July 2: I purchased a new domain name yesterday, and started a message board there this morning. It is Content Writers Forum - a place for content writers of all kinds to network about the work they’re doing. I thought it strange that I couldn’t find anything else like this online, so I started it.

I reorganized the way I work on Squidoo lenses; hoping to take the endeavor from ‘hobby’ to ‘profession’ unless I can find a more profitable job soon. (I’m looking!)

July 3: Today I created a new lens at Squidoo - Propane Stoves - focusing on small portable propane powered stove burners used in cabins, on camping trips, and while backpacking. I also spent time developing the new content writers’ message board, and worked on updating Squidoo lenses.

July 4: Happy USA Independence Day! I celebrated by updating over 100 of my Squidoo lenses.

July 5: This morning, I’m still updating lenses. I have 153 of them now!

July 8: I’ve been busy keeping my lenses updated for the last few days, focusing on Squidoo where I now have 155 lenses. My newest lens: Dorm Room Decor.

July 9: I’ve started a new California travel site and today reviewed my stats. I’m happy to see that new search engine traffic is coming in! One of my projects there is to post an entire book by an early Californian, Alonzo Delano. The book is his travel diary of coming to California with a wagon train, and accounts of his experiences here in the gold fields. So today I edited and posted chapter eight. So far the wagon train has gone from Missouri to Idaho. I generally edit and post not more than one chapter per day so it will be a while before the book is complete. Today’s chapter: Continental Divide, Wyoming to Idaho’s Bear River.

July 11: This morning I wrote an article for my vegetarian cooking / herb / philosophy blog: Methanol in Diet Sodas. It was a bit of a rant about a topic I have strong feelings about - the diminishing value of the American food supply… if you can call a soda ‘food’.

Then, this afternoon I had a sudden desire to write about memoir writing. I came up with How to Write Memoirs. I found that easy to write because I’m writing a memoir and have done a lot of research on how that is done. My lens gives a systematic way for a beginner to start writing a book length memoir.

Other than that, I did a bit of gardening and worked on an action plan for August.

July 14: The last few days were eaten alive by Lan Lamphere and my birthday! The Lan Lamphere issue was about a man in an undisclosed location claiming to have Bigfoots in his backyard. I jumped on the story and listened to Lan’s radio show twice. I will NEVER listen to that man again!!! However, I wrote several blog posts about it at my blog about Bigfoot. The postings were: (1) Bigfoot Found In Backyard - Radio Broadcast Online, posted on July 8; (2) Report of Bigfoot Found in Backyard - A Mental Aberration? posted on July 12; and Bigfoot in Mr. Mike’s Backyard: Follow-Up on Lan Lamphere’s Internet Radio Broadcast posted also on July 12. What an issue! LOL Well, I’m glad that experience is over.

July 13 was my birthday and I didn’t do much other than update some lenses - then go swimming at the beautiful South Fork of Indian Creek - about ten miles north of where I live. We swam at a place I call Laughing Waters Spa.

Today I’m catching up on needed maintenance issues at my site about CPS… trying to be more active on the message board where several lovely and dedicated activists really carry the show on for me because I’ve been so busy doing other things.

Yesterday I actually opened my “Write It Now” program and looked over my chapbook - a project I started last year that I’d really like to get finished. I hope to get some work done on that today. The chapbook is about my ten years living in the Klamath River Valley - so it will be a bit of a regional local-lore kind of thing, including some of the many articles I wrote while I’ve been living here, and some fiction, and maybe some poetry but not much!!!

July 17: Yesterday was an out-of-town day. We went to Southern Oregon to take one of our black cats to Dr. Joe, the vet.

Today I’m working to the clock. I downloaded Time Stamp and am timing my work hours… which so far are up to a little more than four hours. My goal is to work ten hours daily, but it is hard. My beloved one comes in here to chat with me and my adult son needed extra attention today, so I was AFK (away from keyboard) more than I’d hoped. Plus there’s that garden that needs attention.

