Counting Down the Days

"There are so few empty pages in my engagement pad or empty hours in the day or empty rooms in my life in which to stand alone and find myself...Too many worthy activities, valuable things, and interesting people. For it is not merely the trivial which clutters our lives but the important as well. We can have a surfeit of treasures--an excess of shells, where one or two would be significant." 

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

This makes me think of Sarah, Plain and Tall and the colors she missed on the prairie.

Soon, I must fly home, too.

Spring Break Beach Reads

Wide swaths of beach four inches deep in shells.

Morning walk at low tide.

I'm finally getting to this book. Did you know that you can now  "borrow" books free at Amazon Prime?

This was a free ebook download back before Christmas. A good book for analyzing a few recent reads and thinking about a new story idea. 

Audio book  for the drive down. Will finish on the way home.  

Hubby brought this one in hardcover. I may delve into it when he's done. 

And I'm playing in the March Madness Poetry Tournament. Round One has started. I'll get my first word (seed #2) tonight. Voting for Round One begins tomorrow. 

July Highlights

I didn't intentionally take the entire month of July off from blogging. It just sort of happened. It was a busy month with travel and family and friends--and a little writing, too. Here are some of the highlights.

Vero Beach, Florida

Cliff and I spent three days at Vero Beach early in the month. We stayed at the Costa d'Este resort thanks to the lovely folks at Rourke Publishing. It was a much needed break for both of us. We slept late, walked the beach, and ate fabulous Italian pizza.

This photo of Costa d'Este Beach Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

San Diego, California

We drove from Vero Beach back to Orlando. Cliff flew home and I flew to San Diego for the Delaney sales conference. I arrived at baggage claim in time to see the fireworks over the bay. It was a full four days of business meetings, mainly hearing reps from sixteen publishers talk about their new line of books for the fall. I'm planning to try and post some information on what I

learned. So stop by again later in the week. Between meetings, I ate at World Famous, caught up with people I hadn't seen for a year, and walked on the beach. It was a bit surreal to think I had been at the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in the span of three days. There wasn't much free time and I missed seeing a couple of friends I had hoped to visit with who live in the area. But still, a good week.

Charleston, South Carolina

Mid month we had a wedding in Charleston. Neither of us had ever been to the city, but we have always wanted to go. We had several days to wander the streets and see the beautiful architecture. According to our guide on the city tour, Charleston has more restaurants per capita than any other city in the United States. There were plenty of choices, that's for sure. Cliff's best friend from high school retired here, so we spent one day with them seeing the sights.

This is the Middleton-Pinkney House. Pinkney was a signer of the Constitution from South Carolina. The circular bolts across the building are earthquake bolts, installed in houses built after the earthquake of 1886.

There are lots of churches in Charleston. It's called the holy city. It could easily be called the holey city, too. You need good ankles to walk the broken sidewalks, cobbled stones, and cracked asphalt.

The wedding was held at the chapel at the Citadel. Beautiful, inside and out.

This is called the Heart Gate, by Phillip Simmons, a famous African American artisan and blacksmith. His gates are all over Charleston.

Birmingham, Alabama

For about a year, I've drooled over Margie Lawson's website, wishing I could manage one of her master classes. I couldn't believe it when I found out that the Romance Writers of Birmingham were bringing her in to speak. More on this later, too, but just take my word for it. Margie has a LOT to teach writers.

So here we are almost in August. Hopefully, I'll be back on track.