This represents LAST YEAR (2006) it's the space where the spa is going - the lovely plants will all be saved and transplanted. Just picture another splotch of turquoise right there in the middle.


WRITING STUFF

Happy New Year .... was this past year the one in which I thought I would write a novel? Get a short story published? Work on that anthology or chapbook or ezine?

Well, so much happened - you know, life happened. I got a job just about the time I had settled into unemployment (or retirement, guess it depends on how you look at it.)


I moved into a new house, a new living arrangement - that was a wonderful but major scary thing for me to do.


I got a leg brace and started walking around again - pretty big steps for me. I experimented with edgy and raw flash fiction.

I had a lawsuit settle (take that, Jarndyce & Jarndyce!) and had a story of which I am particularly fond published in a great new anthology.

And I mentioned that I got a job - but I didn't mention how difficult it is for me to work it, how physically straining it is, and how proud I am that my bosses & co-workers ignore my disability and just simply expect me to do the work. I don't know how long I will be able to continue with it, but as I am having a hot spa built at the house, I figure it will take at least another year of working to pay it off.

And just as the year was drawing to a close, I took off 2 weeks to help my DH who had hip surgery - only to come down with the worst 'flu I have had - It's been 10 days and I am still hacking and coughing and feeling rotten.

But the New Year is upon us - the year in which I will recover from this virus before the month is out, finish the five flash stories for 100 Voices in the Night and hear back from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. And even if I don't keep all my Resolutions (forty pounds, exercise, diet, organization, publication, scheduling, you know: the same ones *you* have!) it will still be all right.

Because Life is what happens - and it's why we are writers!


THREE BEAUTIFUL THINGS

A brand new unopened box of tissues when you really need one.

DH rolling around on his walker with cups of hot lemon tea for me. He is recovering quite well from his surgery and will soon be hiking and taking up ballet.

All five pets on one bed - mine, of course - asleep in peace. I was relegated to the sofa for a bit.