To start I will mention how beautiful it is today. Knowing not everyone is in New England I wonder how the weather is in other states or countries. Care to share?

I was so happy last night when I asked a good friend to read the new story I have written. It made me happy for two reasons. one, she liked it! obvious reaction from me! Two, she was an English major in college and doesn’t believe in just saying nice things to make you feel good. She is honest and gives helpful feedback. So, it was nice to hear that she liked my story.

For those of you who follow my blog but don’t know me, I have had a lot of loss in my life in the past 16 months. I lost my husband and my son. Last night I had a dream and in my dream they walked in together. It was the first dream I had when it was so realistic you wake up wondering if that is your real life and the tragedy you deal with is the dream. Unfortunately, that was just a dream but it did leave me with a speck of peace.

So, not to turn this beautiful day into one of sorrow or pain, I think I will fill my day with writing and researching my next steps. I have a goal now, one that is more concrete than before. I want my books to make it to one of the Big Five! I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work and rejection before I get there but I am going to work towards it.

Peace to you all, enjoy the day, ignore the news(lol!), and be thankful for what you have.

I am so excited that I sat and took the time to read multiple websites about publishing books, finding agents, and getting you dream come true by getting published by one of the Great 5.

So many people have so much to share, they have been “there” before and have gone through many of the hardest steps of publishing. Next thing you see, these same people are offering help, telling you ahead of time, what NOT to do! I will take all the advice I can!

Another exciting event is I am going to meet with the director of a local library early next week to arrange a reading at their library. Once this is set up I will post the location and time.

If you have read my books, or know someone who has, please, please, please, go back to Amazon and leave a review! Thank you!

So, today was my last day at my high school teaching job. Was it something I wanted to do? Well, if I had sold my house and was moving south, then yes, but having to do it due to emotional turmoil, not my choice. I suppose you could say that I learned today that sometimes hard decisions must be made. And even when the decisions are made, they are not always easy or desirable. It was a rough learning experience.

On a positive note, the weather was beautiful and I got my errands done.

My to-do list has a top priority item that I must get to: schedule some book signings and/or author readings. Perhaps putting it on a social blog will make be more motivated to get it completed.

Good night to you all and sweet dreams if you so wish.

This is a photograph I took a few years ago. I love to see nature’s movement in my work.

I read about a great program in the UK that encourages reading between family members of military, especially those with a parent deployed. The program is called Reading Force, and they send the books and a scrapbook to the familiy that applies. The parent who is deployed, or not, reads the book along with the child, encouraging conversation. The part of this I love is that although I am not a military parent, I can imagine that a parent-soldier must sometimes find it hard to find things to talk about or write/email about. This gives everyone a topic to focus on. I thought this was great. I would love feedback from US families. I actually asked them if they knew of a program here in the US that does the same thing. I’ll see….

I have been off the loop for a few days, trying to catch up on some much needed sleep and finishing the line drawings for my poem anthology.

I met with a dear friend this morning for brunch. We became friends in the fourth grade and although having lived apart for many years, have continued to respect the friendship we held so dear all those years ago. It is amazing how as you age, the circle of friends grows smaller, yet stronger. I no longer have energy for negativity and cynicism. I have had enough heartache in the past 15 months to last me a lifetime and beyond. This brings me back to the fact that having brunch after many years of brief hellos and goodbyes, the conversation flowed as if no time has passed since our last heart-to-heart. This is friendship and I value it so very much.

On another note, I found this weird bug on my porch today. https://photos.app.goo.gl/8CZTsshbcQ2zLQ2U8

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and send me your thoughts.