Winter's Maven strides in tonight, dressed in full white, a hooded cape masking her beautiful white face, snow flakes flurrying around her. She rakes her icicle fingers down Lady Autumn's back, a private signal for Lady Autumn to retreat in submission, to retreat back into the mysterious seasonal world from which she came. Gathering her green and gold wrap around her, Lady Autumn bows to the Winter Maven and walks quietly away. Her time is gone now and she retreats into the netherworld to gather her most comfortable things around her and to wait. To wait for her next season.

Our time now, this season, belongs to Winter's Maven. Here is how she is.

Winter's Maven is visceral and often unyielding; she is a formidable foe. Winter's Maven brings cold winds, feathery snow, snappy ice. She doesn't ask for anything, she demands, and her demands are huge. You must be on your guard with her for she will twirl you about until you're dizzy and she'll move you on uncertain ice at that, she will buffet you with fast, icy winds, and she will make you hungry.

So. Bring your wool-lined mittens, gather your firewood, salt your meat, put the bread dough out to rise, chop the vegetables for soup. Winter's Maven is hungry and she'll take what you have to give her, and don't be surpised when she wants more. Because she will want more. Winter's Maven is the most demanding of seasons and the most unforgiving.

Light your lamps, read by the fire, create your stews, casseroles and wonderful breads. Drink dark wine or other spirits, bundle up for the times you have to venture out of doors, greet your friends and loved ones during this time, and remember to rest.

Draw hearthside and snooze. It's a good thing.

To New Friends and Wonderful People!

Good evening, folks. I'm sitting here, trying to think of a title of this post, and I wanted it to be something moving, something genuine, something glorious, and all I can think so say is...help your brother.

My family and I, we have a lot of stuff. You know, you have a lot of stuff too, and if you are honest about your stuff, you know you have a lot more stuff than you will ever need or want and there is no reason for you (or me) to gather even more stuff. Stuff will end up in a yard sale a year from now with a casual price tag of a dollar swinging off the item, and we're gonna feel good about selling the thing, whatever it is, but who needs that?

This year, my family and I said, it's ridiculous to keep this holiday season all to ourselves, we need to do something besides gather more stuff. We don't need or want any more stuff and there are people around us who don't have the luxury of saying, we have more stuff than we need. So, that's where it started, this feeling of let's do something for other people, people we may not know but people who don't have the ability to gather all this stuff.

I believe in charity work. I believe it in wholeheartedly. And so...

We adopted a family from Springfield Victory Mission, and I can say, it's been a wonderful walk with this family, such genuine, sweet people. Travis, Rose and Grace, in the middle of the photo there. These are our new friends, our new loved ones.

Merry Christmas, Travis, Rose and Grace!!! We are so happy to know you!!!

It's always better to do for others...it really is. This is the good stuff of life. I'm so pleased to have been given a part of Travis, Rose and Grace's life this holiday season!

A Christmas Memory

Look at where we find ourselves, December, the most glamorous month of the year. Savor the parties, the sparkling lights, rich food, shiny ribbons and bows! Viva la Christmas!

Well, sure. But let me share with you one of my favorite Christmas memories, and it's a humble one. It's sepia-toned, for sure, a little ragged around the edges but, nonetheless, here goes.

Here is what I remember. My father (the pastor) urged our church youth group to go Christmas caroling. He, of course, knew each and every address he would have our youth group to travel to; some were nursing homes (where we went inside), but, he also took us all around town in Worthington, Minnesota, to anyone he knew of who might be a shut-in, or unable to travel, or simply old and forgotten; any person who could not make Christmas memories on their own, that's where he had us go.

At the time, I was uncomfortable, standing outside in -10 degree weather in my parka and mittens, standing in my frozen boots with mounting winds assaulting my ears, pastering stray strands of hair to my face, and I wasn't happy about spending my evening being corraled by snow mounds, singing weakly to Christmas hymns for people I didn't know. That's youth for you. I really didn't understand.

I remember one house we stopped at; an elderly widow lived there. I'll never forget the tall, slender widow woman, gray hair gathered up in a bun behind her ears, how she stepped outside of her tiny home when she heard us start singing, gathering her sweater around her, dressed in a housedress and slippers, the warmth of her home silhouetted in yellow behind her and her closed screen door as she stood on her porch stoop and listened to us sing every Christmas hymn we knew. She would have stood there all night, I'm pretty sure, so long as we kept singing and she was so happy to have us there in the first place.

I'll never forget that moment and how much she appreciated hearing the songs she must have loved all her life. This, now, is one of my most treasured memories of this holiday season and I have to thank my father for forcing me through something I didn't have the foresight or the inclination to do at the time, but I now so appreciate.

It's best to do for others. Always.

What is your favorite Christmas memory?

A Couple of....Rules

Rules.

