Wednesday Evening Meanderings

Donald and I have just gotten flu shots today.

First flu shots we've ever gotten in our 24 + years together. The only time either of us has had the flu was the first year we were together and we were two very sick puppies. We both missed two and a half weeks of work. That's a huge chunk of missed work at one time!

Since then, we've both had a few pretty bad colds and I had bronchitis once and thought it was going to absolutely put me in my grave, but basically we're two of the healthiest people I know.

All this flu talk this year, along with the fact that I'll be getting on a plane next Wednesday, helped us decide that we might need to break with our "no flu shots" tradition. And so we did. Now we'll just see how it goes. This was the seasonal flu shot, the H1N1 shots won't be available till later, and the way I understand it - that's being recommended in addition to the seasonal shot. Seems like an awful lot of shots to me.

I've not been overly impressed with the seasonal shot in the past - seems like whatever vaccine is chosen ends up being the wrong one to fight that year's flu. But oh well - what do I know.

Anyway. We've had our shots.

But I don't really want to talk about the flu, or flu shots.

Many of you are members of DorothyL, so you'll be familiar with this lovely little book that I do want to talk about. THE WRITER'S JOURNEY JOURNAL: Inspiration, Information and Humor to help you find your way as a writer. It came up in conversation at DorothyL just this week. It is a lovely little book! It's compiled and edited by Tony Burton, and it's available through Wolfmont Press. Mine was a gift from my friend Radine Trees Nehring who writes the "Something to Die for" mystery series, which I adore. In the first book of the series, A VALLEY TO DIE FOR, this passage in the introduction grabbed me, and the series has maintained its hold on my heart ever since. "She began to turn slowly, still looking up into the treetops. She was, she decided, performing a symbolic ritual--turning away from asphalt, traffic, lined-up buildings, and rushing people. She was also turning away from Mrs. Amos Anderson McCrite, city wife. She was now Carrie Culpeper McCrite, independent woman, and Ozarks forest dweller.

She stood in a green well with walls unbroken by anything but the narrow window of her lane to the road."

This passage SO perfectly describes the very feelings I had the day Donald and I moved into this little house we now live in here in Boone, NC. We moved to this little town in the North Carolina mountains from Atlanta. And I did feel just like Carrie; like I was turning away from asphalt, traffic, lined-up buildings, and rushing people. I was totally blown away that someone could write what I was feeling! I immediately felt a kinship towards Ms. Nehring, but had no idea we would go on to become friends.

I was touched and honored by Radine's gift. I admired it, I picked it up over and over and read the essays included - many written by people from the mystery community who I know, or know of, and I enjoyed reading the quotes included on the top of each page. It's a simple delight. But I never wrote the first word in it. During a recent conversation about THE WRITER'S JOURNEY JOURNAL at DorothyL, I mentioned that I may have finally decided that I was actually ready to put the journal to the use for which it was intended and actually write in it. Maybe.

I've been in the terrible habit of jotting down ideas about things I want to blog about on whatever's handy - my desk calendar, a sticky note, the backs of envelopes - you know what I mean. We're all guilty of jotting those odd and random little notes to ourselves, many of which we never see again. One of the DorothyL members, Jenny Milchman, who writes the wonderful "Suspense Your Disbelief" blog suggested a fun thing. Start using the darn book, and then put a copy of one of the pages from the journal with my notes on it right here in Meanderings and Muses. So here 'tis. You probably can't read my notes, and that's O.K. - they're all ideas that will end up here anyway, and probably pretty soon. And I must say - allowing myself to finally write in my Writer's Journey Journal is fun. It's satisfying, fulfilling, makes me smile and it's just . . . fun. I've always been a firm believer in doing little things for ourselves which make us happy. We all need to allow ourselves little pleasures that bring us those feelings of fulfillment and bring forth a smile. Life is short. We only get to do it once. No dress rehearsal, as that saying goes. So why not do it with a smile? And if it's something as small as allowing yourself to write in a sparkly new journal, with bright shiny pages begging to be written upon, then what's the hold-up?! Go ahead, write away, then sit back and admire how beauteous 'YOUR' words look upon that page.

And now -

I LOVE give-aways, and wish I could do more of them.

I'm going to work on that.

But while I'm doing that, I do have a copy of a book I'd love to give to someone who might be interested.

Nope - NOT a copy of THE WRITER'S JOURNEY JOURNAL - Sorry! You'll have to find your own copy of that (and you should!).

But, if you're interested in receiving a copy of another book I've been squealing about here at Meanderings and Muses lately, (squealing about quite a lot, actually), just leave a comment at the bottom of this post. I'll draw a name on Saturday, and post the winning name on Sunday. Please check on Sunday, and if you're the winner, send me an email with your mailing address so I can get the book in the mail to you on Monday. (If we don't take care of this on Sunday and Monday, it will have to wait till I return from Bouchercon, and I'd rather not have it wait that long. )

Have you guessed what the book is?! Bet you have!

Here tis - ta DA!



Clothes Lines from 75 western North Carolina women writers.

i just love this book.