our stuff
Because closing is the end of September
Assuming all goes well...
And my book is almost ready
And I just got the date for my book signing in Andover, Mass. (Sat 11/12)
Which is very exciting
And now I have to book my flights
But I'm also really really tired
Because all this is stressful and exciting and stressful
But I'm not complaining
Because it's all good stuff
So I'd be a brat to complain
But I could use a really good nap!

So that's what's up with me...what's up with you?

Spark Blogfest Post #3 Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

2011-08-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

This is my third, and final, post as part of the SPARK BLOGFEST, and the next question that our host, Christine Tyler (see more info in the box to the left) posed was:

Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

I know there are tons of books that changed my world view, but I'm going to go with the first answer that popped into my head, because that is probably the answer that is most true. The book is Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach.

I'm actually going to toy with the question a bit and say that this book didn't so much change my world view, as it changed my "view of the world." Does that make sense to anyone but me? What I mean is that it dramatically changed the way I was going through life and the way that I was thinking about things.

At the time I read Simple Abundance, I was in my mid-40's, living in beautfiul East Boothbay, Maine and commuting an hour-plus to work in Portland as an executive for a large company. Although I was well-paid, I constantly viewed my life in terms of what was lacking - mainly lack of time. Lack of time to do anything BUT work, lack of time with my husband, family and friends, lack of time to goof off. Lack of rest. Although I was successful at what I did, I didn't like it at all - it wasn't "me." I wasn't writing, and I knew I should be. I saw everything in terms of what wasn't right with my life.

This book taught me how to change from a "lack" mentality to an "abundance" mentality by focusing on appreciation for all the simple joys of life that are there in abundance for us all each and every day. A clear blue sky, wildflowers by the side of the road, a solitary man clamming during low tide in Wiscasset Harbor, sailboats passing by Ocean Point.

Simple Abundance focuses our attention on being grateful for these small things, for what we do have, and for all the things that actually go right in our day. Keeping a gratitude journal was a huge turning point for me, as it forced me to record my blessings each day. Some days, the main thing to be grateful for is that the day is over, but that's okay. Most days, we can all list at least 10 things for which we are grateful, and some days I challenge myself to get to 100. Once you start, it's not that hard.

Anyway, that's my book - do you have one that changed your world view?

Thanks again to Christine Tyler for hosting the SparkFest - it's been fun, and so nice to meet great people!

SPARKFEST POST #2: What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?

2011-08-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is my second post as part of the SPARK BLOGFEST, and the next question that our host, Christine Tyler (see more info in the box to the left) posed was:

What author set off that spark of inspiration for your current Work in Progress?

My current work in progress is in its infancy. But I can tell you that the story is based on my mother's experiences as a child in England and Wales at the start of World War II. In terms of genre, it will be YA historical fiction.

A few days ago, I would have told you that the book and author(s) that inspired me for this work in process are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Their story weaves between present and past to unearth secrets and mysteries surrounding events on the Ilse of Guernsey in the English Channel, while it was occupied by the Germans during WWII.

But .... then, this past weekend I was inexplicably drawn to re-read Mary Stewart's book, Rose Cottage. It hooked me, and I followed it up with Nine Coaches Waiting and Madam, Will You Talk? I can't seem to stop - The Ivy Tree is next. And I realized that my appreciation for books like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society began long before with Mary Stewart's books.

Stewart weaves historical fiction with a good mystery, and always, a satisfying romance. As I read her stories again, I soaked up the vivid sensory descriptions that make her settings feel like home. And I realized that I had subconsciously been drawn to read her books again because, for my new work in progress, I needed to be transported to 1940's England and to be reminded how it looked, smelled, sounded, tasted and felt. I needed to hear the language of English country folk and see the landscape, their homes and how they dressed.

I hadn't thought of Mary Stewart's books in years, but they have stayed on my shelves always. Her influence has been there waiting for me, and now I know why.

Would love to hear your answers to this question, or if you are also a lover of Mary Stewart!

****Many thanks again to Christine Tyler for hosting this fun and different Blog Fest.****

SPARK BLOGFEST POST

2011-08-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends! Over the next few days, I'm participating in the Spark Blogfest, aka SPARKFEST. This is the brainchild of Christine Tyler, whose blog is called, "The Writer Coaster." Much gratitude to Christine for her great idea.

If you want to participate, you can sign up at: http://www.christinetyler.net/

The "Spark" post topic for today is: What book made you realize that you were doomed to be a writer?

As a child, I read everything. I read so much everything that I can't even remember what I read. But the answer to this question is: The House at Pooh Corner, by A.A. Milne. Now, considering the many more impressive titles I could have thrown out there, like War and Peace or Ulysses, you might wonder, why this book? The answer is: I don't know.

What do I know is that I remember reading this book when I was around eight years old, and having the quite specific thought, I want to write books like this.

