A Work in Progress

It seems when a month ends, I am forced to look back at what I have and have not accomplished. This is probably because bills are due, salaries are paid, and the entire month HAS to be checked in order to be balanced. It's the same for writing. And I know plenty of people who did NaNoWriMo this month. What is NaNo? It's this crazy and atrocious "task" of writing 50,000 words in thirty days. It is grueling. It is annoying. And it is amazing to see those 50,000 words staring back at you by November 30th. Hat off to you folks! You're almost done. I didn't accomplish NaNo, but that's alright. I went a different route and did thirty days of poems . It's the first time for me doing this one. I don't do a whole lot, but I sure do like it. Poetry is fun because you can write it so many different styles, from prose to rhyme, haiku to ekphrastic. I like to keep them short. Really short. Which is the complete opposite of NaNo. Onto a different

So, here we are, it's that most wonderful time of the year. No, the OTHER most wonderful time: Thanksgiving. And everyone and their mom is writing what they are thankful for on Facebook. Don't misread me. I'm not un-thankful, but I don't think I need to tell EVERYONE my thoughts. Which is oxymoronic considering I keep a blog and that part of my job as a writer IS to tell everyone my thoughts. But, in my defense, those are FICTIONAL thoughts. So there. No, see, I don't need the month of November to thank God for everything. I should be doing this everyday, and believe me, when my kids get out the door to school, with their lunches, without breakfast on their sweet, noisy, faces, I am MOST thankful. I've been trying to be more thankful in all things, in all situations, in every day that I've lived and will live this year. So, it's great others are telling me what they're thankful for, but come Dec 1st, are these same folks not thankful anymore? I

There's a whole lot to be thoughtful about right now. Particularly now that we're post-election. No more ad campaigns, no more lies ... well, fewer lies anyway... maybe. But, I'm not going into that. No sirree. I'm going to talk about less formidable, less headache-inducing things. Fantastic things --and one not-so-fantastic thing-- that happened this week. I'm doing this so I won't cry. Look at this! ↓ Fantastic: My book, my little, tiny story has been in the top 100 kindle classics for kid literature for three weeks now. THREE WEEKS. Why? I'm not exactly sure. But a few sales a day sure can make a writer happy. THIS is fantastic. If you haven't read my middle grade book, you should.  I kind of like it. The Puzzle Master . ◄▬ Click on that and get the Kindle version for only $.99. Not fantastic : See this coupon? Imagine me cutting coupons out of the Sunday paper. Imagine me trying to save money. Imagine seeing this coupon, reading wha