First, let me say I know I do not deserve a snow day.  I had a wonderful, long Christmas break, then took a week off to celebrate Second Christmas with La Daughter when she came, but…

They’re calling for snow tonight and tomorrow! (Skipping with glee around the office)

I want it.

I want it bad.

Think about it, a four day holiday and time to work on my edits for Wraith’s Heart and get some traction on Alien Beginnings (working title only).  A day when I know I don’t have to go outside for any reason. I can pull the shawl off the back of the chair and put it around my shoulders (or feet) and be snug and productive at the same time.

As a kid in school I always wanted a snow day. Back then we had them fairly often even this far south. Now they’re so scarce the TV goes crazy with the possibility and bread and milk disappear days in advance instead of hours.  Aside – I’ll always wonder what people do with all that bread and milk anyway.  Even in my memory we were never snowed in – that is really snowed in where you couldn’t get out – for twenty-four whole hours.

Also as a kid I was under the impression that teachers hated snow days because you missed a day of learning and it had to be made up.  It never occurred to me that teachers and other adults wanted a snow day as bad as I did. Then my sister became a school teacher.  The truth is out – the teachers want them a lot more than the kids!! I know Sis is probably making sacrifices to the snow gods as I type.  I’d help her if I wasn’t at work.

What would you do with a beautiful, get-out-of-jail free snow day?

Oh yeah….  (Pics from the blizzard in NYC in Dec 2009)

This morning! 1/18 –

Second Christmas is over and finally the decorations are coming down. My apologies to the neighbors, but it was grand fun. All outside decorations will be down soon. La Daughter was here for five days (fifty years too short but you have to adapt). The family came (except for El Son who came at 1st Christmas) and we had a grand time. The spicy rib-eye roast was cooked and devoured, presents were exchanged and laughter exploded all over.

Special news – my nephew and his partner will be getting married and we’re all delighted for them. I’ll have to find an aunt of the grooms outfit, but don’t have to worry about that today. I can lose 50 pounds easily by then. Hey, I write fiction, anything can happen!

But it is kind of nice to have the house back to myself. TV off, no music in the background, hubby still at work for now. And I’m writing, maybe not on one of the manuscripts I have under construction, but I am writing, so that’s something. Feels like ages since I had the time and spare brain power. Have a HCRW meeting tomorrow and nothing gets the juices flowing like being in a room with those people for any length of time. The atmosphere fairly crackles with inspiration.

‘Course these guys are pretty inspirational too. Miss them already.

Just signed the contract with Rebel Ink to publish my next novel – check it out  Wraith’s Heart

More details asap!

Time to reflect, right? Well I have to say it’s been incredible for me. Some little things – NC gave us dumb old state workers our first raise in five years (1.2%), survived an election by turning off live TV and getting rid of the landline <g>.

No, it was a good year. La Daughter graduated from college, moved to the big city and got a great job! How cool is that? And El Son will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks that has him very excited. Hubby got a promotion that delayed retirement but he’s challenged and energized – okay at least challenged.

Me? I published three books. THREE! Talk about a dream come true, literally. I’ve written for years, decades to be honest. But I never let anyone read anything I wrote – even Hubby. Then someone slipped something they had read onto the internet and I got a fan letter. After the shock wore off, I dipped my toe in again and ran into the most incredible friends I’d never met. Who knew? People liked what I was writing.

Skip forward and I get the courage to finish up some of the manuscripts that have littered my computer for ages and submit one to Rebel Ink Press. To my heart stopping shock, they liked it and wanted to publish it.  Rth Rising would finally see the light of day. So I sent them a second one – and holy s**t, Learning Trust was out there. The third one, Homecoming, was a departure – not science fiction or paranormal – just a story that came from having to clean out my parents’ house after they were gone. And people are buying and reading them. Part of me is still walking around in a daze.

I have a short story – about a returning Viet Nam veteran coming out in February, Welcome Home, and now two more manuscripts are out there, hoping to be snatched up and shared with someone.

Doubt I’ll ever recreate a year like this, but knowing that it’s even possible, I’m going to keep trying. And thanking all of you – who made it such a success.  Thank you, 2012! Come on 2013 – show me what you got!