A-Z Blog Challenge

I've decided to choose a theme this year in the A-Z Blog Challenge, which starts April lst and goes the entire month, or until we get to letter 26. This will be the second year I have done it. I met some wonderful people last year. This year the group is about twice as large.

My new theme? GRATITUDE.

I've had a real blessing over the past three years. My good writing coach/friend, Kristen Lamb has reminded me in her workshops and posts the value of sharp pointy objects and sharp people--who then smooth and shape us, polish us into the jewels we become.

As I sit and write this, I know some day I will be a well known author. Right now, I work at other things until this dream can be realized. But the wandering garden path that looks so enticing comes up for me each day when I awaken. By the end of the day, I've seen garages and boxes of stuff, closing statements, bills, attorney memos, banks and title companies, inspection companies and reports, office meetings, happy people, upset people, traffic and frustrations of all species. It's a bit of a challenge to remember that lovely bucolic path I took in my dreams, during my quiet time, in the morning. Even quieter now that I have sent my chickens off to a better place for them. And for me.

I read a prayer a few Sundays ago in church which sums it up for me:

We confess the daily bread you give us is seldom enough to satisfy our indulgent appetites. Our craving for recognition and significance causes us to ignore the needs of our neighbors. Forgive our lip-service in worship when our actions beyond this sanctuary do not honor you. Renew us by your grace and remind us what it cost, that we might live in humble gratitude for Christ.

I'm not going to make this a religious experience or blog. One could substitute several words in the above prayer and it would apply to other religions or philosophies, and let me make sure to say that my way is by no means the right way. Afterall, I've said it before, I'm a Christian with a bent antennae. The passion with which we get to live and love has me falling down on my knees with gratitude. And to be blessed with the gift of storyteller, is one of the best gifts a person could receive.

And like the Bible stories, the gifts sometimes come at a terrible price. It's always darkest just before the light of a new day. In our stories, the black moment comes right before the resolution. And like in our romance novels, the Happily Ever After is always there, delivering the promise, perhaps not giving us what we want, but what we need.

I'm going to do 30 days of gratitude, one day at a time, starting April lst. I will humbly walk the path and would love to have your company.

Oh! The Places You Will Go

I'm lucky. I get to see things like this every day in the area I live: Sonoma County, California. I was once commenting on a friend's blog that I was envious of families who pack up and move to places for the summer. First of all, it's hard, even in these times, to be able to afford that in California, but my friend nicely reminded me, "Sharon, but don't you live in a place people go to on vacation?" And my comment was, "But if you're there every day, it doesn't seem like a vacation." She was right. And so was I.

I subscribe to a number of travel blogs and am tempted by the photos of places I won't likely see in my lifetime. Exotic places. Colorful places. For the few seconds I read about them, and lusciously scan the photos, I am there, knowing that's as far as it gets.

I look out at my garden, and my chickens and see work, even though the beautiful grape-laden hills are all around me. There is the sawdust to move, the chicken feed to empty into the feeding cans, the weeding and dead-heading in the garden. And darn those zucchinis - how come they seem to blow up overnight and go from gourmet table fare to chicken food? You don't pick them? The plant thinks it's done and goes home to the vegetable Heaven somewhere. I stew over my tomato plants that just decide to die. Hello? Can't you give me a clue why you are turning brown? Too cold? Too much water? Your buddy over here has been producing for weeks, and you decide to go home. Not nice.

Not every wonderful place on my list has blue water, umbrellas and lounges. Or spas. But most of them do have something to do with water. At the Kenwood Inn, for instance, there is this huge waterwheel that goes around and around, and I love falling to sleep to it on the few times I have stayed. I wrote a story taking place there so I had a good enough excuse to indulge myself when my finance allow. Some day. When I've sold a bajillion copies of all my books.

These have been very challenging and stressful days for me. I find taking a mental time out and going some place for a 5-minute vacation a necessary evil. Is there some dark lurking prince behind one of those palm trees? Who knows. Afterall, it isn't me that's traveling to those places, but my heroines. Looking for love in all the right places.

Where do you go when you like to escape the world?

Writing about Dark Angels

I have a thing for dark angels, brooding, sensuous, mostly males but some females, on a collision course with their own nature and against most forms of authority. As in all my stories, the basic theme is: Love heals in the gardens of the heart. I believe in the power of redemption through true love, that in loving another it brings out the very best in ourselves. True strength is measured in strength of character. Believing in something outside ourselves, whether it be spiritual or of this world, is the highest calling. I love to write stories about how people discover miraculous gifts within themselves to overcome impossible odds.