Happy New Year, everyone!
What say we make this the year we all successfully publish our lovely books? Okay?
Not to get all nostalgic on you, but this has been an amazing past year. My manuscript, All The Dancing Birds, was awarded finalist honors by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Writing this inside-out view of an Alzheimer’s sufferer was not easy. There is great agony associated with Alzheimer’s. Surprisingly, patients are accutely aware of every loss as it occurs, but lose their capacity to communicate such awareness. How terrifying this must be! All The Dancing Birds allows a glimpse into the failing mind of a woman living with this still incurable disease. It does so by locating compassion, some humor, and a lot of grace for its falling-down characters.
2007 also was the year of the Big Move, from Seattle to Phoenix. I’ve left behind friends I may never see again, and rain boots I hope never to need again. But, I found a place where one doesn’t need to spend the winter wrapped in a quilt. I discovered that walks under the sun gives one energy to deal with stricken wrists, rejection letters, and even the occasional ever-so-rude, complete non-response to queries regarding my manuscript. Fiction is a tough sell, but at least these beautiful Arizona days make it bearable.
I’ll hold good thoughts that we may each experience a prosperous and successful 2008. When I was a child, I always received in my Christmas stocking a nickel and an orange. The orange was for health … and the nickel was for wealth for the coming year.
So, oranges and nickels all around! May we find our works happily published, and may we all go on to do what it is we do so well … write, write, write.