Christmas is coming

With Christmas only days away I find myself wondering can it be real? Can it be that some intelligent being created the whole Universe and fit all the pieces together so intricately so that everything works so amazingly? And then that same great intelligence humbled himself to be a small, vulnerable child in a dirty manger? Can it be that all the power and greatness of the Universe can be summed up in the miracle of a lowly birth? It is beyond my comprehension and yet so intriguing. It's not so much that I know it is true as I want it to be true. I believe the way a child believes in Santa. I want so to understand the universe and yet it is all so beyond me, but a baby in a manger, I can comprehend that. One little miracle.

Surf and Steve

Talked with Steve today about Good (or Great) News Town as we were sitting on the balcony watching the surf. When I wrote the book in 2001, I decided to set it in 2001 instead of 1984 when the serial murders that inspired it happened. Police procedure had changed a lot but since it isn't a police procedural, I just tried to update the newpaper business ...ie computer layout instead of going to the backshop for layout. When the book hadn't sold by 2007, I updated the procedures and all the dates to 2007 -- everyone had cell phones and cameras were digital. Now if I publish in 2011, do I update to today's iffy newspaper era, where posting on the internet supersedes the paper publication or do I return to 1984, the good ol' small town newspaper era? I was leaning toward going back to 1984, but Steve suggested keeping it in 2007 and then letting the sequels deal with the problems newspapers are facing now... so many losing their jobs, twitter and internet...... an interesting idea to ponder. I am listening to the surf and Steve.

Next Chapter

Steve and I are getting settled into our Florida condo for the next 3 months. The surf is roaring just outside my slider. I can watch it from my desk. It just keeps coming. You'd think with all that water rushing into the shore that it would run out eventually, but every wave into the sand just gets sucked up and feeds the next wave. There's a lesson there somewhere. I've been rushing to get "Laughing for a Living" published before Christmas and now, I suppose you could say, it is crashing to the shore, not with a bestseller big bang, but selling nevertheless. This isn't the end of the journey, however. The enthusiasm of this accomplishment only feeds my desire to publish another book and that will be my goal for this time in Florida, to prepare Great News Town for publication, and work on the sequel, One Shoe Off. Just keep whispering in my ear, surf. I'm listening.

Beginning to look like Christmas

Lights are popping up everywhere -- wrapped around trees, drapped along fences, outlining windows and roofs. It looks nice but for some reason I'm not sorry to be leaving it all behind and heading to Florida in a few days. I'm not putting up any decorations and I don't miss it like I thought I would. I've been procrastinating about packing so I've really got a lot to do in the next few days, so that's all I'm thinking about now. And starting on this new adventure with Steve.

I got to see Maria and Rafael tonight. That was good. It's been so long since I've seen them. Rafael must have grown a foot. Nice folks.

Writer's remorse

I guess I'll never learn. The day after a night of reviewing I wake up thinking about the review, wanting to reword something, worrying that I mispelled something, blaming myself for failing to mention someone. But when you're typing that review and the little clock in the corner of the screen says 11:16 and your deadline is 11:15, you just finish the sentence and send it on and beat yourself up the next morning.

Snow Job

Well, it is the first of December. But when I awoke to snow on the deck this morning, I had just one thought. My book signing. I wouldn't get in a car on a snowy evening to go to a book signing, not even for a friend. And my friends didn't either. Except Kym. She was there, even though she had to drive round the block several times to find a spot that wouldn't cost $7.50. We sold exactly four books -- mostly to employees of Civic Theatre which will receive the proceeds of all books sold at the theater. Before I left, I signed the rest of the books, leaving them a supply that should last until I return from Florida next spring. Other authors told me that book signings are not the way to sell books, but I thought I had figured a good angle ... a book about theater, to benefit the theater and offered in a theater to a theater audience. But I figured wrong. Even with a nice radio spot and a nice story in The Press. People didn't even stop to get a piece of candy. Perhaps I needed to speak up more, call people over, hand out bookmarks, hawk the books. The one lady who purchased a book said she had read about it in the paper. My kind of lady. She'll enjoy the book.