from Idaho

This evening the sun came out just enough to light one of my favorite ranches . . . I love the bright red roofs.  I snapped this picture as we drove by.  From a distance the scene was blue and snowy, with a sliver of bright warm sunlight falling across the buildings.

But tonight it's snowing and cold, about twelve degrees.  All our neighbors have bright red lights glowing from their chicken coops (to keep the feisty little beasts warm).  I'm super-grateful to have taken Chicken Class, otherwise I might have fallen slave to caring for the monsters as well.

Instead I'm cuddled up to the fire, tuning out the endless chatter of my twelve-year-old as I concentrate on writing a short post.  Something about the British Aristocracy . . . :-) 

Grand Canyon raven

Hi all,
Had to take a wee break.  I love the holidays, don't get me wrong.  It's that they almost do me in every year.  But now, ahhhh.  I'm back to the same old grind -- though this coming year will be anything but ordinary.  Read on for what's in store.

Soon BEING will be published.  !!!  It's such a fabulous ghost story, and one I can's wait to share.  I could dance on the table I'm so excited . . . . And if you're looking for a little self-help to start the year out right, my first of three short-and-sweet helpers is on it's way.  I figured out a cool spirit-lifting exercise (Lord knows it's saved me more than once) so I can't just keep it all to myself!  Then there's Stealth Panda -- that wacky dust-bunny avenger has some incredible news on his horizon.  I battle his crafty ways daily to keep it under hat until he's truly ready to let it all fly.

So stay tuned gentle readers!  Adventure awaits!
-M

Service-able Stealth

I'm bleary-eyed tonight after spending four hours sewing sock monkeys for my daughter's CTE class.

First there was the issue of fixing 'Mr. Freak', the wretched beast she worked on in class with her 12-year-old male 'partner' who, btw, will not grow up to be the next Christian Dior.

Fortunately for me, the moment I mentioned a French name, Stealth demanded he be included.

After doing what we could to make Mr. Freak presentable, we went own to sew a freak of our own.

Mind you, my daughter hates sewing.  And I'll admit it's not my favorite thing either ... even though my grandmother taught sewing for thirty years in the public schools.  (I was forced to attend her summer classes, where I could never let-on that she was my grandmother as she didn't want to be accused of favoritism.)

It was Stealth's idea to give everyone bow ties, which in the end probably added an edge of class to an otherwise obvious collection of misfits.

On the bright side, my daughter has not one but TWO fabulous sock monkeys (Stealth says it 'minkies') to turn in for her service project tomorrow. 

With luck, the minkies will find understanding children to love them. :-)

I have no idea how Stealth managed to hog this particular spot-light . . . .

ZUT!  The first five-hundred and six words of BEING have been boiled! If you're chomping-at-the-bit for a sneak-peak draft of my favorite story-soon-to-be, then check out Patrick's blog.

And hey!  At least the panda allowed me my reflection which, come to think of it, reminds me of the wacky mirrors I used to dance in front of as a child when my parents took me to the state fair.  Except I wasn't holding a camera then.

!! PAINTED BOOTS is touring tomorrow on MUSINGS FROM AN ADDICTED READER .  Do stop by.

BEING updated

If you've spent years wondering what it's like to have your work edited, check out Patrick Freivald's blog on either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.  He's boiling the first 500 words of BEING.  Whoo hoo!  (And yes, letting y'all in on this is a bit of a BEING sneak-peak.) 

Patrick, a published author, has top-notched editorial skill.  Having one's work edited is an intense learning experience ... especially when done by someone who knows their stuff.  So if you love to write or want to learn more about writing well, check out Patrick's blog!

Another super-bad Stealth selfie, or as he calls them, Stealfies.  This one, however, hints at the fabulous structure of ponderosa pine, the incredible evergreens that forest Grand Canyon national park.  Ponderosa are huge, orange-barked, and for whatever reason create a barren, almost clean-swept forest floor beneath them.  We drove through miles and miles of forest to get to the Canyon -- I didn't expect that.  The south rim of the canyon is high (7000 feet, though the north rim is higher at 8000).  When looking down into it you can see a little ranch a mile below you, warm and toasty and nestled in leafy deciduous trees on the canyon floor.

This weeks' blog stop should be fabulous.  Check it out:   Writing Novels that Sell

airy foot-traffic

a LONG way down

This is Navajo Bridge, an amazingly high suspension bridge on the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona.  It spans Marble Canyon at a dizzying height of 466 feet--and since I have a serious height-thing, I was totally freaking out when I took this picture.  (I'm on the original bridge (built in 1929) which is open to foot traffic.  The new bridge, which looks just like the old one, was built in 1995).

While strolling, Stealth had such a height-fit that all he'd pose for was this pathetic back-to-the-girders thing:

In his defense I should mention that my daughter wouldn't allow a better shot.  She didn't want to risk him dropping, at about one-hundred feet per second, into the Colorado River.  But it does make me curious . . . would he have disintegrated on impact, or would he almost be in sunny Mexico by now?

