It's the most wonderful time of the year! Traffic jams, crowded malls, stress, deadlines, pressure to get the right gift, pressure to not max out the credit cards...see where I'm going with this???

And in the middle of all this joy, we contend with the ever popular self-righteous proclamation that we MUST not say Happy Holidays because it is Christmas.

Bah Humbug.

Hold on to your hymnals~This is as politically incorrect as I can be in 2011. The fact is that "holidays" is derived from the phrase Holy Days, and refers to feast days and prayer days as they were observed in the early Church. Period.

Now, as to the whole Christmas versus other religious holidays. Besides Kwansaa, Christmas (orginally Christ's Mass) is one of the youngest holidays. Hanukkah is much older that Christmas. Yule much older than Christmas. And don't get me started on the rituals that Christians adopted from poly-theistic civilizations to facilitate the infiltration of Christianity into the cultures.

The fact is that this season is filled with traditions that are holy to all. I don't care who says Merry Christmas, or Happy Hanukkah, or Season's Greetings. ALL ARE GOOD. The nay-sayers to insist that this YULE must be addressed with Merry Christmas are being rather exclusive...sort of like the Sneeches who had "stars upon thars" (read Dr. Seuss); they are not playing nicely. Feel free to take your Christmas balls and go home.

So, to all, I say~ May your holidays be bright, cheerful, reflective, warm, and filled with laughter and love, and fond memories as you look to a new year. May this season bring a smile to your face and a song to your heart.

Autumn is the most fabulous time of the year. Everything is crisp, and an sense of something about to happen lingers in the air.
Smoke, fog, suspense, and the scent of suspense all conspire to make October evenings exhilerating.

That being said, something wickedly wonderful is about to happen. October 28 the questions we all want the answer to might just be answered. Did Shakespeare write all those scripts?

The trailer suggests, “we have all been played,” and that might just be the best tag line of the season. The movie asserts that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays, not our favorite Stratford boy, that W. S. was merely used as a pawn in a game of Rulers, realms, and political intrigue.

The possibility gives new meaning to the phrase “who dunnit?”

Personally, I cannot wait! As a fan of everything Shakespearean, I don’t care who wrote the plays, I just love the language, the period, and--of course--the mystery!

Spring Cleaning

Well, it is that time, again~ we clean out our closets, we sweep the stoop, we start looking at the yard and envisioning trips to the nursery and hardware store! It is spring. What are you purging, philosophically speaking?
This year, my spring cleaning is an introspective one as well as a utilitarian one (gotta get ready for graduation week). Boxes of old notebooks scribbled in a fourth-graders hand will eventually depart the house, very much like the eighteen year old who once penned them...
And so, too, will I turn toward my next journey. For nearly a lifetime, I have focused on home and family, on the security of routine. However, with the shift of seasons this year, I am ready to turn my attention to my own new adventures. A new boss, a new story, a new approach to life, all are the markers for this leg of my path. If I am wise, I will be able to cast away old fears, insecurities, and bad habits, and find a more industrious approach to embracing my dreams.
Someone recently told me that once one commits to a dream, it becomes a reality. I doubted that at first, but have in the past few days realized the truth in it. Even in my past. My father once said that I had achieved many of my dreams; I nay-sayed him, and he reminded me that I had wanted a children's library (I then became a paraprofessional librarian in a school); that I had wanted to have a children's theatre ( I'm a drama instructor); and that I had wanted to see the world (travel industry professional for 14 years). He was right. I had managed to make my dreams reality. I had committed.
So...now I must commit to my next series of dreams. I wanted to write a book (I've written five). Now I want to move on to the next stage in publishing; I want to continue to travel; and I have a great desire to become a student once more.
Ooh, perhaps I shouldn't be so hasty about getting rid of those notebooks...

Autumn has arrived! While some see this season as a time for slowing down, it is a season filled with energy. The air is crisp, sunsets golden, and in only a few days Diana Peterfreund's new book Ascendant hits the shelves.

As you all know, I love mythology, fantasy, and a good story with a medieval twist. Back for a second tale, is Astrid Llewellyn, a young woman with a mind of her own, who is not afraid to be herself. Previously, readers were introduced to the ancient and very secret order of young unicorn hunters who, for hundreds of years, protected the world from the not-so-fluffy single-horned creatures. Trust me, these are not the soft, cuddly creatures won at the carnival midway. In Ascendant, Astrid continues to struggle with her commitment to the cause, as well as her commitment to do what's right. Along the way, she struggles with the balance between science and nature, well-meaning activists, and the personal choices that so many young women must make-career, school, romance, family, and which weapon also earns points as an accessory.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, Rampant, and I have to admit, Ascendant is even more thrilling. The story weaves a tale as rich as the tapestries that hang in the ancient Italian abbey where the story begins.

I desperately don't want to give anything away, yet I can tell you I was completely engrossed in this story; so much so, I read it in two sittings! Mystery, romance, fantasy all conspire to keep readers turning pages. Appropriate for young adults, the heroine appeals to anyone who is young at heart...Astrid is ageless.

Ascendant hits bookstores on October 1.

       With the strains of  "It's a Small World" still playing in my head from my stroll through the park last night, I registered for the writer's convention, procured my packet and tote bag, and sat down to schmooze.  Within five minutes, I found myself being introduced to a writer from~of all places~Paducah, KY (located halfway between Possum Trot and Monkey's Eyebrow).  Well, after the guffaws and hugs, we sat down to a proper chat. After all, its not everyday, one meets somebody from one's hometown.  

