It has certainly been a hectic time since I posted last. Between my father being hospitalized for close to a month right before, during, and after Christmas (he was admitted Dec. 19 and released Jan. 6) it was a stressful time for our family. During that time it was my parents 50th wedding anniversary and my son's 21 birthday (Christmas Eve) not too festive being in a hospital ICU during the holidays.

But, during it all we managed to get the magazine pulled together and in the hands of the readers in a (relatively) timely manner.

I have found that with my magazine duties, my writing has fallen to the wayside and I have to find a way to get back to it. I mean, what kind of magazine editor doesn't write? It doesn't seem right. It's almost like giving a child the old line "do as I say, not as I do." I have never been one of those parents and I don't want to be one of those kind of writers -- the kind that call themselves writers but don't ever actually put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

On that note, I am going to sign off now and take a bit of time this morning to flesh out a confession story that has been rolling around in my head.

Until next time, keep writing!

Can I get a Merry Christmas?

So a Rabbi walks into an airport in Washington State, sees a Christmas tree but no menorah and decides he just might sue. I understand he asked management at Sea-Tac airport why there was no menorah and the answer from Sea-Tac management was to remove all of the Christmas (or to be politically correct “holiday”) decorations.

Can I just ask one question? Why? Could the Rabbi have simply asked his question without resorting to wanting to bring a lawsuit because his religion wasn’t represented? Could Sea-Tac management have explained their reasoning for not having a menorah without having to resort to take down all of the decorations? Perhaps they could have purchased a menorah to display alongside the Christmas tree?

Now that I have gotten myself started, can I ever get a “Merry Christmas” when I go into a store? I am deathly tired of “Happy Holidays.” I started getting happy holiday-ed at Thanksgiving. What? Thanksgiving can no longer be “have a happy-ed?” As far as I know, the consuming of turkey and mass quantities of other food is not a religious holiday, it is/was a time to celebrate a bountiful harvest.

No matter what religion – or no religion – an individual claims, is being wished a Merry Christmas such a horrible thing? Could you simply not return that particular greeting if you don’t want to. A friendly, “thank you” from the person who doesn’t want to respond in kind could go a long way. But for those of us who want to wish and be wished a Merry Christmas, I say, why not? Are everyone’s sensibilities so delicate as to be bruised by being greeted by a statement from a religion that may not be your own?

What ever happened to “peace on earth and goodwill toward men?” Perhaps that is a bit too “religious” or political a concept to be embraced.
Why must everything be so politicized and religion-ized that simple, greetings have to be tossed by the wayside for fear of offending someone. I am not Jewish but if someone wanted to say “Happy Hanukkah” to me because that is their greeting of choice, I say, bring it on. I would be happy to respond with a “thank you” or something along those lines.

So concludes my rant, bottom line, Merry Christmas. But now I am wondering if Happy New Year will be banned from popular greet-speak.

Well it has officially been a week since Henrietta Madison made her way into our house. She is a good puppy in the fact that she sleeps through the night but she is a handful in the fact that she thinks she is much larger than she really is.

When she is in a room ahead of one of us, she will block the way and hop and growl to block the way. I am not quite certain what a two pound, barely seven inch tall puppy thinks she is going to accomplish but she tries. Perhaps when a puppy is that small the attitude needs to be larger than life in order to make it in this world that is much taller than she is.

I have become quite adept at balancing Henrietta on my lap while working valiantly on laying out the pages for the magazine, trying to sip my tea, and all the while trying to keep the baby talk tone out of my voice whenever I tell Henri to please stop chewing on my (fill in the blank) shirt, chin, earlobes, keyboard, fingers.

Writing thought for the day: Your character comes home from work, there's a letter in the mail from an old flame. The letter had been lost in the mail for five years. Now that your character has it, it could change his or her life. Does he/she act on it?

Keep that pen moving!

Sometimes I wonder what posseses me. Okay, I have been trying to streamline my life and have shed some writing/editing jobs that no longer "fulfilled" me or fit into my business plan -- it was a good feeling. I now had free time. What was I going to do with it?!

Apparently, free time and sleeping through the night were not high on my priority list because on Monday, I got a puppy. Her name is Henrietta Madison and she is a mini-poodle. She is so tiny (1 and a half pounds) that she looks like a guinea pig when she is outside walking around in the lawn. I am afraid the cats, if given the chance and if they had any natural hunting instincts, would be stalking her for an early morning snack.

She is rather cute and has definitely made herself at home. She has even won over the heart of our 100 pound dog, Spenser. To give Spenser his due, he is a gentle giant, but I still assumed that when push came to shove (or when puppy came to his food dish) there would be some conflict. There wasn't. Henrietta shoved her way into his dish and, with a huge groan, he laid down on the floor next to her.

At least with a puppy in the house I will have a lot of column material for the foreseeable future.

Writing thought for the day: Try to work these into a piece of flash fiction -- snow shovel, stiletto heels, and a piece of toast.

So there I was, prepared to do some work or to at least get on the internet but then the snowstorm of 2006 hit the area. (I live in the Western NY region that received 20+ inches of snow and was one of the 350,000 without power)

I don't know if it was Friday the 13th living up to its reputation as a day when "bad" things happen or if it was global warming, all I know is I had no electricity -- therefore no internet -- for three days.

Believe me, I know I am way too involved with the internet. If there is a support group out there for those addicted to internet, I would be the first to sign up.

Now I am back on line and am able to get some juice flowing to the computer so I can get back to the work of pulling together my very first issue ever of ByLine and am feeling the pressure to perform.

Once I slog through the close to 500 spam and other assorted messages it's back to magazine work but first I have to see if I really am eligible for the credit card with the $125,000 limit, no credit check necessary, or whether I (as a woman) really care about the little blue pill.

Writing thought for the day: If your computer was inaccessible for two days what would you do? Stare at it, hoping it would start working soon or would you pull out a pad of paper, pick up a pen and work longhand -- they they did back in the olden days?

I realized this morning that even though I am enmeshed in the take-over of ByLine Magazine that my writing was going to fall as far off the map as it has. I can't remember the last time I even thought of the characters who were populating my novel, nor have I even penned a simple piece of flash fiction. I did, however, sign up to be a moderator for National Novel Writing Month so I know I will be "forced" to produce and I think that is the kick in the butt that I need to get back to my characters -- who at last writing -- were in the midst of a storm-tossed sea!