Blog
January 2018
Thursday 4th January 2018
FOLLOWING THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year!
"The old year now hath passed away"...words from an old Lutheran hymn and so appropriate for a NEW YEAR. I didn't get that quite right one time- I was working for a church and in typing up the Sunday morning 'bulletin' or program, I mistakenly listed the hymn title as "The old year now hath pissed away" and didn't catch the mistake till the church service began. It was fortunately well received with Yankee good humor. But the older I get, the more important it has become to feel I've not 'pissed' away a year. After all, I have no idea how many I have left!
A New Year has always signified hope—an optimism that this year will be one of positive changes and outcomes. For me, this entails sorting my priorities and fixing my sights on what I'd like to achieve. And then I'm going to need a map! I've always been a big believer in the old adage if you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else. My map needs to have an achievable destination, with clear directions indicating roadblocks, pitfalls, and dead ends.
Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz (my all-time favorite film) had fairly simple directions to her destination—"follow the yellow brick road". This January I am taking the time to create my own map, my own 'yellow brick road'. It will have 'stations' where I can check my progress on diet, exercise, writing... and it will have stopovers for time with my husband and family, for travel, and for thoughts about new books!
In addition to making my 'yellow brick road', I'm finishing my latest book in my Breaking Camp Mystery Series, 'Between a Rock', and researching ideas for another book! I've had lots of restless nights recently as a new story has begun to take shape in my head. My research has led me to rare coins, vintage Christmas ornaments, and southern Illinois river communities to the Underground Railway in New York State. These disparate elements are like pieces of a puzzle that will all have a part to play in the new book percolating in my head.
Wish me luck! I'm off to see...
