I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that the New Year has already started out equally positive. I had a great time in Las Vegas where I spent a week enjoying the sites and sounds, and of course, gambling a little.

As a retired educator, I don’t have a bundle of money hiding in my pockets so I am careful in my daily allotment of spending, but I must admit I sure do like the possibility of a big jackpot. So far that hasn’t happened. Neither have I been “discovered” by a big time book company in New York City, but that doesn’t keep me from dreaming on both fronts.

Coyote Smart is actually selling fairly well, and I had my best book signing ever during the Christmas holidays at Paragraphs on Padre. I am optimistic that all three books will continue to sell in 2011.

Speaking of the New Year—my spring calendar is crazy with travel so I am going to be cutting back on my blog posts. What have been my regular Monday and Wednesday postings will now occur more randomly. Hopefully that will cause you to check in more often to see if there is something new. And I promise, there will be new posts and new information placed often here, though not as consistently as in the past.

Keeping Faith will continue to be serialized each Friday.  I am definitely not stopping my blogs; I’m just slowing down a little in order to have time for my travels and other interests. I will keep you posted on where I’m going and what I’m doing so please stay tuned in and make comments when you do so I know you are still there. Your input is so very important to me and your support heartwarming and motivating. Please tell your friends about my books and me about your thoughts on my writing.

Curious & Observant

As I have noted before, blogging is time-consuming for me. Maybe it isn’t for some, but that’s not the case for me because I want to write about more than just what I am doing day to day like in Julie and Julia. I must admit, however, that I did enjoy the movie, and I often wish I could be as brief and succinct as Julie when I blog.

But just as with my books, I want to give you more…I want to include either something for you to laugh about or something to think about when you have finished. After all, you deserve to get something from your time spent perusing my website and reading my posts. Your time is valuable and I realize that. So if I haven’t said thank you lately, shame on me. I do appreciate you, and I especially thank you for your taking time to make comments.

Friends ask where I come up with all my ideas, (several of my more illustrious buddies have been more direct and asked where do I get all my BS) both for my books and my blogs. I have just smiled and ignored them, but you nice people deserve to know the facts.

First, I am extremely curious and observant (those same people use the word nosey). Admittedly, I probably miss some of the obvious aspects looking for the gory details or the funny and warped subtleties. I love people watching. I get that from my dad, who also always made some pretty funny remarks, not fitting the Baptist deacon that he so proudly was!

Many times I have to make mental notes, but if I have my trusty tiny moleskin notebook, used for the past two centuries by writers and artists (not mine, just moleskin notebooks in general), I jot down reminders of scenes or people to use later. I love my little black book. It puts me in a “writing mood,” and my creative juices begin to flow. It also makes people wonder what and why I am scribbling quickly and looking at them. That’s part of the fun.

Second, I get my ideas from watching the news or reading current events. I find myself not thinking so much about the news itself, but the greater story and how it plays out in the lives of those it touches. That’s how Keeping Faith came to be. It’s not really about a kid being abused or about the indescribably awful priest who did it. It’s about the trickle down effect that we sometimes miss—the psychology of the event and the fact that the crime is always bigger than the victim, the effects generally more widespread than noted, and the hurt deeper than we realize as bystanders.

Blogging is a contact sport. I’m beating myself up!!! I have learned that I must start winding down my blog writing earlier in the day because when I go to bed late into the night after writing, my body is ready, but my mind isn’t! I am too wired. Even if I do go to sleep quickly, I wake up in the wee hours of the morning with the most recent blog on my mind, thinking of changes, additions, deletions, etc. So, I have officially decided all writing must end by 5:00 p.m.  That’s somewhat of a significant time for me anyway so that will work well.

I can sit outside, look at the water and let my mind “chill out”. Then I can return to what was my schedule, before I embarked on this web site, of watching HGTV, Food Network, The Travel Channel and cable news. Exciting, huh?

Speaking of television–last week my cable was out for four days.  I missed seeing the cable company’s advertisement of “outstanding, quality service guaranteed” for four whole days while I steamed and called them repeatedly to try to arrange for quicker service, all to no avail. It’s not that I am a TV fanatic. On most days I can live with or without it, but I guess it is all about just knowing I couldn’t watch, that got me so fired up. Of course, I handled it with much aplomb and patience.  If you believe that then I’ll make you a very special deal on the book!!!

I am much calmer now, but still interested in talking to the local dish or Direct TV provider.  I am, however, frustrated at myself for being the least amount dependent on cable, but I am a creature of habit, and finding out what ridiculous political quote or dumb law Congress enacted on a particular day is just a part of my journalist background (I think I failed to say in my biographical sketch that I was a reporter for a local newspaper when I was in college, but please don’t hold that against me).

So seven days a week I watch and listen to world events. Several years ago, when my great nephew, who loves TV was about four and my niece was visibly upset by the loss of her mother-in-law, he tried to comfort her by saying, “It’s okay Mom, at least we still have cable.”

There was little consolation for me during that time of lost news, weather, design shows, and reviews of exotic places to visit. Some good did come from the inconvenience since I did use some of that time wisely by continuing my editing, along with various and sundry tasks that I never knew before were required in getting a book to completion.

Some of you have emailed me or commented on the web site, asking whether KEEPING FAITH will be available on Kindle.  That is in the works so all you “techy-type readers should be taken care of if all goes to plan.  I’ll let you know as soon as that is complete. You will be able to order from Amazon the same way you would order a print version.