Me with Theresa, Jacqui, Juliana and Lynn

I had a marvelous trip to Maryland to spend Thanksgiving with my children and grandchildren. Lots of good food (of course) but even better company.

               
Lynn, Jack,               Philip                     Kit with his girlfriend Nara
Natalie,
Juliana & Jacqui

Fortunately, I'd finally finished my current work in progress and since I have a editor critique lined up, I now have to get my synopsis in order and get it off to her. Maybe this will be the one to get me published. Or perhaps it will be the single title I just sent off a partial to an agent on. Either way, both of my 2011 projects are done and out the door so now I can focus on a mountain of sewing projects for Christmas gifts, get my shopping done, the Christmas cards and the wrapping. And there is always the lure of the sea and the beach to walk every day. Life just doesn't get much better than this. And lurking in the back of my mind is the next writing project. I'm just getting to know my characters and the plot comes in bits and pieces. Come the start of the new year, I'll be ready to begin writing again.

So get busy everyone - lots of shopping to be done, Santa's visit to prepare for and family to enjoy. And for those who have no family, I pray the season will bring you some other blessing. One last thing, for our soldiers serving here and anywhere in the world, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your families too.

MacDuff and I went to the inland waterway side for our walk this evening and watched the sun go down. Summer Haven is a pretty special place to live: sunsets over the ocean in the morning, sunsets over the river in the evening and half a dozen different beaches to walk on depending on my mood, the weather and the tides. What more could I want?

Well, for one thing, I could be published in novel length fiction by now. I do want that, and I'm working hard toward that goal. I just finished by latest WIP and I'm feeling a little bereft. It's like these really neat people I liked a lot and who's company I enjoyed every day have suddenly pulled up stakes and moved to California. I know they're still there, but I'm not going to see them any more. Of course, there's the synopsis to write and the book itself to edit and peddle, but the story's been told and at the moment, at least, until I begin the next one, I'm feeling a little sad.

I read a quote today I wanted to share with you, by William Arthur Ward.
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

I used to walk along a little road down the middle of the dunes toward that little round dome of a house. You can see a bit of the road just across the NEW inlet to the river (the river is to the right, out of sight), but the rest of the road has been swallowed by the sea just as the dunes were. This photo was taken from where that road used to be, well above the reach of the sea, but my feet were in the water today.
When I first moved to Summer Haven this little house was completely buried in the dunes. Then a tiny bit of the front wall began to show. First a few feet, then more. Eventually the whole front wall higher than head height showed and the front stairs appeared. This past summer parts of the sides of the house began to show as unusually high tides swept away sand and dune. Then we had one northeast storm after another. The first uncovered the old septic tank. The next tumbled the front wall onto the sand. This last one completely destroyed the house and carried away all the dune that once surrounded it and this is all that's left. I wonder how long it will be before the dome house and the dunes around it are swallowed by the sea or washed into the river beyond?

Someone suggested downloading Angry Birds to my new phone. Didn't do it - at least not yet, as I've heard that really REALLY takes over your life. But I did sync the new gadget with my Kindle so I can read books on it. And there's the scrabble games I've got going and the endless chat with my kids. Seems to me, before long they will pack so much into such a small item that we can do away with computers, phones, books, the TV and who knows what else. I wonder if I could teach it to drive the car so I can nap on long trips?

I got my new iPhone yesterday. Wow! What an amazing little gadget. And what a huge learning curve for the technically challenged like me!  I blew away half the morning in a chat with my kids while they coached me on a bunch of stuff like adding emoticons, figuring out how to access the family website, playing scrabble and a number of other things. And that was after I spent the entire afternoon yesterday just setting stuff up. I think the passwords are going to do me in, though. If only I could just establish ONE password, but NO! Everyone wants different parameters so they are all different. And if I write them down and carry them around in the case, what good is that? Anyway, I expect that very soon, I'm going to wonder how I ever lived without the thing. Whatever happened to the Pony Express? In the mean time, learning how to use this is taking over my life. That and all the fun chatting with my kids I can do now.

