The Year of No Resolutions

I'm not making any formal resolutions this year. I always break them, anyway. :)

In 2011, I will simply ENJOY my life. I plan to celebrate the blessings I have Already Received, which are beyond counting.

I will laugh with family and friends.

I will explore my first and most beloved art form: writing. Quiet the committee of critics in my brain and just do what I love--tell stories.

I will follow that priceless British advice: Keep Calm and Carry On.

There may well be rough waters ahead, but we're up to it. We can do this.

I hope your 2011 will be the best year ever, followed by progressively better ones.

God bless you and yours.

Home Again

I made it! I'm home in Spokane, arriving yesterday evening in a flurry of snow. As we left Seattle, we were warned that we might not be able to land here, and would have to return to Sea-Tac, but thank heavens, it didn't happen.

Today, it's a winter wonderland out there. Truly beautiful. I'm so grateful to be snug and warm, here in my own house, with my dogs and kits for company. The power went off last night around nine, stranding Sadie-beagle and me in the kitchen--she was hoping in vain for a snack and I had just brewed some decaf in my handy-dandy Kuerig machine--but we managed to navigate our way upstairs and zonk out. The electricity came on again--bedside lamp shining in my face--about two o'clock. All this meant I had to skip a night with my sleep machine, but here I am, alive to tell about it.

I'm worried about all my friends in New York. They REALLY got slammed by that last blizzard. And where ARE the snow plows, anyway, Mr. Mayor???

I'm definitely tired today, and a bit under the weather, as I usually am after a trip, but I expect to rally soon.

Stay warm, stay safe, and stay kind.

And that's the news from my kitchen table.

Raindrops

I can hear the rare Santa Monica rain pattering on the roof top as I write this. I'm at Wendy and Jeremy's place, having spent Christmas with them, and I slept in the loft room.

I feel completely restored--no trace of the pleurisy, thank heaven. We opted out on the planned trip to Disneyland and just took everything pretty easy.

Christmas was lovely. I did receive gifts--my daughter knows me and therefore picks amazing gifts. The best of all, though, was a donation to an organization digging wells in places all over the world, where the water isn't good.

I fly out in a few hours. I'm ready to get home, see my critters and the crew, and get back in harness. Those mother-daughter writing sessions I mentioned, as you might have guessed, didn't materialize. Wendy just finished with three projects that were all on very tight deadlines, and she was tired. We did hit a wonderful craft store, went out for delicious Mexican food and to our perennial favorite, the Galley in Santa Monica. We watched movies and caught up on everything, and it was all so great.

I am still dazzled by one of those movies, "True Grit". As a die-hard John Wayne fan, I was skeptical that anyone, even Jeff Bridges, could pull off a remake of a classic like that one. Well, he did. He WAS Rooster Cogburn, come to life, and the other actors blew me away as well. Especially the actress who played Matty Ross. WOW. If you love a good Western, as I do, see this one. It's GREAT.

So that's the news from Wendy and Jeremy's guest room.

Tomorrow, good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll be back at my kitchen table, blogging away.

Hope you'll join me.

Merry Christmas, One and All

I'm visiting family in Southern California and having the best Christmas ever!

I was tired when I arrived, and still a little ill with pleurisy, but I am recovering rapidly, with all this love. :)

I hope you're all enjoying the holiday, as I am.

More tomorrow.

May you be blessed.

June Lund Shiplett

My friend June Lund Shiplett passed away very recently, and this blog is a tribute to her.

June was a writer's writer--two of her early books, "Journey to Yesterday" and "Return to Yesterday", were great favorites of mine, time travel stories I remember fondly all these years later. She was hugely popular in her day, and appeared on several national TV shows while on tour--I clearly recall watching her on Gary Collins' "Hour Magazine", with her beloved husband, Charlie. The host asked Charlie, a down-to-earth midwestern type, how success had changed their lives. Dryly, Charlie replied, "Well, we drive a little better car."

Eventually, Charlie became seriously ill, and June took care of him with a dedication and goodness of spirit worthy of the strongest romance heroine. This was a forever kind of relationship.

June taught writing courses for years, and won many, many friends with her elfin smile and twinkling eyes. I will miss her, as will countless others whose lives she touched, but I like to think she's with Charlie again--what a reunion that must be.

I can just see them, beaming at each other and launching into a wild polka.

So Godspeed, my friend, and say hello to Charlie for me.