Revisions today

Last night it poured rain. Today the wind is drying things up a bit. Out front yard is soggy. This morning I saw standing water out there.

Today I'm working on some revisions for the next Princess Posey book. I feel like Posey really coming to life now...one of the things I really like about doing a book series is that you can stay with characters longer and really develop their world. You start having thoughts like, "Posey would totally like that."

After today I'm taking down the Holiday decorations. I'm ready to start the annual ritual of cleaning out, cleaning up, organizing things around the house and studio and looking at a fresh new new year. I have my 2011 calendar waiting to be hung.

I love this time of year. Fresh.

E-Book Discussion

A very good discussion on e-books here.

Surprised Kitty (Original)- Happy Holidays!

This little video lightened my day- hope it lightens yours!

Statement

When people specifically, and without prompting, go out of their way to tell you they have "no agenda," you can be absolutely assured that they do have one.

Catching Up on Glorious Sleep

For the last 4 days I have been to bed early and woken up late. I'm savoring this rare bit of extended sleep. The weather is rainy and gray and it just seems perfect to linger there in the mornings under the warm covers.

Home Made Chai

Report from the Kitchen

At this moment, our kitchen smells fantastic! orange peels, ginger, cloves, curry, garlic, bacon, cinnamon...We're expecting more rain tonight. It's nice to be cozy inside.

Happy Holidays and Hurray for Celebrating Early!

Because Tristam "shares two houses," we celebrated Christmas early this year and now Fred and I find ourselves all done with the gift and family part of Christmas and onto relaxing and regroup ing for the New Year. It's pretty great.

For Tristam we started a tradition this year (which we plan on keeping) of having him open up a gift or two a day until "Christmas" . It's prefect! you know that glazed over "give me more" attitude you get form a child set out in front a big pile of presents. That disappointment at seeing how all of the things you and friends and family carefully selected just become thrown in a pile of other opened gifts,the one or two a day thing is great because each gift is appreciated. We talked about who gave the gift, make a thank you and sometimes a gift in return like a handmade one. It's like savoring a food you love instead of scarfing down too much in one go and then tossing your cookies afterwards.

So here we are. It's raining outside. The holiday lights are plugged in and we are cozy inside. I'm doing some drawing and Fred is working on some project...yoga in a little while, then back to our rainy day bliss without any more holiday stuff to worry about! :)

Author Photos

A strange thing. The author photo. Fred took lots of these this morning. These are the finalists.

Around the House

11 Days

Only 11 days until Christmas. All of our shopping and gift making is done and now we can relax a bit. I was out today returning some things at shops and people are already starting to have that frenzied, grumpy look to them.

It's nice to not have to be in contact with shoppers and instead now be able to focus on family and friends and doing holiday activities.

30 Years Ago

I can remember the morning I woke up and heard the news that John Lennon had been shot. I was 12 years old, almost 13, and the week before I had gone to Target and purchased Double Fantasy at Target. I remember that it knocked the wind out of me. I was a HUGE Beatles fan- still am- I read everything I could get my hands on about them and thanks to my Dad's record collection, I listened to their music constantly.

Today I listened to this interview that includes excerpts from an interview recorded 3 days before he was murdered. Here was a guy who had finally gotten to a really happy place in his life and was just beginning. There is so much optimism in the interview. He says in the end of the interview that he hopes he will be around a long, long time...Then just hours later, he was shot.

Olives, Sunsets and the Weeks are Going by So Quickly AND I Have Been Really, Really AWful at Blogging Lately

How did it get to be December so quickly! Argh! Okay, well, here is an update: This is one of the best times of the year foe sunsets here. The are has that clean, fresh quality about it right now- with rain coming from time to time. The sunsets so early now, it's making the days feel like they are going by at an accelerated rate...plus the holiday stuff!

On Friday, Tristam was in the holiday parade in San Luis Obispo. The kid had a blast! he loves to entertain a crowd. This is a small town parade. The kind where the local shops sponsor local clubs and groups and they make their own trailers, floats and costumes. We saw so many people we know both in the audience and in the parade. It was a really fun night.

The next morning we had another family outing. This time it was at friends, Lisa and Scott's, farm helping with the olive harvest. They make a primo olive oil (award winning, in fact). There were lots of couples with kids and quite a few kids from Tristam's first grade class and even his kindergarten and first grade teachers. A mariachi band serenaded us olive pickers as we worked, then at noon we were treated to a BBQ and we watched as the olives were poured into a crusher and the oil was separated from the pits. Anyhow- we had a blast.

I've been working on another Princess Posey book and assorted other projects. It's been a busy but fun time....