Wine is the Key


What I know for sure:
A child or a chicken will get sick the day before I leave for a trip. Especially the “getaway” trips.
I am most productive when there’s no time for anything. When I have time set aside to work, I find anything else but work to fill that time.
I am afraid of very few things, but well-dressed, rich French women are among them.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s too early to have that glass of wine.
Sometimes I have it anyway.
Fish and chips wrapped in newspaper is the food of the Gods.
French fries in Amsterdam taste better with mayonnaise.
Everything tastes better with bacon.
Sometimes all you need is a perfect pair of shoes.
You can’t go wrong with leopard print.
Writers love reading, but hate writing. We write so we have something to read.
My best friends are the ones who read and drink like me. Even better if our kids are friends too.
There are few things more frustrating than chickens who hide their eggs.
I rarely crave a salad.
When I was nine, my favorite weekends were spent reading until 2am and then waking up to finish the book. They still are.
“Truth or Dare” is overrated. “I Never” is not.
The best movie quotes are from The Princess Bride.
Val Kilmer in “Real Genius.” Christian Slater in “Pump up the Volume.” Yeah, seriously.
Huge Actorman in anything.
The volleyball scene is 40 minutes into “Top Gun.”
Tom Cruise has weird shoulders.
Patrick Rothfuss is a genius.
My kids love it when I read his blog posts out loud. Especially the inappropriate words.
Apparently seventy is the new forty. Just ask our mothers.
Guilt is overrated. Except when it’s the reason you stayed home from the trip, and the other child got the fever from his brother. Or the chicken died.
Very little can repay the friend who packs your dead chicken in ice on Saturday so she can UPS it to the lab on Monday.
But it can be done.
And wine is the key.

Popular posts from this blog

IngramSpark vs. Createspace

To: Indpendent Authors: Re: Createspace vs. IngramSpark: A couple of weeks ago someone posted a link on Facebook to IngramSpark with free set-ups (I can't find it now - sorry), so I did some research into Createspace vs. IngramSpark. Everything I found said do both. Createspace distributes primarily to Amazon, but their expanded distribution isn't utilized by most bookstores because they don't give them a big enough discount. IngramSpark gives the industry-standard 55% discount to retailers, plus the option to return books, which makes ordering our books attractive (I just did a signing at a Barnes and Noble, and had to bring all my own books because they won't order through Createspace). They also have printers in Europe and Australia, which makes international ordering cost-effective. There is almost no money to be made for us on IngramSpark because of the discount to retailers. But it's the one way I've found to get into traditional brick and morta
Read more

I Read Banned Books

Image
  I sat through a loooong school board meeting last week because a few angry parents had called for a book to be banned. The book in question was written by a transgender author, and the protagonist was an eleven-year-old trans character. I mention this only because 41% of the more than 1600 books that were banned in the U.S. last year involved LGBTQ+ authors, protagonists, or main characters, and because the PVPUSD board room was packed with LGBTQ+ community and allies. The call to ban the book was not an agenda item, and the district had publicly said they were not considering banning that or any book, so the 50+ speakers and more than a hundred other allies were there to send a clear message to the district. We value diversity in our books, we need representation of the LGBTQ+ community not only for the people who identify as such but for everyone, and perhaps most importantly, the message was clearly delivered that a few loud, angry people do not have the right to dictate what an
Read more

A Human Queen - Conflicted Feelings About Elizabeth II

Image
  With the September 8th, 2022 death of Queen Elizabeth II, newsfeeds around the world were full of iconic images of Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Gorgeous glamour shots of the young queen, stately photos of the older woman, and even kindly grandmother pictures that wouldn't look out of place on someone's mantle. Another side of my social media feed was filled with angry posts about the monarchy's history of racist empire-building, of problematic choices by Elizabeth II personally, and the role of the crown in questionable policies. And a third subset of social media posters, especially among Americans, seem to consider the news of the queen's death unremarkable or unrelatable. I posted this photo that I took in May during a trip to York, UK, because somehow, this representation speaks to my own conflicted feelings about her iconic status. Unlike rock stars, media personalities, and politicians, Elizabeth Windsor didn't choose her fame, she was born to her
Read more