Usually this time of year is the start of my “blue” period. Just a general feeling of woe is me, thanks to my kids’ birthdays coming back to back and the sense that I can’t stop time no matter how much I’d like to.
But for some reason this year I’m…content. The sun is shining. Everyone’s healthy (knock wood). Temps are nice and toasty (just the way I like them). I have book contracts. The grass is green. The birds are singing (cher-eep, cher-oo). The Red Sox are back in first place. All is well with the world.
Yes, we’re busy. Especially now that school’s out for the summer. The kids have three full months off, and it will be nice to have them home. I’m a nester by nature, so having them here makes me happy.
So I’m going to enjoy life and hope the rest of the summer brings even more happiness (I wouldn’t complain about another contract, either. Not that I’m pushing my luck or anything).
~h
Well, here we are, at the end of week one.
Monday morning at 9:33, on the first day of no school, my daughter uttered the words I’d been dreading for months: “I’m bored.”
So I’ve been ferrying them around and plying them with sugar and swimming pools all week. Thank God I’ve got them in a bazillion camps the next few months, or I might be experimenting with a summer version of “Mommy’s Little Helper”. I’m thinking rum, a little pineapple juice… you get the picture.
Anyway, I finished Murder Most Maine right on target — turned it in Monday, and I’ve never written so much in so little time as I have the last six months. Need to do revisions on the third werewolf book, and I’ll be done… for about two weeks, anyway. (Actually, I lie. I’m already coming up with new material. Because I can’t help myself.)
I hope your summers are going swimmingly (as you have probably surmised, mine certainly is — and doughnutly, too). I’m off to bed now.
Cheers!
My next mystery, DYER CONSEQUENCES, will be out tomorrow! Yea!! And the first scheduled signing on my ‘publisher sponsored” book tour is tomorrow night. Wow. I cannot tell you how excited I am. This is a whole new world, and I’ll keep you posted through the Cozy Chicks blog on how it’s going. Just having the publisher arrange the signings and travel and hotels is still hard for me to believe. I’ve done it for so long.
Tonight, there’s nothing to report except excitement. Tomorrow (Tuesday) night I’ll be signing in Boulder, CO, which is a little over an hour from my city of Fort Collins. Wednesday night, I’ll be signing at a Barnes & Noble in the Littleton area of Denver. I’ve signed there many times and am meeting several of the readers from the group for dinner before the signing. So, that will be fun.
Then, Thursday morning I fly off to Omaha, NE, for a Borders signing, then on Friday, it’s off to Minneapolis for a Barnes & Noble signing in Roseville (suburb of Minneapolis). I’m hoping to have a chance to visit with readers while there. But the schedule in each city is handled by an “escort” whose job is to get you from airport to hotel to signing and back. And any newspaper, radio, or TV interviews in between. Hopefully, I’ll be able to grab a snack along the way. Otherwise, I’ll rely on my trusty bag of walnuts. And—-coffee. Thank goodness most bookstores have coffeeshops either in the chains or nearby the indies. Gotta have the caffeine.
On Saturday, they fly me home again for shortened weekend, then fly off again to Kansas City, MO, on Monday June 9th. Then, 6/10, Wichita; 6/11, Tulsa; 6/12, Houston; 6/13, Phoenix; then back home to Colorado. Last scheduled one is Monday June 16th in Denver at Tattered Cover–Colfax.
So—I’ll touch base with all of you next week and let you know how it’s going. If you’re in any of those locations, please drop by and say hi. The exact locations and times are on my website: www.maggiesefton.com. Meanwhile, take care, everyone.
Did you see it? The LOST season finale? Was isn’t it great? Can you believe that shocker of an ending? And oh, all the questions it raised! It’s a mystery writer’s dream to write such an intricate, compelling story line. Of course, when I write a mystery, it’s just me, not a team of writers, so they do have an advantage, but still….
I am constantly impressed by everything about that show – the writing, the directing, the cinematography, the set design – and how I wish many movies were that well done.
