Sharon Stephenson

I've not written a blog for 2 months. To be honest, I haven't written much in the past 3 months. Life, or to be more accurate our move, had caught up with me. I have moved a lot in my life—back and forth from one US coast to another 3 times, up and down the US east coast 1 time,…

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As I write this, snow is continuing to fall at quite a rate at my home on the Eastern Shore. Having spent most of my life living in states (5) bordering Canada, snow is nothing new to me. In fact, I really love it, especially when I don't have to go anywhere in a hurry. I can write a lot about snow—how light it feels when it settles on your face, how hard it can feel when hit by a well-packed snowball, how quiet it is when it muffles the sounds of a city, how beautiful it looks as the world becomes monochromed with softened edges. I'm enjoying watching the…

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It's been a little over a week since our container was delivered to our door and our furniture and roughly 200 boxes were unloaded. We're all unpacked now and gradually getting our house in order. Writing has temporarily taken a back seat but I will be back at it very soon. But this doesn't mean the writing has stopped. I can unpack a box and work through details of the plot or develop my characters in Judging from a Distance at the same time. But I'm anxious to be back at my laptop—my story is calling to me. In the meantime, I'd like to draw your attention to my book Running from the Moon. I've always loved the movie The…

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We're waiting for our ship to come in...literally! We packed up our house and moved to the USA from the UK in late June. Having done this ocean-crossing move 4 times now we expected to see our household goods no later than the end of July. We hadn't counted on a container, ship, and berthing shortage. Fortunately, we were able to buy a bed, couch, and…

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Ahh September. A month for beginnings. We're beginning to settle into life in Maryland, still living with a couch, a TV, a bed, and an outdoor table…

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Well, we made it. After all the pre-move pitfalls (read June's BLOG if you're interested in the details) we made the trip from the UK to the USA. Halfway through our BA flight, the air hostess handed us a slip of paper from the New York Center for Disease Control telling us regardless of having had to take a Zoom Covid test conducted with a doctor and having the signed…

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Note to self: don't make an international move during a pandemic. Unfortunately I didn't get the memo until after my husband and I had packed up and sold our UK house, bought a house in Maryland (over the internet) and just a week ago were halfway over the Atlantic with our dog. This was the first chance we'd had to take a breath and it almost came as a huge surprise, as if I was awakening from a dream. We had actually done this—made the move! Neither of us had ever…

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I missed April and May—wanted to finish Taking the Sun and then we got busy! As I write this I am sitting between two tables laden with stuff to be packed into boxes and…

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It might have escaped your notice, but I didn't do a February Blog. I was 'on a roll' finishing up my latest book, Taking the Sun, and doing a blog seemed like an interruption. This lockdown in the UK (#3) has felt like the longest and the toughest. Maybe because we're in winter, with long, cold nights and dreary skies. Winter was also a time for planning our travel, something we're not confident about doing…

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A new year. I'm hopeful we can keep all the good things about 2020 and never revisit the bad. My list of the good—clear, blue, pollution-free skies; hearing bird song and not traffic noise, helping to support folks in our village; learning to plan meals ahead and become a better cook; making time to sit outside and enjoy the sun, read, and listen to music; reacquainting…

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I flipped the calendar over to December and other than eating a chocolate from my Advent Calendar the day was lost on me. I was busy and forgot all the jobs I should have done on the first of a month--writing my blog, giving my dog her monthly flea and tick pill, weighing myself—the day came and went like any other. It wasn't until the middle of last night I realized it was 24 days till Christmas! And then I began remembering Christmases past... First there were the childhood memories of growing up in Geneva, New York, where the best sledding hill around was our own back yard and there was always tons of snow. Where I…

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I didn't do a blog for October. I was feeling quite agitated by the end of September and couldn't seem to focus my attention. September is usually a 'traveling…

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