It's Beginning to Look A Little Like Christmas

     Okay, I emptied the hall closet today. The one you couldn't get into without something tumbling onto your head. The one I stuck everything in LAST January and shoved with my foot as I closed the door. The closet no one dared open for eleven and one half months.
     It is lovely and neat now. It is nearly empty.
     On the other hand, there are boxes piled on the living room couch, the chairs, the floor and in the bedroom on my side of the bed and in front of the closet. Some are emptied and some are partially opened, papers and lids pulled and shoved out of place, so I can see what lies inside. Lights and stars are trailing across the floor and several dozen candles are scattered willy-nilly around the rooms.
     In other words, I'm decorating.
     Christmas is officially here. The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Really and truly, even if what is left of the chimney from 150 years ago is only a partial plaster shape jutting out from the stairwell wall. And I doubt than anything larger than a mouse could possibly get down whatever opening might remain. Much less Santa Claus.
     But the stairs make a nice spot to place the majority of the decorated stockings and with the chimney behind holding the (self-purchased) three-foot stocking of one of the more optimistic grandsons, the living room begins to take on a very festive air.
     There aren't too many flat surfaces in my living room (at least ones that aren't permanently cluttered with books and papers) but now those that are available are covered with my collection of Santas and the odds and ends of small things accumulated through the years. Oddly enough, even the shabby worn ornaments take on some kind of glow when they've been uncovered after another year of being boxed up. One just can't give some of them up no matter how bad they look or how worn out they become.
     Over to my left is an empty corner, waiting for my daughter and grandson to return with our Christmas tree. Everything in the room had to be rearranged so the 'office' has temporarily turned into a storage room, the upright bass and guitar has been moved out of the living room, a couple of little tables have disappeared and some chairs are now crowded together. But do you think I'm giving up my floor-to-ceiling live Christmas tree? Over my dead body!
     And pretty soon it won't look a little like Christmas any more. It will look a LOT like Christmas.
     It's a good thing. Because it is coming much faster today than it was yesterday.
     As some good folks used to say, it seems to me that,  "The hurriered I go the behinder I get."

Am I Normal? Or is it Just Me?

     Thanksgiving is over. Missouri Folklore Society conference is finished. The drawer where the mouse was trying to build a nest is emptied and filled with metal pan lids (try chewing those up, little feller . . . gotcha!).
     Two big important events coming up: Christmas and the surprise in February (NO, I'm still not ready to tell. But I will later.)
     Preparations are underway. Not enough preparations, but at least I've started. Hey! Don't rush me! There may be lots to do but I've still got time. God knows I produce best under deadlines.
     Anyway, I've started shopping and I've got little lists all over the house and I'm working on it. The thing I'm avoiding, though, is (one of ) the deadline that is looming closer and closer and closer.  And that is the current (new) book.
     Junkyard Bones is a kid's mystery and it is basically finished. In fact it has been finished for the past year but I've not had too much time for marketing lately so it set on the shelf (figuratively speaking) through my surgeries, conferences and numerous family crises.
     Now, though, I've got a publisher who is willing to take a risk with it and I'm supposed to be sending it off.
     That was lovely until I began messing around with the finished product.
     I had written the whole ms in WordPerfect, which was the medium I worked in for years and years. Now, I know most editors really prefer Word, so I would convert things when I got ready to send them off and it worked out pretty well, but just about the time I finished writing Junkyard Bones, my old old OLD Word program crashed and I couldn't do anything more with it.
     So . . . I ordered the newest version of Word to be downloaded into the computer.
     And off I went to have the second of the two surgeries, never dreaming that it was to be a whole new ball game when I resumed working on the ms.
     During the past few months I've messed around with the new program by writing some short things and trying to familiarize myself with all of the new stuff. And let me tell you . . . it ain't been easy! (I hate computers.) Anyway, I thought I'd pretty well mastered the basics.
     So a couple of nights ago, I merrily converted Junkyard Bones from my WordPerfect program into my new Microsoft Word and opened it up to have a look.
     At first glance, everything was fine.
     At second glance (or glare) is was not.
     First of all, I had to figure out how to remove the headings, which wasn't too bad. That turned out to be fairly simple and I was feeling really puffed up about myself.
     BUT . . . and this was the BIG BUT . . . the blooming program replaced every blessed quotation mark in there with something else.
     Now, I can use Search and Replace. That's fairly straightforward. But in this case, the quotation mark at the beginning of the sentence is replaced with a bold-faced capital A and the quotation mark at the end of the sentence is replaced with a @ sign. And, since each sentence is of different length there is no way you can put in a string, not to mention that you certainly don't want each capital A in the manuscript replaced with a quotation mark.
     So I am going over the blasted ms word by word and replacing each and every one of those capital bold-faced As and @ signs.
     I'm going to have my own manuscript memorized by the time I get it ready to send it on to the publisher.
     Talk about line editing!

We Did It!

