It's Fall

Yesterday I put up a new banner on the back door. My banners are usually quilt blocks that went awry that I make into banners to jazz up the back door. Remember, I live in the country and the front door is only for show. So I had a block that was fallish but didn't come up to my standards -- and the pattern would have driven me NUTS if I'd made a whole quilt with it.

It's a new season. Cool. Sunny. Lumpy underfoot. One of these days I'm going to break an ankle stepping on a walnut or a chesnut. But I love crunching maple seeds. My mother never let me do that when I was a kid. Now that I'm a grandmother, I feel entitled. Crunch those seeds! Kick those leaves! I'm the one who has to wash my socks.

My trees aren't turning color yet, but I expect any day to look up over the back part of the house and see that the maple that changes first every year will be turning yellow, then orange then go bare. It happens so fast!

I hope I can take a ride in the hills this fall, that it won't cost an arm and a leg. Just going to the grocery store this time of year can be terribly exciting. I love the colors, the flowers, the displays people put in their yards.

I just realized, I haven't grown up!

Try, Try Again

We have a spider in residence on our front door -- the glass pane of what would be the screen door if we ever got around to changing the panes. I have a mild interest in spiders, and a particular interest in this one.

For those of you who are familiar with these guys (or gals), this one is black with white spots, has an interesting configuration of legs, and doesn't seem to mind being observed, albeit through two panes of glass. What fascinated me most is his/her pattern of making a web. I have yet to be able to watch the whole process, but he makes what appears to be a vertical zigzag stitch, then keeps filling it in until it is almost a satin stitch. In the center, he spins a sort of fuzzy mass, where he waits -- possibly bones up on culinary techniques until another spider comes by.

In the ensuing process, the web is destroyed -- and the next morning the spider starts all over again.

Do you think Mr. Singer studied such a creature to come up with the zigzag? This may take some thought. . .

13 Is NOT Unlucky

With my new writing project, I took a huge leap into the unknown. Oh, sure, it's a romance -- of sorts, but it is more Women's Fiction. Yes, COME HOME TO LOVE was a more serious book than my usual romances, but it lies forgotten in the usual stream of romance. But I've taken a leap --

-- And have landed! Last night I got an email from KD Struck, the publisher of Awe-Struck e-Books, saying that she was accepting CRICKET'S MOON for publication late next year. Whoo-hoo!

What's different about Cricket and her moon? Well, Cricket has a social conscience. She wins a huge -- HUGE lottery prize and is moved to use it to advance the condition of the underprivileged people in her county in northern Florida -- most of whom are black. Some people approve -- some don't.

When I was working on this idea, I realized that it is too big for one book. Some of the stories the characters have whispered in my ears are too big for one book. So as it stands now, Cricket is just the first book in a series.

So I've smashed the jinx of being a one-book writer -- or a twelve-book writer. I'm stoked. I'm thrilled. I'm concerned -- because I want to get these books right. I'm -- getting back to work...