Monday...

Where's the sun? It's supposed to be mostly sunny today, but that's not happening. And tomorrow? SNOW.

It's funny how a bit of sun can make all the difference in how we feel. And conversely, all the clouds can really lead to depression. Now I'm not complaining about the itty bit of snow we received this year. Nooooo. After the 70+ inches dumped on us last year, I can easily deal with the two or three inches we have so far.

Somehow, a cloudy Monday is worse, though. It just starts the week out on a blah note. Who wants to leap out of bed and get started on a cloudy note?

The hunk is really ambitious this morning, though. He's in our bedroom, measuring and contemplating ways to rearrange the room so his desk has better access to electricity. I am NOT that ambitious. For me, a wild and crazy day might consist of emptying the trash or loading the dishwasher. My really crazy days might consist of doing laundry or vacuuming.

However! My days of hopping out of bed and deciding to rearrange the furniture are over. When I was considerably younger, I used to do that about every six months...almost always on a Monday.

Now my Mondays start out with a quick read through my current work in progress. And then I plunge into the work of the day--the next chapter. I'm up to 13K on this book so far. If all goes as I plan, it should be somewhere about 60K+.

That's my Monday. What about you? Anything special you do on Monday? Or is it all down hill and pukeable for you?

anny

PS: My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Australia. Those folks are really hurting with all the flooding.

PPS: Tuesday night is my monthly chat at LRC. Check out the box in the upper right corner for details! Please join us. And if you're an author, prepare to post a couple excerpts for us!

PPSS: Check out the wonderful review for Dancer's Delight that I received from Miz Love and Crew!

Bits and Pieces

After I wrote a blog last week about the tremendous snow storm of 1967 in Chicago, a friend sent me this picture taken a couple days later. As you can see, the snow really was that deep... and frozen like a brick. So Amarinda and Helen, when you're sweltering in your heat, just remember this pic and think "cold".

At the time of the snow storm, we had a foster child staying with us. About a week after the storm, my mom sent my middle brother and the foster boy to the store to buy bread and milk. They never came home. After a while, she sent my older brother and me out to look for them. The snow was piled so high on each side of the sidewalk it was like walking down tunnels. We were out there quite a while, calling and walking up and down the streets around where we lived.

Finally, my parents called the police. The cops picked the two of them up, walking down the middle of the freeway--which was closed because it mostly looked like this picture. The boys had decided to run away to a park in southern Indiana, Tippecanoe State Park, where they planned to camp out for the winter. To that end, they had spent the money my mother gave them on a box of cereal, a box of matches and two bottles of soda.

Ahhh, to be young again.

If you cast your eyes to the right, you'll see a nifty black square that declares that I'm the winner. This morning Dawn Roberto, owner of one of the more active romance loops sent me an e-mail informing me that I've been voted the Best New Author of 2007.

Now, I admit to a certain amount of excitement and pride in that, even knowing that it really is a popularity poll. But then, so are book sales. Peers and readers vote for you--or not. I'm proud that some people thought enough of my work to vote for me. So I'll try not to let my head get too big for my hats. And I want to offer a heartfelt thank you to those that voted for me. I appreciate the thrill of it all.

I added a new place that you can check out my work, bookcovers, or just read my blog. I now have a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=717643076 so drop by there and check it out. It's still a work in progress. I have a feeling it will take me a while to decide what I want on the page so bear with me. If anyone has a suggestion or observation, please let me know!

It's supposed to rain/snow later on today. My feet are freezing. Later on today, I will haul out my foot warmer and plug it in. Quite frankly, writing doesn't generate much body heat--no, not even writing the "hot" stuff--and as I sit here writing, my feet slowly turn to blocks of ice. So I'll break down and use the foot warmer, plus socks, plus maybe even a lap blanket. In between, I'll slurp down several mugs of herbal tea. After which, I'll have to make a mad dash for the bathroom. You'd be surprised how many steps you can accumulate running back and forth to the bathroom. There actually is a method to my insanity.

Yesterday, numerous people "tagged" me. I'm supposed to tag six people, but most of them have tagged me instead, so I'll list the six odd facts about me and move on.

1) I speak two languages--English and Mystic Valley Ancient--with a smattering of a couple others (Elyrian and Genealogy). In case you didn't know, it ain't easy making up a language from scratch, let alone two or three. Pukeable notwithstanding.

2) In my lifetime, I have played a piano, guitar, violin, auto-harp, harmonica, dulcimer, accordian, organ, ocarina, mandolin, harpsichord, and psaltery. I'm not saying that I played them well, but I did play them. At the moment, I still own a guitar, accordian, electric keyboard, and have the ocarina and psaltery on order. Life is good.