Today’s work centered on building up the Literature For Kids site with content I’ve already written. Some of it was transferred from this blog to that site. I’ve got other things written that will be placed there, and I’ll be writing more reviews of children’s books to add. My goal is to post twenty articles before I move on to another project.

I’m starting this What’s New page as part of my strategy for changing this blog into a site that is more useful, considering the types of writing I do. I’m a content writer as well as a novelist, artist, webdesigner, songwriter and gardener! This page will give you the links to all the things I’m adding to this wonderful world wide web of ours.

June 4: My lens, Expert Blogging Tips, won a Purple Star at Squidoo! This came as a complete shock to me. I made the lens many months ago and it was a sleeper, getting very little recognition. I recently revised it and made it a little prettier, and I got an award! I couldn’t be more excited…

June 10: I spent the first days of this month moving articles from this site to the new, improved Perspectives on Writing. The new site is sub-titled “Writers, Writing About Writing”, however so far, I’m the only writer writing there! I welcome submissions. The site is now home to the following articles moved from this blog:

Ten Tips For New Writers
The Unfinished Manuscript
Writing A Novel
Let The Words Flow
Twelve Tips For Writing Better Articles

I’ve also added a few new articles to that site:

Plotting a Novel Through Character Development
Finding Your True Writer’s Voice
Songwriting Basics

June 12: Over a year ago I started a lens about preparing garden soil for veggies. Well, I finally finished it! This lens will probably be a sleeper for a while since I missed the garden preparation season this year.

June 13: I’m not sure what inspired me to do this, but I suddenly got the inspiration to write a lens about the possible end of welfare. I don’t have many answers but there are plenty of unknowns, and I provided a place for people to share their opinions on this controversial issue.

June 14: I joined a new content writing site called Fortitude - a Magazine for Being Human! It has an unusual approach as it is a paid membership site. I see the wisdom in this because serious content writers will join and spammers probably won’t. The membership fee is only $1.99/mo. paid annually. I wrote a Squidoo lens about it today too: Fortitude For Content Writing. The lens records my progress, my reasons for joining, and my comparison of Squidoo and Fortitude in terms of money-making potential. [Update: As of June 22 I've earned back my membership fee. It took only eight days. A friend did the same in only two days! Anyhow, the rest of the year's writing activity there will be pure profit. Right now I'm $1.70 in the black.]

June 16: I wrote an article at Gather. It is the ninth in a series of personal journal articles that have long titles, usually five parts. I haven’t written one in over a year until now, though it is something I’d like to do more of. A few years back I wrote regularly at Gather and earned a lot of $50 gift cards. I kind of miss those days and would like to get back into the site, if only to write this type of article. The title is My Life, v.9: Happy Tomato Plants, Dancing Zucchini Plants, Summer Sunshine, Fortitude, and a New Guitar. [Update, June 22 - I haven't received even one comment on this article so far. Seems I've been away too long and nobody knows who I am anymore! LOL]

June 20: I found out today that people are predicting wide-spread crop failures in North America due to the BP Gulf oil spill. This sends chills up my spine. I worry about all the people who don’t have food stored! I had to make a lens on this. Though it isn’t a popular topic, everyone should check into this! I hate to worry people but this is something the controlled media won’t report on as they don’t want people to panic and start hoarding food. On the other hand, if we don’t store food now, it may be either unavailable or exorbitantly expensive later.

June 21: At Fortitude, my brief memoir about How I Moved to a Cabin in the Mountains was published with a link on the front page of the site, on June 21, the Summer Solstice! I was excited to see this article receive the recognition it did because it detailed a deeply personal change in my life; this was a time when I felt like I took a step into the void and said, “Benevolent Spirit of the Universe, catch me!” …and the results were better than expected.

Later the same day - June 21 - I got the outstanding good news that I won the Squidoo Summer Sunshine Award for the day. This award benefits the charity that will be getting all the profits from my lens, End Welfare? What if There was No Welfare? The lucky charity, The Food For Everyone Foundation, gets $99, and I’ll get $99 too. Squidoo is being very generous this summer because they’re giving away these Summer Sunshine prizes every weekday between June 7 and August 27. There’s still time to join Squidoo and make a lens for charity, and nominate it for the Summer Sunshine Award.