  

     Having said that, so often, I find myself face-to-face with people whom I know, or who are part of that whole six-degrees-of-separation phenomena.   My husband is cursed (or blessed) with it.  We've been strolling in NYC, and have heard his name called; have been in line at Universal, and have run into co-workers.   A few months ago, someone read his name and immediately asked, "Do you have a brother named 'soandso'?"  This man had made  a connection between my husband and his brother.  In New Jersey.

We live 1500 miles from New Jersey.  

I was once in an airport out west, when I heard a familiar voice, and turned around to see a former coworker.  She was there with a tour.  I was there catching a connection.  Even more bizarre...the woman had grown up near my mom  (once again, hundreds of miles from where we lived).  

Stranded in Wales, doing research for a book, I ran into a road construction worker to lent me his phone to call home to the states.  I turned out this guy's mother who lived in northern England, was also an historical novelist.  Go figure.  After I spoke to my husband, the construction worker called up his mom and we had a fine chat.    

      

      We once stopped for gas at a hole-in-the-wall station in Mississippi, only to run into my parents~who are not from Mississippi.   They had stopped for gas, too.   Seriously.

Oh, the stories I could tell!

        Consider just how small the world is.  Walt got it right, somehow, all those years ago.  As did my husband's grandfather when he told his kids, "Remember, no matter where you go, there will always be someone who knows who you are."  In this age of Face book, Twitter, Blogspot, and Skype, it seems we are making the world ever smaller. 

So...talk to me.  How many of you have run into someone you know in the most unlikely places?  Have you found yourself in the 3rd, 4th, or 6th degree of separation?  What cosmic quirks have you experienced? 

       

What color is your rainbow?

Color can set mood, denote emotion, incite action, or non-action. 

 

   This week,  two movies have set my mind whirling about the importance of color.

I went to see Eclipse, as did numerous others.  I was struck by the simplistic color scheme.  Brown and grey were the predominant hues throughout the movie, with the exception being Victoria's red hair (no spoilers).  Although the season is spring, the cinematographer did  a wonderful job of presenting a quilt of scenes that are just a touch off black and white...thereby giving the audience that sense that there is a hint more to good vs. evil in this tale.  

   Having contemplated this, I sat down and watched The Village this weekend, as well.  M. Night Shyamalan is a genius for his ability to take something simple and turn it into something unsettling, or horrifying, depending on your perspective.  In The Village, the predominant colors are gold (all things bright and beautiful), and red (all things alarming and dangerous).  While the sets, costumes, and lighting are neutral, these two colors which he brandishes like flags set us on edge, pulling us into the emotional turmoil, into the panic.  

   Many years ago, a book hit the racks with a white cover.  Ghost Story was a hit, and part of that might have been the strategy of the cover.  Few books at that time had such a stark cover, but for this one, the color caught the reader off guard. Ghostly figures and white just seemed to go together.  It worked.  Sales hit a high; ultimately the story headed to Hollywood and became a feature film.

   When my daughter was young, I discovered that she responded negatively to red. It was just too bold for her, and her perpetually calm sense of self would suddenly react fretfully to the brightness of the color when she found herself in a room or store where red was the main color.  Likewise, when I did work for the public affairs department of a hospital, we helped develop a color scheme that emphasized neutral shades of mauve, spruce, blue, grey, purely for their calming effect.

   I've read that some studies show that men respond favorably to the color red.  I know someone who gets headaches from the color orange.   Some people look better in pastel colors, others in gemstone or dark colors.  Some choose earthtones for their statement.   Marketing personnel know how important color is to packaging. Color affects sales.  

   What colors inspire you to buy? What colors turn you pensive?  What hues brighten your day? Give you a headache? Make you want to get up and dance?  Go look at your living room, your closet, your car, your favorite sweater.  Then tell me, what color is your rainbow?

School's Out for Summer!

Summertime!

Well, it's here.  School is out, kids are headed to beaches, amusement parks, and summer camps.

For me, well, it's time to commune with nature.  But only after an ample supply of mosquito repellant and zinc oxide (forget that 30 SPF stuff) have been liberally applied.  [Yes I recognize the redundancy of the previous statement~ and I embrace it.]

For me, embracing nature, also means embracing my own true nature.  It means sleeping in to get the full eight hours of sleep my body yearns for nine months of the year.  It means being able to eat when I want, and what I want (good, healthy stuff), versus the slew of fast-food-on-the-go things that I invariably snarf on my way to a meeting I'm already five minutes late for because if I don't grab something now, I won't get another chance until Thursday.  

And summer means being able to find a forest, or a lake, or a pond,  feed the ducks, listen to the birds and frogs, and  take a bit of time to just relax.  Read.  Write.  Read some more.   Traveling, visiting, touring are all wonderful, and they are part of my-own-true-nature self nurturing regimen for the summer.  However, when my legs are weary, my wallet is light, and I am faced with the mild inconveniences of day-to-day life, I can always escape in a book.  As I have told students for more than ten years now,  "With a book, you can go anywhere, be anyone, experience anything."  

Therein lies the magic.   

I am planning to go back in time and study the history of Wales, and maybe do some frolicking with Christopher Moore's  Jester (medieval, satirical...what's not to like?)  And then there's always that stack in the upstairs study that grows by a  book or two every conference or bookstore I hit.  TMB TLT  (too many books, too little time).

Enough of my rambling.  It's summer and somewhere,  daylight is waning!  Grab a tale, take a load off, and find your own moment of respite.   Any favorite reads, or hope-to-read tales on your summer reading lists?   Do tell.