WHAT'S HAWAII COMPARED TO A BOOK SIGNING!

Our fortieth anniversary, we spent the morning at Barnes and Noble, who hosted my first book signing for my newly published novel, MATTIE.  It was a sellout requiring additional orders. For lunch, we drove forty-five minutes to eat at the Green Spoon. In the heart of old town, and like all the other businesses on the street, the restaurant was skillfully renovated, maintaining its quaint charm. I ordered a delicious Rachel Sandwich—as opposed to a Reuben. My husband ordered grilled salmon.

We came home to laundry.

John said I let him off easy. He expected a hold out for Hawaii.

Add popcorn and a late night DVD, I say the day was perfect.

Some things are just worth it.

Along with fuel and food, my visit to California cost me a two hundred dollar traffic ticket and a hard fall in the tub.  I hazarded the sixteen-hour drive for the grandchildren.  In one week, we celebrated three special occasions, attended three performances, and just hung out, sometimes talking, sometimes dancing to cool music, flashy light thingies, and swirling fog.

Well worth the cost!

Chic-lit Romeos

Clichés are poison to good writing and nothing is more cliché than the hero with broad shoulders, narrow waist, and rippling muscles. It never fails that his shirt stretched across his chest, his arms were hard to the touch, his form filled the doorway. And what in sweet heaven is a cute butt?  Do men want cute, except to look at? (He has cute abs. Aren’t his pecs cute? Oh, look at his biceps. Aren’t they cute)? And we’re lead to believe the male paragon is unaware of his Adonis status.

Yeah, right! A mirror is a weight lifters best friend.

I watched a movie where an unremarkable, skinny man with thinning hair unexpectedly became the Romeo. He had no dazzling smile, piercing blue eyes, or wavy blond hair to recommend him. A delightful sense of humor, cleverness, confidence, and a deep sense of others were his redeeming qualities. As the story progressed, who he was overshadowed what he was not. By the end, the female protagonist was not the only one in love with him, so were the women in the audience.

Imagine revolutionizing chic lit romance with the Cyrano de Bergeracs and Colonel Brandons of the world as the idols of happily even after? Imagine revolutionizing the Bergeracs and Brandons. 

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed.  The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to just be people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise.  Life is like an old time rail journey….delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed.  The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”  (Gordon B. Hindkley, 15th President of the Church of Latter-day Saints)

WINTER

I don’t like winter.  I don’t like cold, I don’t like snow, other than to look at it from the inside, and I despise long nights, which I fear will be even longer if I don’t try to appreciate something about the enduring dark season.

There’s Christmas with jingle bells, silent night, and a good excuse to eat.  Saturday morning is free to do something other than mow the lawn, and weeding is only a memory.   Long sleeved tops hide old-lady arms and a serves a convenient place to tuck a tissue at the wrist. Crystals, hanging in the south-facing window, scatter a myriad of rainbows that grace the walls and flounce on the floor. There’s the moment before the sun slips behind the mountain when a long finger of sunshine reaches through the window diagonally across my room, through the door, down the hall, and shines directly into a dark room lighting it up as if by magic.  Best of all, each winter day is one day closer to summer.

Winter feels shorter already.

Reaching Across The Isle

Reaching across the isle goes both ways.  Some how it is expected that only our more conservative congresspeople compromise and do the reaching.  When the Democrats dig in and hold their ground it's heralded by the media as political sagacity.  Let the Republican side of the isle take the same action, and it's called stonewalling, divisive, do nothing.

MATTIE

Can it be? My first book, MATTIE, is going to print January 9, release date, March 12, 2013  I'm afraid I'll wake from this wonderful dream.  It's well worth the humiliation of asking authors for endorsements, scheduling book signings, attending book signings. Ugh!  I do enjoy working with the wonderful  folks at Cedar Fort who are making it all possible. Taking one small bite at a time of the elephant makes the overwhelming project achievable.  The cover is a first draft.  The little girl holding a solitary flower encapsulates all that is Mattie, just a bit lost, just a bit lonely.

 MATTIE 

Born in Colonia  Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, nine-year-old Mattie’s faith in God is shattered when her father dies.  At age eighteen, moving to Bisbee, Arizona to live with her sister and husband, Mattie falls in love with a handsome banker from Texas.  Tragedy strikes plunging her into an abyss of dark despair.  At her lowest ebb, Mattie discovers that though she may have left God, He never left her.

Alonzo Skousen, Mattie’s childhood sweetheart, a tall, good-natured red head, wants to collect on her old promise to marry him.  Enos Wood, the handsome, dark eyed, gun-packing nemesis of her youth, leaves no doubt that he too has designs on her heart.  Mattie learns that trusting God is not without its trials and can lead to grief, especially when the Mexico Revolution threatens her fragile faith and wedded bliss.