June 23: Today I worked on web design issues for the new version of Literature For Kids. I moved an article from this site to that one: Themes in Children’s Fiction. I have a few other articles about writing for children to post there, and some book reviews. It all takes time.

June 24: I submitted my second article to Fortitude Web Magazine today. The title is Why I No Longer Consume the Standard American Diet. It will take a few days to get through the review process. I feel if I’m submitting two or three articles there monthly, I’m doing good. This article was about 1500 words, and straight from the heart. I’ll post a link when it’s published.

June 25: Good news and bad news. And then more good news, okay? First, my new Fortitude article was published only about 24 hours after I submitted it. That was good. But the bad news was that it didn’t make it to the first page… so I got only $1 for it. After three days of writing, researching and revising, I was NOT pleased! I revised that thing over and over to make sure it was perfect so when it didn’t make first page I was disappointed. However like they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! (I’ve been drinking warm lemonade made with maple syrup for days now, and no more coffee or tea!) Anyhow, the good news is that I used my option to republish on one of my sites, so now Why I No Longer Consume the Standard American Diet has a cozy home at my Country Kitchen Pantry - where I write about cooking, herbs, and whatever else comes to mind.

I’ve been promoting that link all day (off and on) and thinking, the best revenge is to do better. Or something like that. I suspect peer-reviewed Fortitude is subject to the whims of people who might not appreciate my opinions on certain eating habits. I will remember that next time - and submit something more politically correct! LOL

June 26: We took the day off and went to Mt. Shasta while our feral cat friends, Shadow and Mischief, were being neutered in Yreka. Someone dumped the cats next to our driveway last year and we couldn’t find homes for them because they were black. That’s when I wrote Black Cats Need Adoptive Homes. Black cats are lovable and appreciate their homes!

Anyhow, we had a good time in Mt. Shasta and drove up the mountainside to Bunny Flats. We couldn’t drive further because it was snowed in. Nevertheless, the parking area was more crowded than I’d ever seen it and more hikers arrived constantly. There was no special event; apparently this is the perfect time for a hike to the top. We talked to one young couple who expected to make it to the top from Bunny Flats in two days.

June 27: I had a banner lens writing day; I created two new lenses. This morning my partner suggested the most important issue of the day was pending internet kill switch legislation, so I created Internet Kill Switch Shut Down Harmful to Content Writers. I also wrote to all three of my federal legislators about it. I hope you’ll write to yours too! It was suggested that I could be a bit of a fear monger by writing lenses like this. I don’t think so. I’m genuinely concerned about internet-generated income because I need it. The fear mongers are the people who wrote and introduced this bill. After all, if government really doesn’t want sensitive information accessed by internet hackers, they should not put it on the public internet! I believe the proposed law is an underhanded way of interfering with our freedom of speech, ability to support ourselves, and a way to keep us from getting information from anyone but the controlled and biased media.

My second lens for the day was an effort to learn to sell things on Squidoo. Most of my lenses are informational, and I know the people who make the most money on the site are sellers. So, I gave it a try and made a lens about Hurricane Lamps. I happen to love hurricane lamps - they remind me of my grandmother’s home. I looked at the lamps and imagined what it would be like to use each design. Writing the lens was more fun than expected!

June 28: Today’s only writing accomplishment was to finish a lens on pedometer steps. The rest of the day was busy - including a trip to the laundromat. I will never take that much laundry with me again! I must be getting old, but my arms hurt terribly from the folding, then I had to come home and take a nap.

June 30: I’ve had a few very busy days. Yesterday we were in Mt. Shasta inside a pyramid where I had an outstanding spiritual consciousness experience. Highly recommended. I will write more about it, but not in this venue.

This morning I went for a walk along the Klamath River Highway. At the far end I sat at the Little Grider Creek highway bridge and drew this picture of the Klamath. Can you see the two kayaks?

Monthly Overview

I’ve made some advances, writing new lenses and articles, getting a few more sites up. I didn’t spend enough time on novel writing and editing and want to do more of that in July.

