Explanations!

I had a nice email yesterday from a reader, Chris. She said she had tried to leave a comment here on the blog but it didn't work (more on that in a minute) so she emailed. As Genie did back in August (wasn't August about 20 minutes ago? Wait, you say it's now October??!) she was missing my garaging adventures and wanted more. My ego is definitely purring!

But here's the thing - the fact is I've never been happier and don't post very often because I just don't feel like it! I'm at an age and stage of life where for the first time I can do what I want. I don't need to please anyone other than myself, and my main responsibility is to my pets.

The pandemic certainly had a big effect on sales. There are far fewer than in past years. Plus I downsized when I divorced, and already own most everything I need. I still enjoy going to sales and chatting with folks, but don't care if I go out every week.

I have no plans to end this blog, but posts will remain - how shall I put it? - quixotic. If you  miss me (warning, shameless self promotion ahead!) please hop over to Amazon and buy my books. They are quite fun, and if enough of you do it I'll have money to go garaging. Yay!

Now...circling back to the comments thing. I have no idea what is going on with that. My own blog will not let ME leave a comment! It keeps saying I have to sign in even though I already did. Grrrr. I apologize to anyone who has struggled with it, but I don't know how to fix it. Holler if  you have advice.

My now overblown ego thinks someone might want to know what I've been up to if not thrifting. Craigslist is a good pal of mine - just today I scored a cordless vacuum for about 75% off retail (I hate to vacuum, hoping this will make it easier). And for my birthday Craigslist found me something I've been considering for months - an electric tricycle! Isn't she pretty?

Mostly I just love hanging out with my fur gang. Remember that new kitten, Stanley? Best impulse decision ever. I woke up yesterday to find we were sleeping cheek to cheek. Great way to start the day!

Sidestep

I've always found it interesting to see how the seed of an idea gets planted in my head, and how it grows, and the sometimes-strange fruit that is born.

Not to mention how darned long the process takes!

Last November I participated for the first time in NaNoWriMo—aka National Novel Writing Month. Thousands of people around the globe join in this madness, in which one pledges to write a 50,000 word story in thirty days. I might never have considered doing it if the founder of the event hadn’t written a book about it called No Plot, No Problem.  Which was the perfect title to catch me, since I've always considered plotting the bane of my writing existence. But what really sealed the deal was that my friend KK wanted to give NaNoWriMo a try as well.

A definite goal and a little personal competition. Exactly the right combination to get me going!

The NaNoWriMo folks strongly suggest that you start afresh for this endeavor. It seems to work best not to work with something you’ve started before, or on something in a series. So I sat down last November 1 without any characters or plot in mind. All I really had was a seed that had been growing in my mind since, um, about 2002, which was when I started thinking about Puss in Boots. No, I don’t think it had anything to do with the Shrek franchise, even though the first film came out in 2001. My mental image of Puss in Boots had more to do with the image on the cat food label I remembered from childhood. (I found him quite dashing.)

Being a children’s librarian I grabbed of one of the many illustrated versions 

to refresh my memory of the story. Puss is a trickster character, 

and the climax of the story is when he tricks the shape-changing owner of a castle into becoming a mouse that he can eat. In some versions the shape-changer is an ogre, but the one I read used a giant. 

And it struck me that other than being larger (and richer) than those around him, we had seen the giant do nothing to merit being killed and eaten and his castle and lands taken over by the miller’s lazy son. Not fair, cried my inner justice-loving child self. That is just so not fair.

Every once in a while through the years, I'd think about the theme of having everything stolen. We hear more and more about identity theft, but I was looking beyond identity, though that was part of it. Under what circumstances could someone have their life stolen?

And how could they get it back?

Somehow, when I began to write my 50,000 (plus!) words last fall, that was what erupted from beneath the surface. A woman with secrets, who steps away from her life for just a few days before starting a new job in a new part of the country…but when she tries to step back again finds that her life has been stolen. All of it. Home, job, name, money, all gone. It took me twenty-four days to discover what had happened, and what she would do about it.

Sidestep.

Available now!