September 30, 2008

From Friday afternoon until late Sunday night, every moment of my weekend was scheduled.  It was all good stuff, but so incredibly busy that I was really happy to see Monday come...(at least until I turned on the news and heard the latest plot twist in the story of our national financial crisis, but that is a subject for another time...)

I was so busy during the weekend that I didn't have a chance to write and tell you about the exciting call I got on Friday morning.  My editor rang up to tell me that A SINGLE THREAD has been chosen by Levy Books as their "Need to Read" selection for November.  Hooray!

Hmmm.  I don't hear the sound of you jumping up and down out there.  That's okay, I understand.  I suspect most of you have no idea what that means.  Neither did I until it was explained to me.  Here's the deal.

Levy is one of the biggest wholesalers in the country.  They actually choose, supply, and rack a good portion of the books that get sold in many non-bookstore outlets like Target, Wal-mart, K-mart, BJ's, Stop and Shop, Kroegers, Safeway, etc.  Their "Need to Read" program highlights one book a month and sets it up in a special displays letting customers know this is a book they "need to read".  

So, now are you jumping up and down?  Well, maybe you're not, but when I heard the news, I certainly did! 

September 25, 2008

Yesterday was a day full of little blessings.

First off, I'm enjoying our fall weather in New England immensely so, after dropping my son at school, I took my dog, Oliver, for an extra long walk around our little village.  The air was crisp and clear and the leaves are just beginning to turn.  It was such a pleasure to begin my day like that and I think Oliver agreed; his tail kept waving like a flag.  

Next, I went to the salon and got my hair done.  I don't know about you, but I always feel like a new woman after a trip to the hair salon.  Later in the day, I went to my son's cross country meet and it was great!  He placed higher than he's ever done before and this on a particularly difficult and hilly course.  Watching him come in the shoot and cross the finish line in such great time made my heart glow. 

And, as if all that weren't enough, when we got home we discovered a big package had been left on our doorstep.  Upon opening, it revealed a lovely gold box of Godiva chocolates!  And they were free!  A gift from Godiva thanking us for our holiday gift orders last year (and, of course, reminding us that their chocolates would make wonderful gifts this year as well).

A good walk, a good hair day, a good race, and a box of chocolates.  It's the little things that make life so sweet.   

September 22, 2008

I'm crazy about my mother, always have been.  She has the ability to see the good in virtually any situation. 

For example, when I was a teenager, our house burned down as a result of faulty wiring.  Fortunately, the blaze began on a night when she was off at a graduate school class and I was babysitting. No one was hurt and my beloved cat, Gretchen, escaped.  Still, it was upsetting standing on the street with all the neighbors milling around, watching the flames climb into the night sky.  I started crying.  Seeing this, my mother walked over, punched me on the shoulder (she was never a huggy sort of mom but I knew it meant the same thing), and said, "What are you crying about?  We've got our cat.  We've got our car.  And we've got a University of Oregon stadium blanket.  Now, what the heck else is it that you think we need?" 

Mom always knows how to put things into perspective.  She did the same thing last week, a rocky week I doubt any of us will soon forget.  What with the media talking about things like "recession", "depression", and "world wide financial collapse", just listening to the radio got pretty scary. 

But after they announced the big $700 billion government bailout, Mom rang me up and said, "I don't own any stock or securities so I was starting to feel kind of left out.  But now, since I'll be helpig to foot the bill along with the rest of the taxpayers, I really feel like I'm in the loop again!" 

That's my mom, always able to find a silver lining.              

September 18, 2008

I'm deeply involved in writing at the moment, working on the third book in a series none of you have read yet because the first book in the series, A SINGLE THREAD, doesn't even come out until October 28th. (However, you can pre-order it now and I think you should - probably five or six copies.  After all, I'd buy your book if it was coming out.  Yes, indeed I would.)  

It seems so odd that I'm all wrapped up in these characters and you don't even know them yet, but that's just the way the publishing world works. Generally, books are years in the making.  I'm not sure why that is, I'm just the writer, but there's probably some very good reasons.   

But I digress.

The point of today's blog was to let you know that the reason I haven't blogged recently is that I'm writing and when I am, not much else happens. Writing makes for a  very slow news day.

Whenever I go out and speak with groups, someone inevitably asks, "what does your writing day look like?"  Now, I know that what they actually meant to ask was what sort of writing schedule I keep; how many hours I write, do I write every day, and how many pages I get done in a day,  (I think this also may be a backhanded way of asking why it takes so darned long for me to write a book.  I really don't know why, it just does.  Believe me, I'd do it faster if I could.) so I go ahead and answer the question they meant to ask rather than the question they actually did ask.

But the impish part of me is always tempted to answer literally as in, "My writing day looks like me sitting in a chair and, except for my fingers on the computer keys, keeping absolutely still for hours at a time.  If you had a choice between watching a writer write and watching paint dry, go for the paint.  It's a lot more exciting."  Actually, for me it's very exciting because it's all happening in my head, but writing is not a spectator sport - worse than watching golf on television.  