I’m getting excited about our summer growing season already. We’re looking for seeds, planning new raised beds for vegetable crops, and designing a meditation garden. It will be in a secluded area and will have room for meditation and yoga. Definitely something that will be used by both of us in the months to come.

On the other side of the cabin I have a herb garden. I was out there trimming back the sage a few days ago. I may have gotten carried away, but the plants came back nicely with lots of new growth last year and I expect they will do the same this spring. The last few days I’ve been looking at raindrops, unable to spend time in the garden as I’d love to. We had early-spring weather for a week. Now it’s gone.

Today’s sketch was of meditation. This is not me… I sketched from a photo of a woman meditating. My goal is to learn to draw more realistically… I have a lot to learn. This took about thirty minutes, maybe a little more. Well, this is a small part of the complete drawing. I cropped it.

My significant other (Baba Bob) looked at this and said it was a perfect image for a female character in my WIP novel, Oja. He’s now reading that novel and offering ideas. He is my idea man…. he comes up with some great ones. I keep encouraging him to write novels of his own but it hasn’t happened yet.

A few days ago I did another meditation sketch. This was of my Quan Yin figurine, with a fictional background. She’s a Chinese goddess of mercy and vegetarianism…

The top drawing was done with a hard 5H art pencil, and the bottom one with a soft 6B pencil. Can you tell the difference? They are both colorized in Paint Shop Pro (brown and green.) Before they were just white and gray pencil sketches.

I’m trying to do a sketch every day so my skill will improve. Art is a lot like writing - the more you do the better you become. Some people think it is all just talent - something you either have or don’t have. But it isn’t like that at all. Most people quit learning to draw when they were about 10 to 12 and our USA schools don’t encourage art much after that. Only a few students will enter high school art classes, and those will probably be the ones that showed more aptitude as younger children. The others got discouraged and gave up!

If you’re one of those artists who gave up drawing before you got good at it, you might like to try again. I’m learning with the help of a classic art book, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence.

I’ve decided to add some of my art to this blog, which up until now has been a writing blog only.

A print of this is available through my Zazzle.Com account. Just click on the picture to see the print. I will be adding more designs to that account in the near future. It is something new I’m starting to work with as a way to use my art.

Dating Palms
Beyond the ocean, beyond the ordinary seas, two palms grew side by side, inseparable from day one.

My interest in art isn’t new; I’ve been dabbling for many years. However now that all of my children are adults and no longer living with me I’ve decided to spend a lot more time practicing and creating art.

Of course I haven’t given up on my writing! I’m currently starting a first revision of Oja, which I wrote last November during NaNoWriMo.

My writing as of late has been sketchy. I write almost every day in my journal - three pages, thanks to Artist’s Way training. Right now I’m working my way through Cameron’s The Vein of Gold… getting off to a slow start because I find the Narrative Timeline assignment so challenging. The focus is to write everything you can remember about your life. Well, my Narrative Timeline is slowly coming to life. I’m up to about third grade now. I wonder if I’m dragging myself through this at a snail’s pace because I’m afraid to write about my teen years.

Last year I did an autobiographical manuscript, and at that time also wouldn’t go past about third grade. I really need to keep going. I’m so reluctant, however, that I’ve set my goal at only 1/2 page daily. I figure I can do at least that, and of course usually exceed the goal by about 1/4 page. (Not much!)

Another book I’m working my way through now is Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. I find this to be absolutely fascinating, because I’ve always loved to do artwork: drawings, paintings, whatever. But… I’ve also felt very untalented at it. Now I realize that’s because I never had much right-brain training as a child and at the time that my school dropped art from the curriculum in favor of left-brained activities (reading and math) I wasn’t able to function well enough as an artist to keep it up. Like most children, I took a look at the few very talented artists, felt I could never compare, and quit, for the most part.

Actually, art has stayed with me in small bits over the years, but now I’m determined to learn how to draw realistically… how to let my skills mature… and how to practice drawing daily.

