GOODBYE JANUARY

GOODBYE JANUARY

January is the month of resolve. The excesses of the holiday season are behind us and we resolve: To be thinner, pursue more fitness, and be more disciplined in ________,housework, gardening, our hobbies, our entertaining, you fill in the blank. Having resolved, I am glad that January is behind us. It is in our rear view mirror, adios resolve month.

We are now moving into the gray month of February. It is the month of sleety skies, partly cloudiness, and bitter wind. It is often a cold windy month of flu statistics, sneezing, and coughing. If you don’t believe me, just go to the grocery store and see for yourself. People will be sputtering over your bananas.

The thing I remember most from childhood about February is the cherry vanilla ice cream you could get around President’s Day. This was the only time of the year you could get it. I thought it was interesting as a child, the man killing a cherry tree by chopping it down would give us cherry vanilla ice cream to commemorate his day. I have always enjoyed the ice cream.

The thing to which I cling is this. After the grayness of February everything starts to bloom again, daffodils appear with their fragrance and sunny faces. Tiny blades of greenness appear to give us hope that all is not lost between resolve and grayness tempered with cherry vanilla ice cream.

 

LISTENING TO ADVICE

LISTENING TO ADVICE

There are many people who know more than I do. I have no doubt in my mind, or heart. I try to adapt the advice I get to my circumstances, so it will be truly useful. Sometimes trying to adapt the advice is part of the problem, especially if you are too close to the issue to begin with. Circumstances are so personal.

I had three agents tell me that my idea would never sell in the current written form. Imagine, not one but three, the trinity of agents saying no way, won’t go like this. This announcement was the beginning of the struggles. I have a vast imaginary world that I am struggling to share. It is big. It is complicated. It is populated by many characters and their settings.

So now I have started the description of this world over. I have no doubt that eventually I will be able to share it with you. It will be excellent when I do have it all worked out. You will enjoy seeing what I have to show you. 

I can now report that I have finished the eighth version of this story. It is going through the critique group process. So we will see what everyone thinks about it.

 

HAVING TROUBLE WITH PLOT POINTS

HAVING TROUBLE WITH PLOT POINTS

Well, my story isn’t arcing. I have spread it out on a cork board and I am struggling with all of the plot points and scenes. I have been eating and sleeping this story. Next hopefully, I’ll dream how to resolve it. Usually when I have this much trouble, I move on to something else, like blogging…

I feel the ideas are out there just beyond the reach of my subconscious. I can almost see them. The problems have to do with my main character development. This little guy needs more flesh. He is becoming clearer. Red haired, freckled, riding his bicycle around the neighborhood, do you see him? He is not clear to me yet.

The creative process is so difficult. Anyone who doesn’t think writing is work should try it. The research, the study, the index cards… My best friend is my thesaurus and my dictionary. I guess I should feel blessed because I haven’t had a day like this in a very long time. Usually it just flows for me and I have to just organize the ideas as they come pouring out. But not today, today I think I need a nap.

 

SNOWED IN

SNOWED IN

We are starting our New Year being snowed in like so many other people. As long as the power stays on being snowed in is not so bad. If the power goes out and we have to shelter in place, it gets more inconvenient. Eating peas out of a can is a challenge even when you are hungry. Peaches are not so bad.

I just had to introduce my two outdoor cats to the idea that they were snowed in. There is a four foot drift in front of the pet door that would lead them to the yard. There will be no squirrel patrol today, and I know the birds are sheltering in place because nothing is moving out there among the snow flakes. The cats didn’t take this news lightly. After standing in front of the pet door and hissing at the white thing blocking their exit they decided to eat breakfast.

No one is going anywhere today. We may not go tomorrow either because of the temperatures. When my children were younger we would make snow ice cream, and snow men. However, I am not building a snowman in my yard in this temperature. I can hope that the snow forms an insulating blanket around the plants in my yard that I care about and look at my seed catalogues until spring.

 

 

RESOLUTIONS

RESOLUTIONS

The end of the year is tomorrow. I have decided not to make any resolutions. Resolutions have to do with giving something up. I am not going to give up anything, I am just going to move forward with positive actions.

What is this New Year anyway? It is just the renewing of the calendar. It is a good thing that we just start the calendar over, if we didn’t think how cumbersome our bookkeeping system would become. We wouldn’t be able to keep anything fixed in time. So how was my 2013?

I have to say it was very creative. I have worked very hard. I have established two blogs, count them, two. I have written six or seven short stories. I have joined and nurtured critique groups. I have produced a story for fourth graders that will surely become a series. I have started over on my fantasy world with super heroines eight times. I am sending off entries to competitions. So I have been remarkably busy.

What about 2014? I will continue to encourage everyone that I love and believe in. I will blog until I am blue. I will review like crazy. I will start over in my fantasy world until I get it right and you are able to read it.

MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS

MAGIC OF CHRISTMAS

Christmas is magic. The crowning of the year with the shortest day and the reversal of the sun’s journey gives life to our planet. We come through the time of the ultimate darkness and turn back to the light. The joy of the season is the recognition that the darkness is once more moving from us.

With the internet, the preparation for Christmas is awesomely simple. I don’t even wait for Cyber-Monday, I just get out there and get with it. I ordered more things than usual this year and threw my credit card company into a panic. “Please call us and verify that no one else has your card, you have some unusual activity occurring.” Just doing my part to promote economic prosperity for all I was able to touch electronically.

The magic is in my grandchildren’s faces when they see the wrapped things of mystery. They are too young to be at that greedy stage and still just wonder where all the wrapped things come from. Too young to even acknowledge the Santa myth, but not too young to know that Grandma is really fun, and there is some really fun stuff at her house.

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DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS

DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS

I used to go all out in the decoration department. ‘All out’ involved getting ready for Christmas by what you did. So when my daughter was little, I crocheted about twenty five snowflakes that decorated our tree for years.

My personal favorite was the ‘Jesus Set’ my daughter punched out and set up for several years. It was fun to read the Christmas story, punch out the cardboard figures, and set them up on the window sill.

I won’t argue that those were the good old days, but I will stand up for our traditions. We had a bunch of them. We painted wooden ornaments with my sisters in law. We baked those plastic ornaments that filled your kitchen with the toxic smell and made your eyes burn. We painted cork ornaments one year. We made the flour dough ornaments and painted them one year. All of this activity was to make the point that it was what you did to get ready for Christmas, not what you bought that made Christmas preparations special and meaningful.

When my daughter was about ten years old, she looked at me and said, “This year I want a ‘Jesus Set’ you don’t punch out.” So the tradition of the cardboard ‘Jesus Set’ you punched out bit the dust.

When my daughter married and left home, I sent all of the ornaments with her from her childhood. When she left home, my son was two and we created a whole new set of traditions. I have since passed onto his wife most of the ornaments we made while he was growing up. My grandchildren are busy creating now their own traditions. I say Merry Christmas and carry on.