Yes, sorry, writing rules, in fact. Here are a few ideas to make your work better, and help it stand out to agents and editors. Some of this may seem elementary if you've been on the road for awhile but, we all have our pitfalls and need to be reminded every so often of the things that will tank our wonderous work.

1. Show, don't tell. We show through emotions, through reaction to an event, through dialogue. There is no need, or not a lot of need, to describe a character through and through; certain choice glimpses into his character, needs, wants, emotions will work. Let your reader decide whether John Jones is anal by saying something like, "his shoes were shined just that morning," rather than going through an entire paragraph about his suit, his haircut, his attention to detail, his shoes. Also, suppose John Jones heard a noise in the hallway and decided to check it out. There is no need to document his every step to the apartment door and how he opened the door and scanned the hallway and then closed the door when he saw nothing occuring. He may have been startled by a noise, and then he may be mystified as to what he thought he heard but, you do not need to describe to your reader how he started for the door, took hold of the knob, pulled the door open, peered into the empty hallway, and then closed the door by the knob and went back to watching television.

2. Providing information the reader could just as well pick up through action or dialogue. This goes back to showing rather than telling. Nothing will insult your readership more than being given a blow-by-blow detail of your story as if they are not intelligent enough to pick up the details for themselves. Let's say John Jones is late for an important meeting. Do we say that or do we have him check his watch, something impossible is happening, he's sweating, he's dashing to the street, he's impatient with the cab driver, his impeccable suit is now wrinkled, his concern about being late to the meeting could be described as, Tugging his upper lip, he stared out the cab window at the passing street scenery. The cab wasn't moving fast enough. The mid-city traffic was clustered and stumbling, halting and then moving again. John stared at the back of the cabbie's head, willing him to hurry,  hurry, just hurry up already! Turning his gaze to the rear view mirror, he saw how wrinkled his suit had become in the morning humidity. He felt personally insulted, as if the day had planned this whole humilating situation just for him.

It's not great but there's some action there, some sense of urgency. Now. Here's another way. John Jones looked at his watch. It was 10:15 and he was almost late for his appointment. He went to the elevator and punched the button for the ground floor. Once there, he walked to the sidewalk and hailed a cab. He was impatient. He told the cabbie to get him to 101 52nd Street as soon as possible. He sat in the back seat. His suit was wrinkled. He was unhappy that his presentation would not go well because he didn't look his best.

Which sounds better to you?

3. Too  much exposition, not enough dialogue, OR vice versa. Your work should have a pretty even percentage of each. Too much exposition drags the reader down, and doesn't let him/her see or feel the characters for who they are. Too much exposition builds a wall between believability and your work. Your reader won't be able to bond with characters that seldom speak. Too much dialogue, on the other hand, is confusing and lessens the character for your reader, the blabbermouth syndrome.

Pages and pages of dialogue are not good. By the same token, pages and pages of exposition or narrative don't work well.  Balance it out. It's all about balance, seriously.

Just a couple of things to think about in your writing. I wish you well.

Finally, can you describe the scene in the photograph? What would you write about it and why?

Have You Ever Fallen in Love with a Town?

I'm here to tell you, I believe I've fallen in love with a town, irreversibly so, I think. I didn't mean for the photos to be at the bottom but, there they are, and I'm sorry you have to scroll down so far to see what I'm talking about.

I've lived in Springfield, Missouri, heart of the Ozarks, since 1995, and I never paid a lot of attention to it, except for the fact that I lived here and I had certain places I shopped and certain places I went and I worked here and slept here. Back then, I had no idea about Springfield history...and really didn't care. Springfield is a fairly young town as towns go in the United States and so, the history of it just didn't matter to me then.

So, I'm not sure where this thirst for history comes from but, for about two weeks now I've been obsessed with Springfield history. Okay, I can tell you where it stems from, if you're interested.

Six, maybe seven years ago, I was house hunting and I knew what I wanted. I wanted age, I wanted history, I wanted charm. And, thus and so, there was an open house listed for a property I'd driven by numerous times and wished was mine. The price was pretty good, actually, and I could have done it. It wasn't out of my range. And so, there was an open house and I went and fell completely in love. The place was on its last legs, seriously, having been neglected and abused through the years but the agent told me the house had been built in 1892 by one of the founding fathers of Springfield, and low and behold, there was a painting hanging over the fire place that had been done when the house was young and beautiful, and I loved it. I loved every inch of that place.

But, I was scared. What if it was a money pit, what if I wound up with more than I'd bargained for, what if, what if, what if? The day I made my mind up to put in a bid for the property, the agent told me he'd just sold it to someone else.

I was crushed.

Now, a couple of years later, the house went up for sale again. I hadn't been idle during this period. I drove by many, many, many times and watched the new siding going up, the new windows, the shutters, doors, etc., and I thought, I will never be able to live in that house. I won't be able to afford it. But, as things go in real estate sometimes, the current owners couldn't sell the house and I prayed and prayed and prayed it would not sell and that somehow, I could come to own it. Somehow. I prayed for a miracle. I even brought my parents to see it. My mother said, "I can see you living in this house. If you really want it, you have to make it happen."