3) I paint. I like to paint. I don't paint well, but since it's for my enjoyment, who cares? Maybe I'll be the next Grandma Moses and somebody will discover me. Why not?

4) I'm a secret pen collector and woe betide anyone who touches my pens. Once someone else uses my pen, it belongs to them as I won't use it again. Sigh. When I worked I had to lock my pens up at night when I went home. If I didn't one of the custodians would come in at night and scribble with every single one of them. Then they leaked. Oh, the trials and tribulations of dealing with a pen sneak.

5) I'm also a paper collector. Why? I have no idea. But I betcha I have more kinds of paper than you can shake a stick at. Tiny little scraps of paper. Enormous sheets of paper. Colored, textured, white, transparent, vellum, cardstock, hand made, you name it, I probably have it. I even have special origami paper. And it's all neatly categorized and stored. Just in case I need it for something special.

6) I like to bake bread. Honey oatmeal bread is my specialty, but I've also made, whole wheat, white, cinnamon, multigrain, and various "specialty" breads. There is something soothing about taking out your aggressions on a pile of bread dough. And when you're all through, you have something incredibly delicious to eat. What more could you ask for?

Anny


What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –1st prize--5 books

2nd prize--3 books

3rd prize--2 books
Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute for the Goddess
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O'Rourke
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Sandra Cox Silverhills
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
Anny Cook Honeysuckle
Kelly Kirch Time for Love


Finally, don't forget to stop by Kelly's Blog at www.kkirch.blogspot.com and at Amarinda's Place at www.amarindajones.blogspot.com as Amarinda has the Saga today. Blessings on your day!

The Great Snowstorm...

Forty-one years ago, I was a senior in high school in Chicago. Back then, they had two graduations per year, one in late January and one in May. As the secretary of the choir, it was my responsibility to arrange the chairs on the risers for the choir members. There was no school on graduation day, but I was up and dressed early. I lived out of the local district because my parents moved the summer before. As a senior I had the choice of completing my schooling at my old school. I chose to do that, but it meant a long bus ride on the CTA and two transfers.

The weatherman was calling for a few flurries so I was a bit taken aback when I opened the front door to fairly heavy snow. I didn't matter, though as I had a job to do so I tromped down to the bus stop and waited, shivering with cold, for the bus.

The morning at school passed swiftly with much to do. The choir officers were all there and between the four of us, we were finished around lunch time. The president proposed that we go up to the hot dog stand about a block away for lunch. They had the most wonderful hot dogs. All of us agreed and we went back upstairs to the choir room for our coats.

When we burst into the room, laughing and talking, Miss Johnson, our choir teacher asked us what we were up to. One of the guys explained that we were going up to the hot dog stand. She looked at us like we'd all lost our minds. "Have you looked outside lately?" she demanded.

Of course, immediately we all ran to the window and stared down in shock at the white wilderness below in the school quadrangle where the teachers parked. All the cars were buried... buried in well over a foot of snow. And it was still snowing. Miss Johnson told us that the weather forecasters were now calling for at least two feet of snow.

Back when I went to school, the girls wore skirts. The other girl and I were certainly not dressed for a trek through the snow. The guys decided that they would attempt the walk up to the corner. If they made it, they would bring back lunch. An hour later they returned with two bags of hotdogs. When the owner heard about us, he sent extra food. Wonderful food. Lukewarm, but plentiful food.

In the afternoon, we all went down to the quadrangle and the other girl and I watched the fellows make snow angels in the snow. Suddenly, the wind picked up and the snow fell harder than ever. We all went back upstairs and listened to the radio, wondering how they were going to have a graduation in the snow storm.

By evening, the storm was over. We had over thirty inches of snow. The streets were impassable and the transit lines had long since stopped running. About a third of the choir, band, and graduates showed up. It was a very quiet graduation ceremony. Afterwards, Otis, one of the guys walked me the two blocks to my friend's house.

My parents had plans to be away overnight, so I had made arrangements to stay at my friend's house. Lucky for me! Many of the people at the school ended up staying there all night. I didn't get home for two days and it was longer than that, much longer than that before many of the streets were cleared.

A deep polar freeze settled in and froze all that snow like concrete. For several weeks, walking down the sidewalks was like walking in tunnels. The snow was piled high--in some places it was piled higher than our heads.

It wasn't the last snowstorm I was in, but it was the last one I experienced in a major city. And it was definitely unforgettable.

Anny

Don't forget to stop by Kelly's blog at www.kkirch.blogspot.com and Amarinda's Place at www.amarindajones.blogspot.com

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –1st prize--5 books

2nd prize--3 books

3rd prize--2 books

Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Pretty soon we'll be beginning the contest!

Blessings on your day!