October 29, 2008

Today's word of advice is the one your driver's education instructor (or your mom or dad or big sister or whoever taught you to drive) told you about lo those many years ago but which bears repeating, "Do not try to pass on curves, hills, or solid yellow lines.  It is dangerous for you and for others."

I'm sure most of you remember that good advice and follow it, but somebody out there needs to review. On the drive to my son's school this morning I met a driver (head on)  who apparently forgot all those rules and was a true triple-threat, passing on a curved hill, across a solid yellow, and coming within inches of smacking straight into me on a two land country road with no shoulder.  We're fine but...wow.   I didn't need coffee to get my heart pumping this morning.     

October 27, 2008

This morning, Deb Mella (the woman who inspired the character Evelyn Dixon in A SINGLE THREAD) and I did a four minute interview on WFSB-TV's Better Connecticut show. 

Have you ever been on television?  It's a strange experience. The older I get the faster time seems to go but when you're on tv, time moves at speeds that would wow even Captain Kirk and crew of the Starship Enterprise.  Four minutes isn't much time anyway, but when you're trying to explain the plot of a book and what motivated you to write it, four minutes is just a snap of the fingers.  At least that's what it felt like this morning.  There was so much I wanted to tell the viewers but there just wasn't time! 

So, I'll do so here.  After all, this is my blog.  I get to talk about whatever I want to.  No time limits.  No word count.

What I wanted to say but barely got to touch on is how much Deb's story inspired me as I worked on A SINGLE THREAD.  She is one beautiful, brave, kind lady and I couldn't have written the book without her.  I also wanted to tell you that, though she has decided to close her quilt shop to devote herself to family, friends, and raising breast cancer awareness, Deb still has a great website and online store at www.gonequilting.com.  If you visit, you'll be able to read about Deb's breast cancer story, buy some neat fabric and notions at incredible prices and very best of all, you could buy a simply gorgeous quilt made by her customers. (I think one of those lil' blocks was made by moi, but I don't remember which one.)  

If you do, all of the proceeds will go to breast cancer research!  How great is that!  So go to www.gonequilting.com and click on the tab that says "Quilt Pink Samples".  There are four beautiful quilts there.  Any of them would look great on your bed or in your guest room. 

Another thing I didn't have a chance to say in that lightening fast four minutes is that I'm going to be signing copies of A SINGLE THREAD on November 1 at 3pm at the The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington, CT and on November 2 and 2pm at Written Words Bookshop in Shelton, CT.  If you live anywhere near these fabulous bookstores, come on over and see me.  It's going to be a lot of fun!  And really, you and I don't get as many chances to get together these days as I'd like so I hope you'll make it.   There's more information on my calendar in the Appearances section of the site.

That's about it, I guess.  If you're interested in what I did get a chance to say in four frantic fly-by minutes, go over to www.wfsb.com and you can see the video clip of the interview.  (They don't show in the shot, but I was wearing these really cute hot pink shoes to match my blouse.  You'd have liked them.)    

October 20, 2008

It's Monday and that means I have to face the most dreaded hour of my week - organizing my desk.

Understand, I'm not one of those people who dislikes Mondays because it means I have to go back to work.  On the contrary, I really like work.  Most of it anyway - the writing books part.  But people would probably be surprised to learn how much of my work isn't involved with writing books, especially at this time of year, just two weeks before a release. (Have you ordered your copy of A SINGLE THREAD yet?  If you haven't, please do.  And if you have a) thank you and b) you might want to order another as a gift.  Christmas will be here before you know it.  A SINGLE THREAD has a very pretty red cover that would look great tied up with a green bow.)

At the moment, my desk is one giant pile of papers, publications, and sticky notes reminding me of all the stuff I don't have time to do.  There are letters to be answered, books to be mailed, bills to be paid, speeches to write, travel arrangements to be made, and interview questions to be answered, and that's just the beginning.    

I am a creative person, organization and prioritizing are not my strong suits - at least not in the personal sense.  Ask me to organize and prioritize your day and I'll do a bang up job.  But I can't seem to manage it for myself.  So, right now, I'm just staring at this pile of stuff, having no idea where to begin, and wishing I had a flame thrower to incinerate the whole lot.  Really, I'd love to get my priorities straight but I can't find them under the mounds of paper.  Yep.  That's it.  I'm a victim of misplaced priorities.       