Didn't happen. The owners finally auctioned the house off and someone with more money and clout than me won it.

I can't tell you how much that bothers me.

So, anyway, somehow when I was researching Springfield, one thing led to another and another and I thought, well, can I find out something historical on that property, the place I love (still) so much??? And so, I searched on that property and what I ended up uncovering was a treasure trove of history. So much history on Springfield, things I never knew and never would have known had I not snooped and searched and read all kinds of stuff.

I can say today that I've walked all over the Sheedy farm north of Springfield, and I've also walked the mysterious estate on Lake Springfield, and I've gone through the Pythian Castle numerous times, and paced old streets, stared into glazed window glass on Commercial Street, I've been all over this town searching for any remnant of that time gone by. I've read articles on family disputes ending in murder/suicide, I've read about Wild Bill Hickock, um, upstanding citizens such as the Phelps family and others, I've devoured anything I could find on this town. I said to my dad on Saturday, "Did you know Springfield had electric trains?" He looked at me as if I was speaking Greek but that's okay.

Did you know that my first law office job was in one of the most historic buildings in Springfield, The Holland Building??? I didn't know it was such a big deal.But I love it!!!

Have you ever fallen in love with a town or a place?

Wake Up Barnes & Noble!!!

So disappointed today when I walked into Barnes & Noble and discovered all the big, comfy, reading chairs interspersed throughout the store have been replaced with a single row of uncomfortable wooden chairs placed under the big picture window...oh boy. Once I would have burrowed into one of those big chairs cradling the next best book in my arms and I would have whiled some time away, absorbing a new book, and maybe even listening to some great music, which B&N used to sell as well. I wish they still did. I remember buying Keb Mo's latest CD because I heard it playing, for the first time, on B&N's overhead. I mean, suggestive selling, of course, but it worked. No music at B&N now.

Come on now.

Today, to add insult to injury, a squirrel (maybe) caused a transformer to blow just before opening time, causing B&N to run on emergency power, which meant flickering lights, no cash register, no Starbucks; only that awful steel nook pod in the middle of the store seemed to be lit and even that was sort of a low, gloomy light.

One of the sales people who seemed to recognize me as a constant haunt, stopped me almost as soon as I entered the store, explaining and apologizing in her broken English, and just wanted me to know what was going on, and how it was all beyond their control but the whole situation was being worked on.

I located JK Rowling's latest novel, sat down in one of those wooden chairs and read several chapters. Good book; I want to read more but not in a wooden chair, thank you very much.

Okay, well, I can't fault B&N for the transformer blast but I can say to B&N: do you really think wooden chairs are sufficient for book lovers??? Do you really mean to invite genuine readers into your store with these things here, these spartan Puritan Sunday-go-to-meeting-ramrod straight-butt cramping chairs??? Who would sit THERE to read for pleasure? I mean, is there an answer to that?

I remember Walden, the Heritage, J. Dalton, Borders (of course), and a host of other bookstores that have fallen to B&N, and I know in business these things are bound to happen; however, B&N, do you see the wolf at the door, that wolf called Amazon??? Get with it, please. Competition in the marketplace is crucial to the entruenership that America was founded on. If you don't get up and fight, none of us who write and want to be recognized for writing have a screaming chance!

What is your perspective on Barnes & Noble? Do they need to change their strategy, their selling points, their "look?"

September

Here we are, on the cusp on the autumnal equinox, barely a week away.

Lady Autumn stands by the gate waiting for the Mistress of Summer to depart her post, which in turn will allow the Lady to work her seasonal magic. See her now as she stands, dressed in emerald green and gold, her copper colored hair flying in the chilly breeze, oblivious to the rain drops landing  on her face, lining her white cheeks. In her arms, she carries butternut squash, sweet potatoes, garlic, leeks, thyme, rosemary, and brussell sprouts. Her eyes are incredibly blue right now, looking forward to backyard fires, roast vegetables, smoked pork and other beautiful food things.

She is the best of the best and she knows it, which is why she demands so much. She will bring mums, in every shape and color, straw bales, kale, and pumpkins...she will bring candle light and dark, sumptious wine. She will make you eat and drink to preserve your life for the coming season, for this is Lady Autumn, the spirit that comes before the dark, steely cold, dispassionate time that occurs in deep winter.

The winter season is hard in any case, in any venue, but it can be made easier by stocking your pantry with root vegetables, good stock, fresh herbs, carrots, celery, good wine and crusty bread. Surround yourself with guilty pleasures this season, leading into the next, more difficult season. Good tea, good hot chocolate, all the ingredients for a hearty homemade soup, and always, good bread and good wine.

And, believe me, this is important, an adequate supply of seasoned firewood.

Above all, remember, if you don't tell your stories, nobody else will.