Tomorrow will be better.  I'm driving to Boston to attend NEIBA, the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show.  I'll be signing at 1:00pm, so if you're going to the show come by and say hello.  I'm looking forward to getting out and mixing with my favorite people - Book People.  

Also, my friend Pam is taking the day off to drive up and back with me.  We probably won't have time to do much more than eat lunch and then go home, but we'll have lots of time to talk on the way.  I'm driving, which means I get control of the CD player.  I'm already picking my play list for the trip.  There will be lots of Dixie Chicks, Bette Midler, Judy Garland, and Diane Schuur.  I was thinking of bringing along some Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte too, but then decided this was going to be an all girls road trip so Frank and Harry will have to stay home.  It should be fun!  Think Thelma and Louise go to NEIBA.

Okay, maybe not that exciting (I hope not!)  But definitely more exciting than watching paint dry or golf on television.

September 13, 2008

Twenty-six years ago today, I gave birth to my first child, Alex.

Alex has always marched to his own drummer.  He's the kind of person who has to know things for himself, he simply refuses to rely on the opinions of others or, as my friend Marjie would say, "he's not content to read the textbook, he's just got to take the field trip."  

This is good news on many fronts.  For one thing, Alex is always up for an adventure and is willing to try something new. The bad news is that tends to scare the heck out of me - but that's never seemed to bother him much.  

Today was no exception.  Some time ago, Alex decided he wanted to spend his birthday in New Orleans - a perfectly reasonable thing to do, something I wouldn't mind doing myself.  But, had it been me, I'd have cancelled my plans after I heard that Hurricane Ike was blasting it's way through the Gulf.  Not Alex.  When the entire world was evacuating, Alex was flying TOWARD the storm.  

That's my boy.  And that is one of the many things I love about him.  Happy Birthday, Alex.  Don't ever change.

September 11, 2008 

I’m glad the sun isn't shining today,

As it did those seven years past,

When we blinked, unbelieving, at the flash and the flames,

And we stared at the heavens aghast

Today there are clouds in the sky, in the soul,

In the heart, no light shines, as we pause

To mourn faces of strangers, the world that is changed,

Though we still cannot fathom the cause

So we cry and we fight and we vote and we cling,

To the hope that soon all will be right,

And it will, when the Bright Morning Star returns home,

To bring the world into the light

September 9, 2008

Vacation is definitely over.  My son went back to school yesterday and, after dropping him off and then coming back home for a brief catnap (my body has to readjust to 6am alarms) I started writing a new book.  It felt strange but good.  I didn't write a word for the entire month of August - the longest break I've had in three years.  

I was worried that it would be hard for me to get back in the saddle again after such a long hiatus, but it wasn't at all.  In fact, by the end of the day today, I'd written as many pages as I'd figured to write for the whole week.  Maybe I'm getting faster.  I hope so.  I've got lots of deadlines on my calendar this year - which, though somewhat daunting, is much, much better than NOT having lots of deadlines on my calendar.  

I'm especially pleased by one recent addition to the writing schedule.  My publisher has asked for another novella from Maple Grove, the little Vermont village I wrote about in 2007's A HIGH-KICKING CHRISTMAS that appeared in the holiday anthology COMFORT AND JOY with Fern Michaels, Cathy Lamb, Deborah J. Wolf, and myself.  The sequel, which I'm calling THE PRESENTS OF ANGELS, will in included in a 2009 anthology with Fern Michaels and others.  Hope all of you who wrote to tell me you wanted more from Maple Grove will be as pleased as I am by this news.  I know Christmas 09 might seem a long way off, but in WMT (that stands for Writers Mean Time) thirteen months is very soon indeed. 

September 6, 2008

It feels so strange to write 'September' in the dateline of this entry.  How can it possibly be September already?  It can't be fall.  It certainly doesn't feel like fall.  Outside it's hot and humid and the leaves on my hydrangeas are drooping.  However, hot as it is, this is absolutely nothing compared to Belize.  

Hell may be hotter than Belize but there couldn't possibly be anyplace in this world that is, especially not in August.  Upon exiting the plane in Belize City, my younger son and I walked straight into a wall of stifling heat that made sweat drip from our faces and sent my hair into instant frizz-mode (where it stay for the next week).  There was no air conditioning in Customs, but I comforted myself with the thought that my husband and older son, Trey, the one who is living in Belize as part of a two-year commitment with the Jesuit Volunteers International and the reason we were there, would meet us and whisk us away to a rain forest resort in the comfort of an air conditioned pick-up truck.  It was not to be.