Which is probably why I've begun my day by updating the blog.  Writing to you doesn't really seem like work and it's a whole lot more fun than making lists.  Odds are that, after this, I may just start working on the quilt blocks I cut out last night.  I can't see my desk from my sewing machine.                

October 16, 2008

We had about sixty people over for a party last night which was fun but, as you can imagine, also a little stressful.  For the last several days I have lived my life by lists:

9am - arrange and place flowers

10am - take compound butters out of refrigerator, grill  chicken for skewers, make satay

11am - brownies in oven, slice lemon squares and platter, peel and cube veggies for skewers

And on, and on, according to a schedule that - if I stuck to it, meant that everything would be ready when the guests arrived.  But, of course, the minute you make a schedule there's going to be something that comes along to shred it.  For me, it came in the form of a bat that decided to fly around my kitchen in circles way, way too early for Halloween!  I'm not wild about rodents of any kind but the kind with wings?  Yeah, I'm really, really not wild about them.

I ran for the bedroom, slammed the door shut and hid until a friend, Billy, who for some reason struck me as the sort of guy who'd know how to handle a bat emergency, drove across town to rescue me.  Forunately for me and for the bat, Billy was exactly the kind of guy I'd sized him up to be.  It didn't take five minutes for him to net and release the bat.  However, it took considerably longer for my heart beat to return to normal!  

October 9, 2008

Well, I had planned to spend my morning waiting for a phone call from the folks who hand out the Nobel Prize for Literature, but after what Horace Engdahl, secretary of the academy had to say about American literature, I guess I might just spend the morning canning applesauce instead.  Here's a quote from Horace.

"The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."

Hmm.  I'm wondering if his comments might have lost something in the translation. After all, I thought that literature itself is big the dialogue.  An author writes a book, puts it out there for people to read, love, hate, criticize, argue about, pass on to their friends, and, if the writer has done their job, to think about after the reader closes the back cover.  Isn't that the way it works?  The book creates the dialogue, doesn't it?  I always thought that was the process but then again, what would I know?  I'm just an American writer - you know how ignorant and insular we are.

On the other hand, maybe those adjectives could be applied to Mr. Engdahl as well.  Jonas Thente, a literature critic at the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, said "This year's scandal is about American literature, which has more or less been disrespected by the secretary of the academy. I would hope that the big American postmodern novel finally gets the prize." 

And here in the States, the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation offered to send Engdahl a reading list.  That seems like a good idea since he obviously hasn't read much American literature recently...or ever.  I'm one hundred percent sure my name won't be on that list but I'd imagine that Philip Roth, Thomas Pynchon, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, Don DeLillo, and Cormac McCarthy's will be.  That should keep Engdahl in books for quite a while.

So, the bottom line is, it looks like I won't be having dinner with the King of Sweden this year. Nor will any other American writer.  Such a shame.  But in literature and Nobel prizes, just as in baseball, there's always next year.  Maybe Mr. Engdahl will have widened his insular tastes in reading by then.    

October 6, 2008

My pastor is heading off to a men's retreat with several of the guys in my church next weekend and has asked me to fill in for him.  I'm very happy to do so, especially since the text is from Philippians.  I love the book of Philippians because it is loaded with so much wisdom for daily living.  

The chapter I'll be talking about, chapter 4, seems especially apt given the current worldwide financial gyrations.  If, like me, you're finding all these economic woes confusing and more than a little worrying, meditate on these wise words from Philippians 4:8-9 "...whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things...put it into practice.  And the peace of God will be with you."

Fortunately for me, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy things are just outside my door.  The fall foliage is beginning to turn in Connecticut and I've found that going for a walk and reveling in the beauty of this season does so much to calm my anxious heart and mind.  Whether you live in New England or Newfoundland or New South Wales, I'm sure it's the same where you are - there is beauty all around us.  So, if you're feeling anxious this week, I hope you'll get a chance to take a walk, clear your head, and feel at peace.  

This photo I took from a hill near my home doesn't begin to do justice to the scenery outside my door.