Satisfaction Guaranteed is officially on sale in stores near you, and shipping from online retailers (e-tailers?). If you see it, let me know!
Satisfaction has one of my favorite heroes ever in Kane. Hope you enjoy reading him as much as I enjoyed writing him!
And don’t forget, Wild Wild West is still available. Here’s a fun write-up at J. Kaye’s blog!
Once upon a time, the husband (before he was the husband) asked me to spend a week with him in Hawaii. Kauai, to be specific, known as the garden island. Many famous movies have been filmed there. The scenery is spectacular. We lugged his view camera all over the island and many gorgeous photographs resulted.
We saw the rugged Na Pali coastline. We saw Waimea canyon, looking like it was carved out of God’s own pastel box. We saw red dirt and the greenest greens, flowers everywhere, including orchids of incredible variety. We heard the music of the surf at night from our beachside home away from home, ate unbelievable food, and agreed hourly that this was paradise.
Our beachside home came with a guestbook, and one day we leafed through it to see who else had stayed there. Two stood out. One, a mother and teen son who’d come so he could snorkel Poi’pu. He sounded like a riot, a great kid who knew how lucky he was, and I wished we could’ve met them. His entry made fun of another guest who stood out…The Ant Lady.
The Ant Lady had stayed there while getting married. Her entry was a litany of complaints. Everything was wrong. The island hospitality was substandard. She hated the place on the beach because at night, she saw…ants on the lanai. Oh horrors. Ants. Outside. In the tropics.
I don’t know if that marriage lasted. I doubt it. If it did last, that is one unhappy husband, because there is no pleasing somebody who was fortunate enough to spend a week in paradise and spent it complaining.
The Ant Lady stands out in my mind as the embodiment of the takeaway. All of us decide what to take away from an experience. We took countless memories of sun and surf and stark raving beauty, and it lives on in large framed prints all over our house, plus two original watercolors by a local artist. The kid took his memories of a great time with his mom at the beach, maybe one of the last vacations they had before he went off to college, who knows? And the bride took away, not memories of her fabulous Hawaiian wedding in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but ants on the lanai.
We don’t always get to choose our circumstances or experiences, but we can choose what we take away. That ant lady, no matter how much she had in her bank account, is one poor human being, impoverished where it matters. Life can enrich us by the hour if we let it. I don’t want to waste my life dwelling on the ants on the lanai and missing the sunset hung across the horizon in streaks of crimson and pink and gold.
In no particular order, ten things I’m grateful for:
1. An organized garage!
2. a great morning walk in the sunny foothills with my family
3. coffee with a shot of espresso and a chocolate-covered coffee bean
4. pussy willows starting to bloom
5. sunrises and sunsets
6. books and bookstores and libraries
7. hugs and kisses
8. cuddly cats
9. a bright, sunny office
10. a very clean house
Hope this Sunday finds you full of gratitude for the little and big things in your world.
Somehow this book fell into my shopping cart, despite the houseful of bookcases and the pile of unread books on my bedside table. And I knew the minute I opened it I would be sucked in, and I am. I love the way he makes ordinary objects sinister and ordinary events gripping. I love the imagery and the way he talks about creative work as simultaneously something supernatural and something that deserves a solid work ethic like any other job. Most of all, I love stumbling across a quote from Christian mystic Dame Julian of Norwich and feeling like I caught the inside joke. Stephen King delivers solid entertainment and something to think about, too.
Today you get Friday Potpourri. Because all my brains are getting sucked into the book.
NINC (Novelists Inc): I’ve volunteered for Outreach, which means I extol the virtues of the organization and lure members in. I volunteered for this despite my “no volunteering until kids are in school” decision, because it’s not an overly demanding position and it’s something I really believe has a lot of value, especially now. Publishing is changing, and NINC is the only organization with a broad, cross-genre perspective. So you might get information from NINC that paints a very different picture than you see in your genre-specific org. Also, it doesn’t hurt to be informed about other genres when you might have to reinvent yourself due to artistic growth, market changes, or a combination thereof.
Yule Be Mine has been reviewed by RT: “This amusing concoction of the fun and flirty is an enjoyable ride…if you’re looking for something light with a touch of the whimsical, look no further.” – Sandra Garcia-Meyers (3 Stars, HOT)
Author’s copies of Satisfaction Guaranteed are here! YAAAYYYYY! They are shiny and gorgeous and I love them. Of course, they need good homes, so I will have to Ponder Ways to get them happily adopted.
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