"Welcome Back!" Where on the earth have I been in these past months?
It's not as though I've sat around twiddling my thumbs. (I am not a thumb twiddler!) I do, however, have a tendency to get caught up in distractions and I am also a great procrastinator.
One of my favorite quotes related to this topic comes from Kathy the Clutter Coach, whom I hired a couple of time to help me "get organized" (an ongoing goal.) "What can be done at any time, will be done at no time." Everyday translation: If you want to get something done, schedule it and then do it. As I grow older, I see the importance of establishing schedules and routines. My number one obstacle, of course, is that I have so many things I want to do that I overwhelm myself. And then there are those other two problems mentioned above: distractions and procrastination.
There! Now that we have that out of the way, let's turn our thoughts to more interesting matters. Here are some of the things I've been up to lately:
Last night I went to Jerry's Community Chorus concert in Hales Corners. Katy Galewski, Jerry's sister Joan Henderson, and Joan's daughter Holly and granddaughter Kayla joined me. The chorus is now over 75 voices strong, with a number of excellent soloists and instrumentalists. So many hours went into rehearsals, and the chorus performed at half a dozen places throughout the area, getting ready for the two big public concerts -- last night and tonight. All that hard work paid off -- it was a polished performance.
On Tuesday night I went to a book launching party at Western Racquet Club in Elm Grove. The "launcher" and author was Doug Jacobson, whose novel The Katyn Order has recently been published by McBooks Press, Ithaca, New York. Doug has another novel to his credit, Night of Flames, also published by McBooks. He gives part of the credit to Judy Bridges, of Redbird Studio, and to the Redbird critique groups who have read many drafts of both novels as Doug worked and revised, then worked and revised some more.
A number of the Redbird crew were there; in addition to Judy Bridges -- Jeannee Sacken, Robert Vaughan, Carol Wobig, Felicity Librie, Sara Rattan, Jack Douthit, Beth Huwiler, Nancy Backes, Maura Fiztgerald and me. Writers need all the encouragement they can get, and when it's time to celebrate, they're right there with congratulations!
Earlier this year I was invited to read one of my short pieces to the Redbird critique group. I called it "Nana Mii," and I promise to publish it here on my website one day soon. It was inspired by a visit to see my daughter and family in Massachusetts.
Now that I'm back, I'll make it a point to write here more regularly. The original idea was to write something every day.
Let's see how that goes!