And what about the acting? You can find no better actors anywhere, not even on the big screen. I thought Sun was excellent — how she faced down her father. Go, Sun! And how she reacted when the helicopter lifted off. I really felt her pain. What a fine actress she is, as are all the women on that show, and the men, of course. And isn’t Sayid sexy? So self-confident, yet so tender. And oh, that Sawyer. A bad boy with a heart and a grin that will knock your socks off.
So what do you think actually happened when Ben turned that gear? And why was that secret chamber covered in ice when they were on a tropical island?
Who’s your favorite character? What do you think will happen with baby Ryan? So many wonderful possibilities for next year, but oh, so long to wait.
Kate, happily counting down the weeks
I ventured outside my comfort zone this week. My culinary comfort zone.
Last Saturday I made fresh steamed asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, and last night I tackled fresh broccoli. Both, until this week, had either been bought from a can or in a frozen plastic bag.
What, you might ask, prompted this sudden change?
Do any of you watch You Are What You Eat on BBC America?
After a month or so of watching this show, my British lingo has increased (crisps! fizzy drinks!) but also my guilt at not eating more fresh fruits and veg. The show focuses on using healthy, natural foods to lose weight, but the overall message was one with which I needed to come to terms. Which is basically: junk food=bad, organic=good.
I’ve yet to ditch my fizzy drinks (Dr Pepper) and yeah, the Hollandaise doesn’t quite fit in with the whole healthy menu ideal of the show, but I’m taking baby steps. I’m good with apples and oranges, but am still scared of sweet potatoes (I know, I know) and rhubarb…
~heather
Hey, folks. My post this week will be an announcement of sorts, I guess. The next book (#5) in my Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries will be out this June 3rd–DYER CONSEQUENCES. And this time, something very special is happening. The publisher, Berkley Prime Crime, will be touring me. They will schedule booksignings and interviews, fly me around, and all that good stuff. And to say that I’m excited. . .well, that would be an understatement.
I’m waaaaaaaaay beyond excited about this, folks. And I decided I should share the tour schedule of booksignings with all of you faithful Cozy Chicks bloggers in case I show up in a town near you. If so, I sincerely hope you’ll stop by the bookstore and say “hi.” I love meeting readers. Here are the cities. Please check my website for bookstore locations and times. www.maggiesefton.com
I start out in Colorado with sigtnings June 3 in Booulder and June 4 in Denver. Then, on June 5, Omaha, NE; June 6, Roseville, MN (suburb of Minneapolis); June 9, Overland Park, KS (suburb Kansas City); June 10, Wichita; June 11, Tulsa, OK; June 12, Houston, TX; June 13, Phoenix, AZ; and June 16, back to Denver at Tattered Cover Bookstore, Colfax Ave.
After the publisher tour, I will be signing in Kentucky and the Chicago suburban area later in June. Again, please check the website for times/locations.
Again—if any of you are in the vicinity, come by and say ”hello.”
Last night we had dinner at my sister’s house for her birthday. My 21 year old nephew Garrett was there. I want to tell you a bit about Garrett because he is one of the many young men and women now serving in our military. As his aunt this scares me and worries the hell out of me in this day and age, but I am also so very proud of him that every time I see him these days I about burst!
I was seventeen when Garrett was born. He was the most beautiful baby with enormous blue eyes and a cap full of white blonde hair. He was always even tempered and sweet. I never remember him throwing fits, and I adored him. I did quite a bit of babysitting for the first few years of his life when I would come home for the summer from school. I loved taking care of this kid. He was and still is a joy to be around.
Garrett grew as all kids do. My sister wound up moving over an hour away, had her little girl who I also adore and I didn’t get to see the kids all that much at that point. I also had my own kids by then. My sister divorced and the three of them moved back closer to home. Sadly my sister had a substance abuse problem and Garrett became a bit of a parent at a young age of his mom. He was extremely protective of her and it was heartbreaking when she lost custody of her kids and they went to live with their dad and step-mom. My sister went through rehab and is a completely healthy, vibrant beautiful being (she always was, but a part of her soul was lying underneath the darkness waiting to be saved–she finally saved herself).