So… this week in my journal I wrote a short article about sketching. I’m no expert but I wrote what I’ve learned so far. I still need to type that up. I think I’ll be posting it at Helium - a site I’ve never written for before. I have a few friends who write there. Then yesterday I wrote another short article about plotting… this time at the request of a friend in a critique group who wants to start a database of writing help information. My new plotting article will go either at Helium or on this blog. I’m undecided at this time.

Also this morning I wrote a third query letter for The Scribe of Irohila. This time I disregarded all the conventional advice and wrote from my heart, exactly what I’d like to be able to tell an agent about my project. I asked critique group friends for help and of course got told not to include certain things - such as that this is part of a series I’ve already written. I know, I keep hearing that agents don’t care to hear this kind of news. Still, I felt that my novel’s inability to attract an agent’s commitment so far may be because I haven’t presented it well in the query letters I sent. Actually, I’ve queried only five or six agents so far, so perhaps I just need to keep trying. I don’t want to run out of agents to query before I get the presentation perfected.

Last year I ran my first-ever writing contest. I made it simple - a matter of descriptive writing for which I’d offer one prize to a lucky winner determined by … well, LUCK. Instead of judging descriptions as good or bad, I decided to just pick one name at random. I wrote everyone’s name on a slip of paper and chose one winner. Fair enough?

WordCustard is the Squidoo screen name for a woman in Scotland. She’s written about Valentines Day food and lights, snowboarding tips for women, The Alps, in Europe, and many other fascinating topics! WordCustard received the contest prize: $25, sent through PayPal. I intended to give her an Amazon gift certificate instead but found out it is very difficult to purchase one for someone in the UK from my side of the pond, in the USA.

WordCustard’s blog is here: The Custard Bowl.

Thanks to everyone who participated!!

I wrote this list in my journal a few days ago, and hope it will help me as I write my narrative timeline (autobiography a la Julia Cameron’s book, A Vein of Gold.)

My list of 49 places where I’ve lived:

