Mid-January Musings

Once the holidays are over and we settle in for winter, I always find myself in an odd frame of mind. Part of me loves the feeling of being snuggled in to spend as much time as I like reading, writing, knitting, sewing, and just day-dreaming. Part of me gets annoyed that I am not accomplishing more.

Photo by Fr. Matthew Green

Thanks to the success of my books over the past year and a half, I've had the luxury of not having to work nearly as much as I used to. Well, let me re-phrase that, I don't have to work at my design business as much as I used to. I still do some jobs but the pressure to keep hustling up new work isn't there. Now I use that time to write and to promote. I probably spend more hours at my desk than ever – not good for the backside, that's for sure. But what I spend my time doing has changed.

Photo by Renata Greene

Reviews are coming in for The Whiskey Bottle in the Wall collection and I'm excited about that – they have all been very, very good so far. The Monday Night Needlework & Murder Guild is now available for Kindle and Nook and has been selling pretty well so far. I am hard at work on The Crazy Old Lady's Revenge, the sequel to The Crazy Old Lady in the Attic. And I've started rough drafting a possible sequel to the Secrets of Marienstadt stories which I am tentatively calling The Bucktail Cap in the Trunk. It takes its name from a scene in which Oliver and Gretchen are sorting through an old trunk that belonged to Gretchen's Great-great-great grandfather Bartholomew Fritz which Oliver immediately recognizes as a Bucktail cap worn by the famous Civil War era Bucktail Regiments of Sharpshooters. The ideas are flowing faster than I can keep up with them.

Photo by Hammond Castle Museum

I have been making lots and lots of vegetable soups. Last night a I made a creamy soup with mushrooms, onions, and turnip bulbs and greens. It was delicious and there is plenty left for lunch. So far we have not had a lot of snow and what we have had is pretty. The pictures in this post were taken by different local photographers.

So we are well into winter and have not been terribly inconvenienced so far. The writing goes well, books are selling, and there is music and books and lots to do. I wish all of you productivity and contentment.

Thanks for reading.