Dear Friends,
We have a condo in Florida. The previous owners decorated it with tiki bars, surfboards, and lots of mustard-yellow and dark brown paint. The tiki-ness and boards are gone, and we began the battle with the wall colors last week. As always*, we are using Behr’s Beach House White, and as always, I painted a heart for Ted on the dark brown wall. It’s a tip I learned from my dad, Dick. I used it in my novel, Tiger Drive:
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I read The Time Mom Met Hitler, Frost Came to Dinner, and I Heard the Greatest Story Ever Told: A Memoir by Dikkon Eberhart twice several months ago. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, wondering how to write a review that would do his book justice. As an author, I’m humbled to admit that I’ve settled on the fact that I cannot. I’ll admit I’ve been suffering comparisonitis, even about writing a review! Forgive me now for the weak structure of my review and for my seemingly disjointed thoughts because while I might appear to be all over the place, I assure you, Eberhart’s memoir was not.
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Dear Friend,
A few decades ago, my mom handed down the family silverware to me, as in the silver-plated ware that belonged to her mother and father. The box, which had a red velvet interior and been refurbished on the outside with several layers of contact paper–the last being a brick pattern–gave me more memories than the mismatched utensils. I can remember my grandma and grandpa (or Ma and Pa, as most everyone else called them) pulling out the contact-paper-covered box for holiday dinners and special events.
Dear Friend,
For those of you who have read my novels, did you recognize one of the characters from In the Doghouse as an original character from Tiger Drive?
If not, you’re not alone.
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Dear Friend,
Happy New Year!
I’m not arrogant enough to say the following short story I wrote is a gift, but I am still giving it to you. If you read last week’s newsletter, you know that my goal word for 2020 is Ready. Part of being ready is embracing change, and my gut says that change is in the air. Back to School Again: A Short Story is all about getting comfortable with change. To read the story, click the link below:
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Dear Friend,
When I sat down to write this letter, I first googled Jamie Oliver to get my facts straight about what I recently learned from him, and apparently, there is a lot to be learned from Jamie Oliver, both Dos and Don’ts-slash-Mustn’t-Evers. I’m focusing on one of the Dos.
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Dear Friend,
Author John L. Lynch made me swoon. I’ll explain.
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Dear Friend,
This newsletter is the second letter I’ve written to you this week. The first has been shelved to be shared at a later date. I had planned to reveal the cover and description of my third book, but when I started questioning my novel’s title (again), I realized it’s not ready to be shared. For now, I’ll continue to refer to it as Imogene, the one word that has consistently been in all of the titles I’ve considered, and therefore, probably the best title.
I blame thank author and book coach Sheila Athens for the change in plans. My partner, Ted, too.
Dear Friend,
At the time of this post, I will be forty-nine years old plus one week. Only fifty-one more weeks until I turn fifty.
And I won’t have eaten an entire Betty Crocker’s Cherry Chip Cake over a two-day period as I have almost every year for the past four decades. Why? In an effort to embrace aging, and therefore, an ever-demanding healthier diet, I’m scrapping the once-perfect-for-me cake along with the once-perfect-for-me icing*.
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