1) The little white house on Willet’s Drive in San Pablo - it has since been torn down. Age 0 to 2/3?
2) Mira Vista Drive, El Cerrito - age 2/3 to 8.
3) 3314 Morningside Drive, El Sobrante/Richmond - age 8 to 18 except for the times I wasn’t there.
4) My grandmother’s home in San Leandro, and my uncle’s home in Hayward - stayed there for four or five months when I was fifteen.
5) My friend Leslie’s home on Bayview Court in El Sobrante - I stayed there four or five months when I was sixteen.
6) My friend Susan’s home on Gold Court in El Sobrante - I stayed there four or five months when I was seventeen. All these were places I went for refuge because I couldn’t get along with my mother. Every year I left in about September/October and didn’t return until after the first of the following year.
7) A house on 17th Avenue in the Richmond District. I can’t remember what age I was when I lived there, with friends. Stayed about four or five months. One of those very foggy memories.
8 ) A flat on California Street in Santa Cruz - I always thought of this as the first place I moved to when I left home at 18, but it couldn’t have been because I lived in the Richmond District before that. I stayed only a couple months in Santa Cruz though it is one of the best towns I’ve ever lived in.
9) A room in a flat on Baker Street in San Francisco. A month or two.
10) A room in a flat on Noe Street in San Francisco - stayed there a few months then went on my Grand Canyon adventure in January 1972. I remember this date by the date of the total eclipse of the moon that I saw while there. I was 19 at the time.
11) 1649 Page Street in the Haight Ashbury. I lived there for 4 or 5 months.
12) A room in an apartment on Upper Ashbury. That lasted only about a month, if that. The woman we moved in with kept flirting with my boyfriend which annoyed me terribly!
13) A room in a flat on (I think) 26th near Guerrero in San Francisco. Lived there possibly six months.
14) An apartment upstairs from that room. I lived there a few months in 1973 and was there when my first child was born on April 24, 1973.
15) A house just outside of Vista, southern California, where I lived a few months with my son’s father. It was on a property called Palm Hill Ranch.
16) An apartment across the street from the old Levi Strauss factory ruins in San Francisco, around the corner from Valencia. (Can’t remember the street name just now.) We sub-letted the place for a few months.
17) A flat at 444 Virginia St. on Potrero Hill, San Francisco. Lived there a few months in 1973, then felt the need to leave my son’s father.
18 ) Back to my mother’s home for a month or so. I’m re-counting this place because so much time went by before I moved back there.
19) An apartment on Tenth Avenue in Redding, CA. - 1974.
20) A tiny hotel room in Redding. It was too small and I moved out after a month.
21) A cottage on Shasta Street in Redding - 1974-5.
22) A house on Shasta Street in Redding - 1976-7.
23) Mary Anne Risley’s home in Modesto - stayed for a month or two in 1977.
24) The horrible Mesa Verde Apartments in Modesto. Stayed there for a few months in 1977-8.
25) A duplex on Evergreen Road in Modesto. 1978.
26) Sister-in-law Terry’s house on 6th St. in Merced. 1978-1979.
27) An apartment in Merced - a couple months.
28 ) A house on Franklin Street in Merced. - 1980-81.
29) An apartment in Tuolumne City, near Sonora. 1981.
30) A house in Tuolumne City. 1981-2.
31) 717 Denair Street in Tulare, CA.
32) Trailer #1 - a 17’ travel trailer in the trailer court across from the fairgrounds in Tulare.
33) Trailer #2 - a 40’ 1957 park model trailer in the same trailer court.
34) Same trailer - moved it to a trailer park in the countryside near Kerman, CA. 1983 or 1984.
35) A grouphome where my husband worked near Fresno, for a couple months.
36) Homeless in the Bay Area for a few months, as my trailer was rented out.
37) Back to the Kerman trailer park. 1985-6.
38 ) An apartment in Reedley, CA. 1986.
39) 334 Crenshaw Road, Visalia, a condo. 1986-1988.
40) An old house on G St. in Visalia. 1988.
41) An apartment on Caldwell in Visalia. 1988-9.
42) An apartment near Demaree in Visalia. 1989.
43) Another apartment in the same complex.
44) An apartment near the freeway in Tulare, 1990. The absolute worst place I’ve ever lived because the freeway sound was constant.
45) A house in Tulare. Three years, from 1990-1993.
46) A flat in North Oakland. Nearly three years. 1993-1995.
47) A duplex in Pittsburg CA at the corner of 17th and Davi, 1995-1999. Five years.
48 ) The hotel in Dunsmuir. A month from 1999-2000.
49) A cabin/house in the woods near Happy Camp, January 11, 2000 until now.

I’m a Happy Camper. No, not just happy or excited about something… but actually THRILLED because as of today I’ve lived in Happy Camp, California for TEN YEARS! In the same home/house/cabin/domicile! This is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere, ever! I must like this humble little red cabin. (I do like it - a lot!)

This morning I woke up early to make sure my nineteen year old son got on the Stage to head out of town for Yreka. The ‘Stage’ is the name of the bus company. We live in a remote section of northern California - near the Oregon border - about seventy miles from the nearest town (during winter that is, when the pass to Oregon is closed by snowfall.) Though my son is nineteen he’d never before taken the Stage out of town on his own.

When I arrived at Double J - the liquor store and tiny market and video store - he was there already buying his breakfast, so I really didn’t need to worry about him missing that bus, like he did last week. This time he was up and at it. Nonetheless, he was happy to see me and we stood and had a chat while waiting for the Stage.

I told him, “I find it ironic that you’re celebrating your tenth anniversary of moving to Happy Camp by leaving town.”

He wanted to take his BMX bike with him. The Stage driver said “no” and he turned around and nearly left, disappointed.

I told him, “Put the bike in the back of my car and get on the bus!” And he did!

My son has dyslexia. Severe dyslexia. Because of this I worried about him getting back to the bus stop in time to take the Stage home. This is Monday and the next Stage to Happy Camp is on Friday, and he needs to be at work on Thursday. However I was pleased beyond measure that when the Stage arrived back in Happy Camp at 5:15 in the afternoon, he was on it, packages in hand and new shoes on his feet. He’s adjusting fine to adult life, and I’m very happy to observe this. What a relief it is for the mom of a severely dyslexic young adult! I gave him a ride home because he had too many packages to ride his bike the block and a half to his trailer.

