2014 has been the year of chaos reigning* so far. Things have stabilized on the personal front (No, I’m not going into details, but the wild horses have been reined in** and the wagon is headed in the right direction. For those who have grumbled at me about not publishing anything recently; Look, survival mode takes a lot of attention and resources. Writing fiction isn’t high on the priority list when you don’t know where you’re going to live, whether you have enough gas in your car to get to work, or how you’re going to stretch that $5 in your pocket for food until payday at the end of the week. Hawthorne may have been filed from his job as a customs clerk (He sucked. So does “The Scarlet Letter.” I read that thing 3 times, once voluntarily and twice as part of literature courses), but he had a wife. I’m a solo act. If I don’t do it, it doesn’t get done. I digress.

*This is the correct usage for “reigning.” With a “g”, it refers to ruling. Most people mistakenly (and stubbornly) insist on using it as “reigning in,” which should properly be spelled** r-e-i-n-i-n-g, as the term refers to controlling a horse. Should you be close enough to such people, please explain the difference, then beat the ever-lovin’ stuffin’ out of them for not having mastered 5th grade level vocabulary).

Mark your calendars: June 21, 2014 from 12 PM (High Noon) to 5 PM  at 100 Pacific Ave, Long Beach, CA, I will be selling and signing books at  Reading By the Sea along with the other authors listed. I met some of these great folks at Authors Under the Lights in March and I’m looking forward to seeing their happy little faces again. I will have a game going to win a set of signed books (Mine) and if you buy a set of signed books, you’ll be entered to win a raffle (as well as the raffles they’ll have). We’re not talking Publisher’s Clearing House here, but it’ll be cute.  You get stuff. Stuff related to MY books.

Go Fund Me!

(Well, that didn’t turn out as snazzily as I had hoped)

Since I have not had a great paying job since October (thus the survival mode) and I need promotional materials for the above mentioned Reading By the Sea event…that’s given me some gray hairs (which should delight my sisters. They’ve been waiting for almost 25 years now). If you click on the link, it’ll take you to a page that shows you what I want for this endeavor and how much the various items cost. I’m over halfway to my goal of $300 and I have an offer for super donors: $100 gets a minor character named after you or given the (reasonable) name of your choice in my current Work in Progress “The Baldie Chronicles.” (Prequel to “These Foolish Things”) The character will either be a group therapy participant or an oncological nurse (male or female), but will have a couple of lines (No, you don’t get to write those). So, click the link and GO FUND ME.

Back in 2011, I was going to the gym 6 days a week (3 days of weight lifting, 2 yoga classes, a Pilates class, and 5-6 days of cardio). I haven’t been in a while (try since October when the good-paying job went bye-bye, probably to Bangalore), so it would be foolish for me to walk in and just try to pick up where I left off. A walk around the block is a good place to restart.  Same thing with writing; if you’ve fallen out of the habit and rhythm of daily writing (something other than email or Facebook), it’s foolish to think you can just dive back in and pick it up again where you left off. But, I’m getting there.

I will get caught up on blogging, writing, etc. I will get back to talking about things like the “Louie” episode on fat women dating, gratitude and manifesting things in life, that kind of stuff. Right now, though, I just needed to “go for a walk around the block.”

Oh, and on a final note, let me leave you with this review:

“