Either way, I'll never know.  A jump at this point in his career would have seriously hindered his ability to achieve world domination.  (Had Xavier, the not-yet-born French Bulldog, been with us on this trip I would not have even allowed him/her/it on the bridge. . . .)

stealth's first selfie

oh my

If you've ever owned an arrogant stuffed panda, you already know that more often than not, their egos won't allow that they get far enough away from the camera to take a good selfie.  But check out the Grand Canyon in the background.  It almost makes it worth having said stuffie in the way . . . .  And since you've stuck it out this far, below is an unencumbered shot of the Canyon the day we visited it.  FABULOUS!

tradition

2013 house: resplendent with minions

I have a friend who every year, for the past ten years, has hosted a gingerbread house decorating party.  It's a cool tradition.  She makes thirty houses by hand, buys about two hundred dollars worth of candy, spends three days making all kinds of yummy food and invites friends and family over to decorate.

After dinner the kids decorate their houses.  (They eat about as much candy as they use to decorate.  Maybe more.)  When the kids are sent downstairs to watch a movie, the adults cram around the tables to decorate houses of their own.  A bit of friendly competition then ensues . . . .


Yes, for those of you wondering, Stealth Panda was quite peeved to not be invited.  But I'll save a minion or two for him to eat.  In the holiday spirit, of course.

ice claw

ice claw

It's a balmy 10 degrees outside this morning, up 30 from what it's been all week.  (About minus 23.)

Brr-ouch.

Hard to believe that one week ago, TODAY, we were wandering Tuscon Arizona in shorts.

The good thing about super-cold weather is the writing time -- my husband builds a fire, I drink tea all day and hibernate.  My husband and daughter just left to battle the elements, but I'm staying home with our well-packed wood box, cozy in my jammies.

Whoo-hoo!

I'm working on my little self-help book (which I'm so very tempted to name SELFIE, though I'm sure I'll go with something more dignified.  Maybe, 'Fix your Selfie').  I wrote this book when I was going through a particularly bleak time of life.  It was my way out--the tactics I stumbled across during said bleakness actually work.  The book is a short and sweet 24-page pep-talk that I read whenever my thoughts start heading south, turning me, in moments, happy again.  I've found what I discovered so effective and life-changing that I decided to share my little secret with the world.

My book will be out by January, but more about that in a few weeks.  My daughter just chucked Stealth Panda at me, which must mean he's feeling left out of my blogging loop.  I realize Stealth believes its his world and we all live in it but he should be grateful I ignored him this morning, not annoyed.  Had he gotten his lazy panda-butt out of bed earlier, I would have photographed him clinging to the dagger-ish icicle currently dripping from our front porch.  No doubt he would have stuck to it like a tongue to a cold pole.  That kind of negative publicity would have set-back his quest for world domination by weeks.  Maybe months.

Which is nothing like the set-back he'll experience once Xavier, the French Bulldog, joins our family.

Stealth grows, well, annoying

pesty Stealth

I'll admit, here and now, that Stealth Panda's quest for world domination has gone to his head.  He's incorrigible on road trips.  He cannot bear to be ignored.  He will not be denied.  Here I've caught him competing for attention against my daughter's DS and headset (she's listening to One Direction).

Guess who won.

I realize he's got to perfect his tactics somewhere.  He's charming, sure, but he's still raw and untried.  The world might not allow him to dominate in his current state so he's ramping it up, as it were.  He's got a lot going in his favor: he's cute, cuddly, devours dust-bunnies and costs nothing to keep.  Not to mention his seriously fine attribute of easing tears and teenaged-frustration and the occasional bout of estrogen.  But he also knows, deep in that stuffie heart of his, that his days are numbered; he's just a stand-in for Xavier, the French Bulldog, and French Bulldogs are, well, alive.

If you're visiting on Thursday, December 5, check out today's blog stop: It's Raining Books

Stealth Returns

on the road with Stealth

As you may recall, Stealth Panda would not be denied his place on our road trip to Arizona.  Worse, because he craves world domination like he craves dust bunnies (they are his snack-du-jour, after all), he insisted on riding 'shotgun'.  As it were.  Not that I will EVER let Xavier, the French bulldog for which I'm constantly saving, ride in this position.

Here I've captured Stealth in fine form, hogging the windshield as he lusts after Target (or as he pronounces it, Targheaa.)  That Stealth has a bad French accent excuses him from this pronunciation faux-pas, however, it doesn't really explain many of the buyers I've worked with from said Target during my time in the art industry (they too pronounce it Targheaa.)  Like we don't all know it's called Target.  Just look at the logo . . . .

I digress here only because Stealth spend a good hour plopped on the dash, paws fixed to the glass, while panting unintelligible words that all had something to do with shopping.  (He is totally into black Friday.  I am not.  In fact, I should be cyber-shopping right now, but I just can't bring myself to do it.)  Anyway, since he insisted on obscuring my view of the world as we sped along I-15 (this pic happens to have been taken in Orem, Utah -- or as the locals call it, 'Happy Valley') the least I can do is get even and carry on about his quest for domination and world renown, and.  Wait.

Stealth, you brilliant stuffie.  Targheaa would be the perfect place to start.  I wonder if any of my buyer friends are still in the biz?