I would see Garrett and my niece Gillian on occasional weekends and holidays. They stayed with us quite a bit during winter and spring breaks when my sister had to work, which my kids loved. Garrett is four years older than my oldest but because of some of the emotional trauma he went through as a kid, I think it took him a bit longer to mature than other kids. Or maybe this is a guy thing, which I am now discovering on my own with my own sons. Garrett and my sons would and could play for hours on the The Nintendo or the Gameboy. When the mid teen years hit with Garrett, I honestly didn’t recognize him. He grew a mustache that my dad after a finally made him shave off, he wore all black with the hanging chain thing and he barely spoke a word. We all thought, “Oh no. What has happened to our fair haired boy? Have we lost him for good?”
He loved to sketch during those years and was great at it. I’ll have to ask him if he still does it.
We were all shocked to learn that when he turned eighteen he enlisted in the Air Force (for not just 4 years, but 6). I think the entire family was afraid and bewildered. Garrett had always been a very naive kid and sensitive. How would he survive the military? Not only did he simply enlist but for his career path, he chose to become a paratrooper. Those are the guys who jump out of the helicopter, get on the ground with the wounded, treat them as an EMT would and get them safely up into the helicopter. This is the kid who I changed his diapers! I played cars with him! I wiped sweet potatoes off his face! Now he wants to jump out of helicopters and go into combat zones!
The first six months of training were brutal for Garrett. He called home a lot and was very unhappy. He felt he’d made a mistake by enlisting. But as we all know the military won’t let you go home just because you’re unhappy. So, because he had no other choice he stuck it out. He’s now been through basic training, dive school, training where he parachutes out of the planes, and is heading to Savannah soon to be trained as an EMT. During this he’s had a set back during dive school where he hurt his knee and had to have knee surgery. Once healed he went back to dive school where most of these guys fail. But not Garrett. He has accomplished this and so much more.
No longer is he a skinny kid who never speaks and hangs his head. He has impeccable manners. Holds his head high. He is responsible and sweet and funny. He is built like a rock and is so gorgeous that I know girls must go crazy for him. I know I sound like a bragging aunt, but come on, this is a young man who is serving our country.
I wanted to tell you about Garrett because he is like every young woman and man serving our country. Each one dead or alive had/has a story. They have families and friends who love them and who they love. They were once little children wo we never thought would grow up because we wanted so badly to hold them in their time of innocence where they were safe. But now they are the ones out there working to keep us safe and protect our freedoms.
I don’t agree with the war we’re in and I don’t like the fact that my nephew is one of the kids (and that is what many of them are–kids) will likely be sent overseas to fight this war, but I am so very proud of him and every one of our military personnel from those who protected us in the past to those who do it today. Today is a day to salute you and remember all that you do for our country!
Thank You and God Bless!
Aunt Shelly
Both my parents have passed on, my mom less than three years ago from cancer, my dad much longer, over twenty years now, a victim of an unhealthy emotional and physical lifestyle. Sad to say, I don’t have a lot of good memories of him. He was a type A personality with a temper that he never learned to control. An Irish cop who hated corruption and injustice, but would strike his children at the least provocation. A hard worker, taking on at least two side jobs each season to pay bills. A tyrant of a husband who didn’t want his wife to work outside the home. A private man who refused to share his triumphs and sorrows with her, until she finally left him.
But he had another side, a funny, creative, charming side that I had only rare glimpses of. He wrote clever limericks and humorous toasts that he gave at retirement roasts for his fellow officers. He made his own board games, built an airplane from a kit, created his own photography studio and developed his own prints. If you’ve read my bio on my website, I mention an eighth grade assignment, where I was to either write a poem, or an essay from the viewpoint of an inanimate object. I sulked, stewed, and fought that assignment until I was down to the last hour. I absolutely hated poetry and I had no idea how to see life from any object’s perspective. My dad, tired of hearing my complaints, said, “Be a spoon.” He then went on to imagine life from a spoon’s perspective. I almost fell off my chair laughing at him.