Perhaps it was the "In Which ...." chapter titles. Or maybe it was the tiddely-poms. Milne had a rhythm to his words that made his prose poetic. And he elicited feelings of wistfulness that made me long for my childhood, even though I was still in it! Whatever the reason, this was the book that gave me the writer bug.

Would love to hear your answers to the question.....

Standing in the Rain: Words of Wisdom from Writer Arthur Wooten

2011-08-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

My dear friend Arthur Wooten's third book, Birthday Pie, is really doing great. He's also revised the play version, and the possibility of a film is still in the works. Arthur has been traditionally published, but he is also now a pioneer in the world of self-publishing, and recently formed his own publishing company, Galaxias Productions.

Carrey Parish interviewed Arthur on Goodreads, and I pulled out the last question and answer to post here because I liked what Arthur said so much. To read the full interview, go to: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/1469967-carey-parrish-reviews-birthday-pie-and-talks-to-arthur-about-the-success

Carrey Parish: "What advice or wisdom can you pass along at this point in your life?"

Arthur Wooten: "I’ve said it before, regarding success with writing, but I find it’s true in life too. Be careful of the dominant thoughts you have running through your brain because they will tend to manifest. The law of the universe doesn’t care if they are positive or negative. So choose wisely. Also, if there’s something you want in life, keep your eyes open. Listen carefully. You have to learn to be lucky. An opportunity may be right in front of you and if you’re not aware of it, it will escape you. It could be seizing the right moment, noticing a great connection, thinking outside of the box. And in order to be struck by lighting (in a good way) you have to stand out in the rain. But you have to be willing to stand out in the rain longer than anyone else. I’ve been poured on. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. "

Lazy Days

2011-08-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone I talk to these days says they feel a bit lazy. I know I do. But I'm not sure if what we feel is lazy or just overwhelmed and helpless to do anything about it. We've had excessive heat, weather calamities and wildfires. We've watched our elected leaders' willingness to lead us to the brink (or past it?) of disaster. We've watched our bank accounts take a roller coaster ride. We've watched the streets of England erupt in senseless violence. It's all a bit too much, and enough to make anyone want to just go lie in a hammock for a month or two.

I've been blogging just once a week and that feels good to me. I don't always have something intelligent to say more often than that anyway! And I'm engaging in writer-mouse activities that are actually productive - checking the final book proofs, setting up my fall blog tour, making to-do lists and checking them twice. I only have control over my own little piece of the world, so it soothes me to attend to it.

This week I also did something that I've never done before. I wrote to some politicians and told them what I thought of all that's happened these past few weeks. As politely as I could, which is to say that there may have occasionally been a bite to my words.

Anyway, I'm sure that this is all the result of Mars and Pluto being up to no good, with some surprises from Uranus thrown in and of course, that darn Mercury always going retrograde. Don't buy anything! Don't sell anything! Don't quit your job, don't take a job, don't get on a plane! Apparently, hammock lounging is actually the only sane and astrologically correct course of action, so I think I'll get back to it ....

Yin, Yang and YadaYadaYada

2011-08-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

My last "Leap Before You Look" post was so much fun, I really just want to leave it up forever....

But, here in bloggy land, we must move forward!

Remember when Julia Roberts won the Oscar and then immediately her relationship with Benjamin Bratt went kaput? And then, the same thing pretty much happened to poor Sandra Bullock, only it was like the Julia Roberts situation on steroids. We call these ups and downs the yin and yang of life - the good offset by the bad, and vice versa.

Is it just me, or does this year seem like the yin and yang are waaaaay more yinny and yangy? All my friends seem to be having big swings between ups and downs, and I know it's been true for me too. We started the year with the most wonderful, long, relaxing trip to La Paz, Mexico. Yin. Not long after we got home from that, my mother passed away. Big Yang. A few weeks later, I was selected for the jury on a very high profile, very emotional Santa Fe trial. Yang. I solved some mysteries about my mother's life as a young girl in England at the start of WWII, and made some lovely friends across the pond. Yin. We've been trying to sell our house and it just hasn't happened. Yang. But then, my book will be coming out this fall. Big Big Yin.

Every year has its ups and downs. We expect it. It's just that, this year, like the extremes in weather and the extremes in economic conditions, it feels like our lives are also swinging between dramatic extremes.

In yoga, yin and yang refer to different kinds of energy. Yin is passive energy and yang is active energy. There is no judgement that one is good and the other bad, they are simply different. It's hard to look at the sad and upsetting aspects of life as anything but "bad." But, as is often the case, looking at things through my yoga lens helps me put things in perspective. All of life has its purpose, the ups, the downs, and the in-betweens. The in-betweens would be the yadayadayada part, and that's not actually a yoga term :-).

Anybody else feel like they're on the seesaw this year?