My son may never be a great writer, but he is a budding artist. He’s the one I bought the colored pencils for. He showed me a drawing he’s doing. He said, “It’s not very good. It’s just practice.”

I said, “It looks okay to me, and by the time you finish practicing on the 100 pages of that drawing pad, you’ll be very good indeed!”

Like my son, I am practicing. As I make my baby steps toward publication with the novels I’ve been revising, I also take time for writing practice, producing short articles, or flash fiction. I’ve developed a real love for flash fiction and have another of my short stories submitted to a publisher now. This won’t make me rich, but it is a fun hobby.

During my ten years in this cabin I’ve written more than ten novels. Most of them still need revision. I like the first drafts because they’re like clay in my hands, with their own pleasing texture, ready to be molded into something submittable.

This week I’m revising my short middle grade novel, River Girl. I developed the idea not long after moving to Happy Camp, and now, years later, it is nearly ready for submissions. I love the story and my critique group friends liked it too. It is a historical novel, about a girl who moved to Happy Camp, many years ago.

Here’s something I wrote in my writing practice notebook last year:

…

On a search for my true self and the purpose of my being here, I confess to knowing the following so far:

1. Every really bad experience prepares us to help others living through that experience at a later date.

2. Life without the ability to reach out and help others is pretty lame… leaving a self-seeker feeling unfulfilled.

3. Sometimes it takes courage to be the one to reach out.

4. Not everyone will understand your issues or agree with your perceptions.

5. If you really want to help make the world a better place you must surge forward without regard to public opinion.

6. Peace and silence are conducive to clarity of thought.

7. We are all related and contain the same quality of beautiful spiritual light, though some are more conscious of that than others.

8. Life cannot be fully lived without interactions with others.

9. Intentions and outcomes are not always the same because sometimes you get something better than expected.

10. There is beauty in every human being; it may be covered by Karmic junk, but the beauty is always there.

Last year the writers in one of my critique groups each chose a word to inspire their endeavors during the new year. Last year I went for COMMITMENT and this year my word is FOCUS. My intent is to focus on one project at a time until it is done. I realize sometimes I’ll need to put a novel away to wait for further revision, but during a revision I’ll focus on that and nothing else.

Well, not exactly nothing else. I mean, within the spectrum of my writing work, I’ll focus on one thing at a time. Right now I’m focusing on a novel critique.

I’ve still got books to read, and blog postings to write, and housework to do, and a garden that always needs more attention. Today I moved compost around and planted garlic.

Books! Another focus for my year! I intend to read four books monthly for a total of 48 books, at the very least. I made an online TBR list that I’m having a lot of fun adding books to, and shuffling them around on.

My Silverweb critique group has three new members! Hurrah!! I’m very much looking forward to working with them.

Something else I want to focus on this year is ART. I celebrate art as a wordless activity that can enhance my writing. I just bought my son this set of 48 Prismacolor colored pencils:

They are so beautiful, now I want to buy some for myself! Here’s where I got them. But first, I inventoried my own supply of cool things to create art with, and I’ll satisfy myself with these things for now. In any case, I’ve decided to take the plunge and feature some of my art on this blog during 2010. I’ve done some simple drawings and paintings. More about that another day!

Tomorrow I’ll choose the winner of my 2009 Descriptive Writing Contest. Thanks to all who participated. I haven’t decided what kind of contest to have for 2010. ::putting on thinking cap::

I wrote about some specific 2010 writing goals on my Live Journal page: Goals Are Like Flowers Before They Bloom. I’m not going to write them again here.

I’ve joined the 2010 Great Rejection Slip contest over at Forward Motion. This is the first year I’ll be in the contest, as now I’ve thankfully recovered from my submit-phobia and have some good (completed) manuscripts to submit.

That’s about all the news for now. I’ll be back soon to announce winners of the 2009 Descriptive Writing Contest.