IWSG, News and Onward into the fog...er New Year

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:    Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken!

This month's question is: What's the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it?

The only thing I regret about my "writing career" (if you can call it that) is that I didn't start submitting and looking for an agent when I was younger. Though I've written on and off most of my life, I didn't make the effort to get "mainstream published" until I was much older - I won't say how old because now I'm REALLY old and I don't seem to have the drive to spend hours every day at the computer. 

That said, I'm happy and content with what I've done so far. Maybe some other things will get published, maybe not. Either way, it's okay.

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On that note I'm pleased to share my article in the travel magazine, Destination: US Virgin Islands. This article is about how my grandparents came to own Trunk Bay, considered to be one of the most beautiful and most photographed beaches in the world, and how my grandmother ran a guest house there for years, without electricity.

So, Happy New Year, to me!!

This is my second article with this travel magazine. You can read my first article from 2020, HERE. The company did not print a magazine for 2021 so it was a pleasant surprise to be invited to write an article for the 2022 issue.

Trunk Bay was my first home. This is 

place where I learned to swim, body serf, and fish off the rocks with a handline.

This is probably explains why you can take the girl out of the islands, but you can't take the islands out of the girl. 

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Tomorrow is Three Kings Day, a holiday celebrated with much gusto in Puerto Rico. 

My mother was one of those children who put straw and water under her bed for the camels 

only to wake in the morning to find presents.

Happy Three Kings Day to all!

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Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful to be here and to have made another revolution around the sun.

There is SO much to thankful for, despite what the news says or what people complain about.

Now it's onward into 2022. Who knows what it will bring? More of the same? 

Something worse? Something better? 

Whatever comes, 

may we all be a calm during the hard times and joyful during the easy times. 

I pass on this Tibetan Buddhist prayer to one and all.

May you be at peace.

May your heart remain open.

May you awaken to the light of your own true nature.

May you be healed.

May you be a source of healing for all sentient beings.

Happy New Year Everyone!

IWSG and a Few Other Things

Posting first Wednesday of every month YOU can sign up HERE to find out more about the purpose of the Insecure Writer's Support Group, the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh.

Let's give our co-hosts  a warm welcome!
 L.G. Keltner, Denise Covey, Sheri Larsen, J.Q. Rose, Chemist Ken, and Michelle Wallace! 

Man spreading. :)

In an effort to keep these posts short I will be sharing a quote. Today's quote is from:

Sherlock Homles whose birthday is today, born in 1854

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

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Today is also Pepe Le Pew's birthday, born in 1945. Happy Birthday to you both, who have made our world a more interesting place.

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This is also Three Kings Day, The Epiphany, The Twelfth Day of Christmas, The Adoration of Magi. In Puerto Rico Three Kings Day is still celebrated. As a child my mother and her brothers put straw and water under their beds for the camels and when they woke in the morning found... presents! I still think this is the day we should be opening our gifts as it is the day Christ received his. 

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Lastly...

I thought this would also be a good day to review the rather eclectic list of books I read last year

1.               A Chain of Evidence by Carolyn Wells

2.               The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

3.               Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

4.               The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

5.               The Magic City by E. Nebit

6.               Mysterious Traveler by Mall Peet

7.               Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse

8.               Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

9.               Woven by Michael Jensen

10.            The Great Time Lock Disaster by C. Lee McKenzie

11.            The Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata

12.            Death Comes for the Archbiship by Willa Cather

13.            The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

14.            Connecting the Dots by Sharon Jennings

15.            The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey

16.            Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Garner

17.            Once Upon a More Enlightened Time by James Garner

18.            In Darkness by Nick Lake

19.            Esperanza Rising by Pan Munoz Ryan

20.            Coraline by Neil Gaiman

21.            Replay by Sharon Creech

22.            The Wonder Clock or, Four and Twenty Marvelous Tales by Howard Pyle

23.            Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chodron

24.            Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

25.            Native Tongue by Carl Hiaasen

26.            Healing Anger: The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective by The XIV Dalai Lama

27.            Inner Revolution by Robert A. F. Thurman

28.            Natural Radiance by Lama Surya Das

29.            The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

30.            Shambhala by Chogyam Trungpa

31.            Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das

32.            The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow by Jessica Haight

33.            Hot Pink in the City by Medeia Sharif

34.            After the Ecstasy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield

35.            Questions from the City, Answers from the Forest by Ajahn Sumano Bhikkhu

36.            The Dhammapada by Eknath Easwaran

37.            A Work of Art by Melody Maysonet

38.            The Wisdom of Imperfection by Rob Preece

39.            The Heart Attack Sutra by Karl Brunnholzl

40.            The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett (currently reading.)

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What's your favorite Sherlock story? What do you think of the quote? Are you a Pepe Le Pew Fan? What do you think about opening presents on the 6th of January instead of December 25th (extra shopping days!) Did you read any good books in 2015? Do share!

Three Kings Day

This is the day when we should give and receive presents. After all church traditions have given this, the twelfth day of Christmas to the Magi, the Three Kings, who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the Christ Child.

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In Puerto Rico, when my mother was growing up, on each of the twelve days the children got a present.  Each day the gift got a little more expensive or elaborate. On the night of the fifth they put straw and water under or at the foot of their beds so the Wise Men would have something to give to their camels. In the morning when they awoke, lo and behold, the straw and water was gone and there was the final present which would be that one gift the child most dreamed of getting.

I think it's a lovely tradition. 

Three Kings Day is still a holiday in Puerto Rico, celebrated with parades and feasting, music and dancing. 

Happy Three Kings Day. Are you doing anything special today? Or is it a regular working Monday?

Don't forget, Wednesday the 8th, is Insecure Writers Support Group Day. It falls on the 8th which just happens to be my grandmother's birthday -- she was born in 1895 -- AND in her honor I will be making an announcement.