January 20 Marshall, Texas

Sponsored by the Pulpwood Queens Book Clubs 

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to write in my blog more often. For a writer, I seem to have an awful lot of trouble writing, but then, a blog isn’t about someone else, it’s about me. And that’s much harder than writing about someone else or someone I imagined.

Anyway, I’ve decided that maybe it would be easier if I approach it like I’m writing a letter to my good friend Kay…so, if you keep reading, be warned that I write Kay a lot of minutia.

Lately I’ve been struggling to keep warm in the unusually cold San Francisco weather – brrrrr, we’re really having a real winter. I’ve also been trying to exercise at the health club and even went to a yoga class; afterwards I was so tired I took a nap. Aside from working, I run errands, watch movies and then there’s my Solitaire addiction. Yep, I’ve become an addict. It started with playing one game while I waited for my annoyingly slow computer to load. But game by game, the number of “hands” I played began to creep up and now I want to play all the time. I’ve found myself at the keyboard playing solitaire at one or two in the morning …and even for a night owl like me, that’s insane. It’s just like cappuccino (my other addiction),  I never get enough. Now I understand how people can spend so much time on computer games. I’m actually afraid to try a game that’s more fun…imagine how much time I might waste.

Movies, movies, I love movies. I celebrated my birthday (yes, I’m a Capricorn)  by going with my friend Lorraine to see three movies on New Year’s Day. First we saw THE GOOD GERMAN which we liked the best. What’s not to like? George Clooney in a black-and-white post-World War II noir-ish mystery. I did get a little tired of George’s character getting beaten up in almost every scene. After the third time he was roughed up, I began to think that he must be pretty dumb not to anticipate some trouble..com’on, get a clue, pal. The second movie was CHILDREN OF MEN and, though I like Clive Owen, I found the film very bleak and sad. The last movie was THE GOOD SHEPHERD and it was long and slow.

I’m also reading, but I’ll add a list of the recent good books I’ve read another time. Right now I’m more interested in my own book. After some false starts, I’m working away on my new novel and I’m quite excited about it. In fact, I wander around with my head lost…no, not in the clouds, but lost in the imaginary world of Tattie, the new book’s main character. If that name sounds familiar, Tattie, short for Tatiana, was a minor character in MY LOST AND FOUND LIFE.  She’s a so-called “bad” girl and her behavior can be outrageous, but she intrigues me and I feel compelled to tell her story. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.