He died just as I was starting my adult life, so I never really got to know him as anything but a strict, often terrorizing, father, yet I find myself studying his face in the photo I have of my parents as newlyweds, wondering about that other side of him. He was a mere twenty-three years old then, his body lean and strong after having served in the army, his blue eyes bright, hopeful, and full of pride at the young, beautiful new wife at his side. I try not to fast-forward to the end when, at only fifty-seven, but looking seventy-seven, he suffered his last and final stroke, putting an end to years of unhappiness.
Today, I will remember the evening he became a spoon, sparking my imagination in a way he would never live to realize. I know he’d be proud of my success as a writer. Here’s my tribute to him:
To my dad, a complex man,
Who said, “Do the best that you can.
If you can’t write a tune,
Then, by God, be a spoon!
At least its more stirring than a fan.”
I hope you’ll remember someone by sharing a good memory with all of us Cozy Chicks.
Have a Happy Memorial Day!
Kate
I’ve never liked to see food wasted. At home, I often finish things left on my kids’ plates even though I’m well aware that’s a dieting no-no. Lately, I’ve been more and more shocked by the prices at my grocery store and so I really don’t want to see food left on anyone’s plate. Even the cats have to go back into their eating area and finish their dang dish of Whiskas.
This morning I was appalled to see that a bag of cherries was $7.99! Blueberries were $3.99 and so were raspberries and blackberries. Strawberries were 2 for $5.99, but in order to make the big bowl of berry salad I’ve been craving for dinner, I’d need to take out a line of credit. I know that the hike in gas prices has affected farmers and the food industry in general, but I can’t believe what my grocery bills are!
The first thing to get crossed off our shopping list in an effort to save money was bottled water. I’ve never been a fan of the waste their plastic bottles incur, but my other half likes to take them in the car and to the gym, so I bought him a washable water bottle equivalent at Target and now he refills it from the filtered water that our refrigerator dispenses.
For the first time, I’m actively seeking out generic brands for paper products and other hard goods. My foray into eating generic gelatin taught me that some things are worth a few extra pennies, but I’m on the lookout for real savings folks! I’ve done some research on what others are doing and one woman said that she’s buying beans instead of rice or pasta. They’re healthier and a lot less pricey. A consumer mom remarked that she was watering down the orange juice and other fruit juices, saying they’re too thick and sugary anyway. I didn’t think that was a bad idea. Other people are cutting out soda from their diets, claiming that it’s truly an “extra.”
The difficulty I face is that healthy food is expensive food. If we shop the perimeter of the store like we’re supposed to, we pay more for fresh food. I won’t skimp on those items, but I am putting things back in the fridge I might have tossed out this time last year.
What about you? Are you cutting back in the grocery store? Any tips for those of us looking to save a little green?
To clean my desk.
My creativity is being restricted by my sloppiness.
I don’t know how it happens. I clean my desk and poof! within a couple of days small piles of papers appear. A receipt or ten here, mail to go through, Mother’s Day cards, business cards I picked up at Malice, coupons, a brochure for a Stowe resort (summer vacation here we come!), an outline for a speech, directions from Google Maps (“They’re the best” “True dat” “Double true” – sorry, having a SNL moment). Old pictures, pens, pencils, a nail file, scraps from my son’s “Verona Land” project for his English class (think Romeo and Juliet meets Candyland).
Basically, a bunch of stuff.
Stuff that needs a home before I can really dive back into my current manuscript – or at least that’s what my brain thinks. In a perfect world I could ignore the clutter around me and just work. But my world is far from perfect, so it’s desk cleaning time. Again.
Surely there must be a way to keep the area clean. I just haven’t quite figured it out yet. Any tips?
~heather