A very unusual afternoon

I had a pretty interesting and unusual afternoon and evening. I arrived home after picking my youngest up at school, to find a stranger at my kitchen table with her laptop, talking to my 21 year old. I at first just assumed it was a friend of my son's, then realized it was a woman my age, laughing about how she'd more or less made herself welcome in my home. This was the beginning of quite an interesting day, and it began at 3:30 p.m. Apparently a friend of mine saw this woman, Marzena (prounounced marj - on - a) walking up my road with a laptop computer. She was looking for a place that had internet access since her landlord had not paid the cable bill and she was therefore without internet. Since the closest place is about three miles and up a big hill, my friend told her to stop at my house and ask me. So I arrived to find her ensconced at my kitchen table with an apple laptop. As soon as I came into the room I intuitively felt her warmth and openess. After talking with Marzena for some time (I drove her home at 7:45 p.m) I discovered we have quite a few things in common. We are both very much into holistic/alternative medicine. She is a healer, an intuitive, a painter, writer and designer. There the similarities end. She is a European Countess who can trace her family back aeons and aeons in European history. I totally believed everything she told me, but it was still kind of mind boggling, that this warm, compassionate woman came from such a background and was so down to earth. She has been a ballet dancer, NY socialite, fashion designer, actress, and rubbed elbows with the most rich and famous imaginable, and yet has fallen on hard times of late and she is still so cheerful and from what I can glean an incredible human being. To satisfy my own critical/questioning nature, I did google her. I found pictures, stories and it is all there in black and white. She can really talk too, but it was just a flow of ideas and backgrounds we exchanged so naturally over the time she visited. It's incredible to suddenly make new friends in such a fashion, but it has happened to me three times in the month of November. I made two fast friends with other writers while on vacation, and now Marzena. I feel incredibly lucky and blessed, and feel just an incredible new piece of my life coming together. Today, I also finished the last edits on A Journey Well Taken. I have gone through it the last time before sending it to the company to be formatted for the printer. I am finally satisfied with the story it tells and the way it is told. It feels complete. Now I'm going to imagine a well of prosperity opening up so the money arrives for each new step in this phase of publishing. I can hardly wait.

Dates and other things to look forward to

I haven't been on a date in a while, sometimes you just kind of give up. (It's like you hit your head against a wall so many times before you realize it hurts and it's really not getting you anywhere, right). I was attracting the wrong type of guy, and it has been a problem for about a year or so, going out with "emotionally unavailable men." I love those three words and kind of think they're MY coined phrase for dating in today's society. Nice guys in their own right, but geesh, I've had a twenty year marriage, I know how a relationship works. It takes a wee bit of time and a little bit of work, but give it a chance. I actually like dating when it's with the right person. It is so much fun, just being with that special someone.

I finally gave up on the online dating sites, not for me -- I could tell you stories. Oh wait, that's my other book, "The Internet Dating Guide: The Good, Bad and Ugly, Be Smart, Stay Safe." Yes, I do have an ebook by that name. I'm revamping the website, so it's not up right now. It's actually lost out there somewhere in cyberspace since I switched servers. I have to find it and reel it back in to its proper URL.

Okay, back to the dating .....I joined a dating service where they interview you, you pay them too much money, and they match you up for six months with guys who share the same interests as you. Well, my membership ran out while I was on vacation, and when I got back the service set me up with my last date they owed me. Hmmm, I got there first, about ten minutes early. I was sitting there having an ice tea and this nice looking guy walks in with an umbrella. He kind of looks around and then walks into the other room. I was sitting there thinking too bad he's not my date, hmmm, interesting looking guy. Attractive. He comes back in and guess what, he's my date. Ohhhhh. Nice. Okay, I'm not all about looks, but hey, it don't hurt! We had a nice time chatting, about two hours which is the longest I've been on one of these meetings through this service. We actually had a lot in common, both have three kids, actually almost the same ages, grew up in the same city (even though I now live an hour south) and he sold newspapers as a kd on Sundays at the church I was in every single Sunday morning. How can it get more weird than that! :-) Ok, I'm chuckling. Trust me, there was nothing weird about this fellow. I just can't help going there and doing reality checks because I've been around some strange types. It's nice to do normal.

Now, here's the funny/strange part of the evening. I'm sitting there at our little table talking with my date, facing the bar, and this guy sits down at the bar. I kind of do a double take and realize the guy that just sat at the bar is from my area (which geographically is an hour south of this restaurant/bar). He's kind of a strange person, but I won't go into that. A woman joined him and they sat at the bar the entire time I was there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him look at me a couple times but I kept my interest on my date. So I wondered if this person I knew from my town was also set up with the dating service at this restaurant or was it just a chance place he chose to meet someone? Hmmm.

I had a nice time and my date and I decided to meet again. That's always a hopeful sign, mutual interest -- trust me on that one. I'd been out of dating 28 years when I jumped back into it with both feet and hands flailing. It was an eye opener, not all bad, but I just assumed people told the truth about themselves. Boy, was I behind the times. LOL.

Here is the cover for A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss. I am very happy with the job they did.

Writing Progress

I am on cloud nine! My writing finally seems to be coming back full swing. I hadn't been able to write in so long. Since coming back from the ocean retreat and meeting new, inspiring writer friends, I am so inspired. I did edits on a romance manuscript I had previously written for Silhouttte Books, and I'm going to submit it fresh to Superromance with Harlequin. It is good. It matters not what they think, but I am going to send it out with thoughts of it being accepted Simply, Easily and Wonderfully. I am so happy with it. I brought it down 30k words to fit the line. Now, I just finished the final edits on Journey, except for the last 19 pages, of my non fiction, A Journey Well Taken. That will be going off to the company to format it for the printer. Yes, the self publishing process is moving along. I hope to have a printing done by February and available everyone by March or April. It is liberating. I have the cover for A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss and will be posting it soon.

Last night I went to see the movie "Enchanted" and I was enchanted by the entire premise. A romance from a fairytale brought to real life. I want that.

Vacation is over and so real life resumes.............

Spent a week at a writer's retreat in SC and what a fantabulous time! Just what I ordered, but even better than what I expected. The energy was wonderful with 11 other writers in the house on the beach. All the writers in residence were wonderful, but I found two writers, one a southern lady and one a mid west lady, who I hope to keep in touch with.

I completed the edits on A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss. I have the cover for the book and I'm very excited by the prospect of moving forward with this project. I know it will land where it is supposed to be, I've brought it to this p0int and done the best I could, the rest is up to someone in a higher place than myself. :-)

I'm working on the website for the book, considering doing a book trailer myself...maybe, time considerations come into play. I'm very excited and feel really good about things moving forward so nicely. While on the retreat I was infused with new inspiration, due mainly to my two new friends, to start resubmitting with my currently available romance manuscripts, so I've been doing research all evening on where to submit.

Today is the beginning of the beginning

New life, new opportunities. How did we all get to where we are today? I look back at where I've been and I'm glad to I don't have to go there anymore. But what if they're right in this new book I just read, based on quantum physics of all things, that perhaps time is happening simultaneously. Past, presnt, future -- it's all happening at the same time and in the same place. Different realities, different outcomes for every situation in our lives. What if my husband is really alive in a different reality. What if it's the reality I visit when I dream at night. Is this too heavy? I wonder about this stuff, especially since I read The Divine Matrix. Hmmmm.