Happy New Year!

               

Time has been flying, so I'm wishing you a Happy New Year sooner than later, since "later" could turn into "way late," the way life has been rushing by.

I had two exciting pieces of news in 2019 - my poetry book, Saudade, was accepted for publication and will be released in February, and my cosy mystery, Deadly Vintage, set in Portugal was published. The poetry book had a lot of work attached to it, and I have a book signing for the mystery coming up January 19th at Time Tested Books (my favorite independent bookstore in Sacramento). But I expect spring to be a little calmer than recent months.

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. We did, with our god family in the Bay Area, as we do every year. And three days before that, we celebrated our 46th wedding anniversary. Here are what is left of our flowers (the white mums and the lilies),  supplemented with some dianthus (the red and the red-edged ones) that we inserted last week to prolong the bouquet. (This is in our kitchen nook.)

Before our anniversary, we had a 9-day trip to the east coast to visit my niece and her husband in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and my husband's brother and his wife in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Both places were cold for us poor, wimpy, central Californians. Pittsburgh was the coldest. It even snowed one night while we were there. But the visits were wonderful.

Then two days after Christmas, we and another couple celebrated the 50th anniversary of mutual friends in the home of some of their friends who gave them a  wonderful party that went all afternoon. A really lovely celebration.

And yesterday one of my writing groups met to critique manuscripts and then to exchange gently used books. That, too, was so enjoyable. But . . . see what I mean? Way busy!

 Now I expect to take it easy right up to New Year's Day. Reading is big on the agenda. We don't go out for NY Eve anymore but watch the ball drop from the comfort of our living room. We'll probably watch a good movie.

As for New Year resolutions — I do sort of make them. I have two main ones this year. One is finishing my next book and the other is working on my Spanish. I will keep you posted on how both of those turn out.

How about you? Are you ready for the New Year? How was your Christmas? Do you make resolutions?

Best wishes for all good things to happen for you in 2020.

                                                                      

Apologies and Good News

Maybe why I post less frequently?

First the apologies, both for the long silence, and for the fact that some of you (e-mail subscribers, actually) have been receiving repostings from the past.


What happened was that I read an important post about the fact that bloggers can be sued for using clip art and online photos if they aren't actually in the public domain or royalty free. If you haven't already read about this on blog sites or on Facebook, you can go to my friend Rosi Hollinbeck's site, The Write Stuff, where she posted two good sites where you can learn about the hazards and also learn about the free sites you really can count on. 


Because this can be tricky business: Some of the sites I visited in the past looked like they were royalty free, but they only were if you paid a fee to become a member with unlimited downloads, and stuff like that (info I hadn't read closely enough). This past week, instead of blogging, I've been diligently going through old posts to cull out pictures I wasn't sure about. In the process, a couple of times I clicked "post" instead of "update", and my subscribers have been getting reposts from last summer and fall. (Just disregard them, folks. If they aren't the current date, it just means I clicked the wrong icon. You can delete them.) 


Yesterday two friend who subscribe let me know they received my Thanksgiving Post!
Not that I don't have a lot to be thankful for. 

Now we come to the good news. The other reason I haven't been posting for so long is because I've been doing rewrites of my middle grade mystery for an agent who was interested. And a few days ago I got the signed contract! I've posted this on Facebook, but some of you aren't on Facebook, so here is the news: Yes, I have an agent, a very good one. I'm very happy about it. She requested rewrites before we ever signed the contract, but, in the process, she nudged my writing up to a higher level, which will stand me in good stead for the sequel. (This is a mystery series.)


So there you have it: the reason for the long silence, and the reason for surprises out of the blue (if you're a subscriber). I'll be posting more often again from now on, so please stop by. And if you came by today, please leave a comment; I have a few questions:


Did you know about the issue re: public domain pictures? 
Have you been hard at work on your own writing? 
Are any of you at the SCBWI Conference in LA? (If so, I am sooooo envious. I went two years ago, and it was marvelous.) 
http://rosihollinbeckthewritestuff.blogspot.com/