Trey and Brad were there to meet us, and that was a joy.  I'm a pretty good writer, but there are simply no words to describe how happy I was to see Trey after these many long months apart.  So happy that when he reported that the air conditioning in the truck he'd borrowed from his pastor was broken, I didn't even mind.  All that mattered was seeing him.  And after all, Belize is such a small country.  I'd looked on the map and calculated that it should take us only 90 minutes to reach our destination.  Certainly I could ride with the windows down for 90 minutes.  So off we went.  Well, what takes 90 minutes in the US takes about four hours in Belize, land of unpaved roads - some of them very rough with big, big rocks in the middle of them.  I'm serious.  I have never driven on rougher terrain.  It was one step away from mountain climbing.  Thank heaven the rocks didn't puncture our tires because on that isolated road it could have been hours before anyone passed who could help up.  We could have been eaten by tigers or something.  Okay, there's no tigers in Belize, but there are panthers.  And snakes.  At least eight of them are poisonous, a fact I was blissfully unaware of until John, one of my bookseller friends and a man of far too much information, updated me on the serpent situation a few days before our trip.  Thanks a lot, John.  

Anyway, we didn't break down, didn't get attacked by tigers, panthers, or snakes, and eventually arrived at the Blancaneaux Resort, a property developed and owned by Francis Ford Coppola and all I can say is Wow!  If Belize is one step away from Hell in terms of heat, then Blancaneaux and the surrounding rain forests are one step away from Heaven in terms of beauty.  Simply breathtaking.  The resort is rustic and luxurious all at once.  No air conditioning here either but the rooms and buildings all have high roofs thatched with palms and walls are partially open to allow the breeze to come through.  That, with the help of ceiling fans, makes it cooler than you'd think.  Still, it is hot outside and anything you want to do needs to be done either before 10am or after 4pm, so we just spent most of our time talking, relaxing, eating, playing board games, swimming and catching up.  We did take a tour of the facilities and I was very impressed with Blancaneaux's extensive organic gardens (they supply 80% of all their own produce) and it's very own hydro power plant which supplies all it's energy needs.  A highlight of our time there was a swim in the beautiful, pristine river that runs through the resort.  

Our next stop was Placentia, at the beach, a hotel called The Inn at Robert's Cove.  It was also lovely, but less isolated that Blancaneaux, and had air conditioned rooms.  Hooray!  There we needed them, the beach is hotter than the rainforest.  We had a great time enjoying the hotel's beach - we kayaked, swam, and had a terrific time sailing on our first day - the wind was perfect.  Again, it was simply too hot to do much touring, but we'd come to Belize to see our son and visit with him so I didn't mind.  

Our last stop was Belize City, where Trey lives.  On the way, we stopped off at the Kolbe prison, Belize's only maximum security prison and the place where he teaches English and Math to youthful offenders.  Inmates and guards alike were happy to see Trey and I really appreciated the chance to see how easily and well he interacts with his students.  I would never in a million years have voluntarily sent my son to work in this atmosphere, but he is very good and what he does and, I could see, a real asset and help to these kids.  I have nothing but admiration for him and the work he is doing.  After that, we went to Belize City.  Definitely NOT a resort destination.  Belize is such a beautiful country, but the city is ravaged by poverty and drugs.  It is a dangerous place to be.  There were things I wanted to take pictures of but didn't because Trey said it would be asking for trouble to pull my digital camera out of my bag.  I did manage to take quite a few pictures though and will be posting a few here in the photos section.  I sent them to my webmaster, Adam, and I'm sure he'll put them up as soon as he can.  It's much too technical for me to manage on my own.

One funny story, about two miles from our final destination in the city, our truck broke down - right in the middle of the street, the narrowest part so no one could pass, in the busiest part of town, next to a crack house that seemed to be doing a booming business.  To say the four of us stuck out like sore thumbs is an understatement.  The worst part was, we couldn't even push the truck off to the side of the road because the axel was locked!  We finally had to have a semi-push us and the smell of burning rubber from those locked wheels was very pungent.  Suffice it to say, we attracted quite an audience.  

While in Belize City, we had a chance to see where Trey lives, attend his church and catch a ride back to his house in the church van - a vehicle designed to seat seven that we crowded fourteen into, think clown car - and meet Trey's housemates, Molly, John, and Kristin.  Like Trey, all of them are working as volunteers in this very difficult part of the world for two years.  Anyone who says that young people today are lazy or self-centered hasn't met this crowd.  We had a great time visiting with them and taking them out for dinners, which they seemed to appreciate.  The stipend they earn with the JVI doesn't allow for much in the way of entertainment.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip but too, too short.  When it was time to go, I tried to be very brave at the airport, not embarrass my son by crying and, of course, failed miserably.  Now, I'm counting the months until July when he will be home for good.  I miss him already but am very glad I had the chance to see him in action.  He was indeed a sight to see.  

September 5, 2008

Last night I fell into bed around midnight, but it was my own bed and that was lovely!  

Yes, we're back from Belize and I've got so much to tell you but it will have to wait for a bit.  We've got a guest coming for lunch and there is absolutely nothing edible in this house.  Breakfast this morning was black coffee since there wasn't even a teaspoon of cream in the refrigerator.  So I'm off to the grocery store for provisions.  Check back in later and, hopefully, I'll have had time to write a bit about my adventures in Central America!