A gray rainy day here in Summerhaven. Good day to get caught up on all those indoor chores. Better, however, than the snow I'd have been shoveling if I still lived in New England. Some of those folk are still without power and the kids are going to be trick or treating in the snow.

 
Spent a delightful evening at la Taberna del Gallo in old St Augustine listening to the Bilge Rats practice for the upcoming Pirate Gathering on Sunday.  You should stop by la Taberna some evening. They serve up a dynamite sangria in red, rose and white, some great on tap beer, ale and ciders and the ambiance simply can't be beat. Entirely lit with candles and lamps, la Taberna represents what it would have been like to visit the local tavern back in the mid 1700s when the Spanish here here. Come on down and check it out. You might even get lucky and hear a great group like last night. They will be at la Taberna del Gallo on both Friday and Saturday nights this week.

Ancient City Romance Authors' Fiction Writer's Boot Camp at the Beach 2011 was a wonderful event. We had terrific speakers, great company, awesome food, a terrific venue and  everyone came home excited to get back to writing. The workshops were full of good information and inspiring ideas. The agent, Lois Winston, of Ashley Grayson Literary Agency gave a wonderful keynote address and our featured speaker, Florida author, Karen Rose, conjured up some really great workshops on Chilling Villains, Colorful Secondary Characters, and Dialog that brings your manuscript to life. Two of our own chapter put on great workshops, too. Summer Stephens gave us an insight on the new digital publishing medium and how to get it done, and Elizabeth Sinclair got us fired up with a workshop on creating great hooks in the first line, the first paragraph and throughout the book. A side trip on a Ghost Tour of old St Augustine was enjoyed by many of our participants on Friday night, as well. I could have gone along, but decided to soak in the hot tub instead which was wonderfully relaxing. Thanks to all our speakers and a wonderful supporting committee (You know who you are, but for the benefit of those who don't-- Vickie King, Dolores Wilson, Marge Smith, Kellie Sharpe and Kathy Bain)- I couldn't have done it without you. Love you all, and I can't wait for next year.

Yesterday I opted not to go to work at la Taberna because nasty weather was predicted with a nearly 100% chance of rain, flooding and possibly even a tornado watch. But nothing came of it after all, just a few sprinkles. Gave me extra time to work on my book which I am so close to finishing and hope to get to THE END before I have to put it aside to run the conference this weekend. Today's weather report had an ominous little cloud with 20 mph winds. Well it is windy, from the west and blowing the tops of the breaking waves into a fine mist. But no ominous clouds. I think I'll take it!

Sunset last night - looking east! Who says all the color is in the west when the sun goes down? 

And here it is, Saturday again. I had a really interesting meeting scheduled for this morning, but made the mistake of picking up my book as I slid into bed last night. It's my habit to read a bit before falling asleep and it's usually just that, a page or three, maybe even a whole chapter. But alas, that was not the case last night. The plot thickened and before I knew it, the clock read 1:45 am. I turned my Kindle off and settled in to sleep. But turning off the Kindle proved a lot easier than turning off my brain which insisted on churning away in half a dozen directions. Gary Ponzo has a lost night of sleep to answer for, or rather his character, Nick Bracco does. The last time I looked at the clock it was after 4 am.  I woke with just barely time to get to the meeting had I hustled a bit, but my brain was so drugged, I wouldn't have retained anything I heard so I soaked for way too long in the shower and chugged about a quart of caffeine instead. Now I'm wondering what project I should get focused on - sewing? My table has a whole pile of material waiting to be transformed into garments. Organizing? I have stacks of stuff to get ready for the conference I'm running next weekend. Writing? My hero and heroine are anxious for me to fix their problems. Or I could just go for a walk on the beach. It's a gorgeous fall day out there! Have a good one . . .whatever you choose to do. As for me, I think I'll check out the beach, then work on the book.