Peace on Earth

It's one planet. We need to cooperate. We should know that by now. So this is what I wish for this holiday season: peace on earth. And yes, some goodwill along with it.

Winter Solstice

It's Winter Solstice.  Everyone, it seems, is looking forward to longer days and warmer days. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but I would like to see the long nights celebrated, too.  I suppose I am in the minority, but I am grateful for shorter days, for a season that seems to prompt me to look within, to meditate and to dream.  Today marks the shortest day and the longest night, but the season will still have many long, cold nights filled with moon and stars. I know when Spring comes I will be ready for it, but for now: happy Solstice.

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The unexpected story

I love all book stores, online and bricks and mortar. I buy books online for convenience and because I can't help myself. It's so easy to see book, buy book. I love e-stores.  But I also love bricks and mortar book stores, especially the independents. You never know what could be on the shelves, books you wouldn't normally think to look for online, unexpected and wonderful stories. I just came back from visiting Wakefield Books in the Wakefield mall in South Kingstown, RI.  They have some copies of "Tiger Lily" and "A Changed World" there, which was my excuse. Not that I needed an excuse, of course.

Book stores at any time of year are a treat but in December, wow!  There are books, of course, books everywhere, but also calendars and bookmarks and wonderful things! You can hold books and admire them, in person, before you buy them. You can listen as the books whisper to you.  I couldn't stay as long as I wanted but I intend to go back, to wander and perhaps find an unexpected story that I must have.

So visit a book store, if you can. If you are passing through South Kingstown, stop in at Wakefield Books.  Yes, go ahead, buy a copy of "Tiger Lily" but also see if there's an unexpected story that you just must have.

Remembering: Veterans Day

I remember when my first grade teacher called it Armistice Day.  She explained why, that the fighting in the First World War had ended at this time.  At 11 AM she asked us to be silent and to remember that soldiers had died. Along with my classmates, I closed my eyes. My child's imagination showed me scenes of war and loss. When we opened our eyes I saw my teacher looking at me with concern  and I realized that I had been crying.

Every year since that time I have taken a few minutes at eleven in the morning on the eleventh day of the eleventh month to remember those who have died in wars and those who served. Reading and research and personal stories have expanded my knowledge but have not altered the intensity I felt on that day in my childhood.  I always hope, as I did then, that some day there will be no war. I hope and I remember.

"Tiger Lily" kindle sale for Halloween!

Get ready for Halloween! Beginning on October 29 there will be a kindle countdown sale of "Tiger Lily". Is it "the lady or the tiger", or in this case, "the lady and the tiger"? Who could resist?  If you don't have this kindle book yet, mark your calendar!

Print Edition of "Tiger Lily"

Yes, a print edition of "Tiger Lily", or as some people call it, a "real book", should be out by the end of the month.  There is an amazing amount of work involved in this: does this look okay, does that work and on and on.  I will be both excited and relieved when it finally happens.  Then, if all goes as planned, "Burning Bright" should be right behind it.

"You Do Not Exist"

Yesterday I called my local pharmacy for a refill.  There was something wrong with their phone system; it asked for my extension and password.  I hung up and tried again.  Same result, so I hit "zero" hoping it would default to a human. Instead, the automated system told me, in a pleasant female voice, "You do not exist.  Goodbye."  Then it hung up on me, precipitating a sudden flashback to a college French lit course.  Life is certainly absurd when automated systems become existentialist.