     Wow! We pulled it off. The Missouri Folklore Society 2010 Conference is over and done and was a roaring success.
     I have to apologize to my readers for taking so long to get back to you and I will do my level best to keep up with this blog now.
      After being in charge of the Missouri Writers Guild Annual Conference in 2000 I swore I'd never do another such thing again. However, here was the situation: I've belonged to MFS for many many years and I felt as if I'd never done anything much in return for the benefits I'd received. The group had never met in the southwest corner of the state and it sounded like a great place for a variety of reasons. Since those in charge must necessarily live close by it was only logical that I could do a lot of the arrangements so I volunteered to act as a co-chair.
     As anyone knows who has been in charge of such as this, it becomes all-consuming. Over the month of October it felt as if things took on a life all their own and I had no time for family, writing, breathing or much of anything but MFS.
     But things went off without a hitch and all that is left to do is to sand off the edges and file the paperwork.
     Perhaps I can do a little writing . . . in between getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas . . . and another upcoming activity that I'll address later in another post.
     One thing right now: the new book is out! From Trash to Treasure: The Evolution of An Ozarks Junkyard is available now from Amazon.com or High Hill Press.com. Or of course, you can get in touch with me. It is going well but it would sell even better if I could find some time to get out and push it!
     Now, I need to stop writing and catch up on my reading. I've missed my friend's blogs! It has been ages and I'm far far behind. I'd probably better head for Becky Povich first of all. She has all sorts of good advice and she is always giving something away. (Go to and see what she has to say.) I have to ask questions of her all the time. I think of her as sort of a computer guru because she seems to know all sorts of things I don't understand at all. I'm going to have to ask her how to leave a comment now on her site. I think they've changed things and you're supposed to send them to facebook or something. Urk. I'm so computer ill-literate. It's dreadful.
     Anyway, I'm going to go and read for awhile. Tomorrow I'll try and post again. And maybe I'll find time to write on the article I'm supposed to have done before now (Lou, if you're reading this, I've not forgotten! I'll do it! I'll do it! Just give me a little more time. Pullleeeezzzze???)

Is Anyone Else Cold?

     I'm ashamed to admit that when the thermometer reaches sixty I begin to freeze a little at a time. Except for surges of warm off and on until April or May I continue to be cold throughout the fall, winter and spring. I just can't help it. I'm a warm-weather girl. Fall is beautiful weather and I bundle up from top to bottom and stand just outside the back door to admire the beautiful colors for five minutes at a time and I love to go driving but that just about does it.
     It is really hard to enjoy all that beauty when the ends of your fingers are numb and your nose is dripping.
     I think that's one of the reasons I've always turned to books and reading. You can put yourself deep into the beauty of any weather . . . snow, pouring rain, typhoons, burning sun . . . and love every minute of it. In the meantime you maintain perfect body temperature with the furnace (or air conditioner) blasting soothing air right onto your little toes and fingertips.
     Well, I might as well become resigned to it. The Powers that be are not going to change things around at this late date to suit me. I'll just continue to freeze until the day comes when I can't move from the cold and then they'll just cover me up and there I'll be.
     I don't worry about any heat, believe me. It would take a lot to thaw me out anyway.
     Yesterday was such a shock after the wonderful warm fall weather I've been enjoying so much. It wouldn't have been so noticeable but for the family reunion we had at Lake Stockton on Mutton Creek. There we were, forty five-fifty strong, on the north slope, with the wind whistling off the lake water, totally exposed, no shelter but for a blue tarp in front of the cooker for the fish. It was dreadful.
      My neck and upper back was in a mess anyway following two trips to the chiropractor last week with another visit scheduled for today. Then I sat in lawn chairs and finished off the lower back. I can't remember when I was more miserable.
      But there I was . . . enjoying my large, large, laaarrrrgggeeee family.
      What a day.
     Upon arriving home about 6:30 p.m. I took a muscle relaxant and applied a heat pack to all the places it would reach (never mind that I KNOW I'm supposed to use ice . . . are you kidding?) and finally got warm and happy.
      Every single person in my family camps and revels in the outdoors. I swear, the colder it is the more they enjoy it. Not me. Not mine. We believe in nice warm houses. Nice warm furnaces. Nice comfortable recliners. Books. Comfort.
      Warm.
     Things around here have gone from hectic to more hectic. I only have a month to go before the Missouri Folklore Society conference date of the 4, 5, 6th of November. Liz Faries (my co-chair) and Jan Caudle, who is kind enough to be helping out, are coming tomorrow night and I'll meet them again in Neosho on Wednesday. There are so many details to this and Liz has done it all before and I'll at a loss about much so I'm really thankful to Jan (as well as all the others who are up to bat with this). We keep getting proposals from members and every one is so interesting sounding! Unfortunately, I'll be kept so busy I won't have time to sit and listen to any of them. Oh well, next year will be my time for that. In the meantime, I have to try and attract an audience!
     Lou called today about my Trash to Treasure manuscript. I think it will be ready for the shelves in the next couple of weeks. She did a bang-up job with the cover and I really like it! I sent an ariel view of the junkyard and she wrapped it around the whole book and then superimposed an old truck on the front between the title and the author. It looks great from the jpg and I expect it will look just as good on the book. She still has a couple of blogs to go and I think it will be ready to go.
     Just in time for Christmas. I hope to get some advertising out before it is too late for the season.
     Got to stop for now. Grandkids for the time being.
     Family First.