Another year is in the books.  I never really understood the importance of
making New Year’s a holiday but I guess there’s no harm in it.  Let me
thank Chicken Soup for a Bookworm’s Soul again for their kind and gracious
review http://bookwormsoul.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-bowl-for-soul_30.html
from yesterday.  2013 is a year for which I need to give a great many
thanks.  First of all I am thankful to the good folks at Alpha
Wolf/Solstice Publishing for issuing “Quest for the Red Sapphire.”  It is
the first of many novels I have planned.  They took a chance on a new
writer with a big dream.  That dream is becoming a reality and I cannot
convey the extremity of my thanks.  I started the year with no publisher
and little hope.  Ending the year, I have my book in its first store and on
Amazon.com with great hope for the future.  The other writers at Solstice
have helped me with marketing tips and I must heap praise on them as well. 
Then I have some very good friends, namely Angel Dunworth http://www.streetlighthalo.com/index.html
who has been everything from an inspiration to a person to vent toward.  As
you will have noticed if you read my blog regularly, I have a great support
system at home.  My children are a great and ever changing gift.  I
could not love them more.  My wife is my rock.  When the roof feels
like it’s crashing down, she is the support beam holding it up above my
head.  She is truly the wind in my sails that draws me forward.  My
wife is everything to me.  Most men are not so lucky as to have such an
understanding wife.  I am thankful for my health this year as I had
surgery, which took 2 months of my year.  Now that I am fully recovered I
look forward to good health next year.  In all, 2013 was a great year for
me personally and as a professional.  2014 looks to be even better. 
My second book, “Sapphire Crucible” is due out in the first half of the year and
“Quest for the Red Sapphire” continues a strong presence.  Maybe the point
of the New Year’s Celebration is the anticipation of better things to come in
the next year?  I always thought it was a reason for people to drink too
much and act silly.  Then again, I might be thinking of the Superbowl, or
St. Patrick’s Day.  Whatever your reason for celebration, enjoy yourselves
and be safe.  Soon the festivities will be over with and we will be left
with plain old January.

The good folks at Chicken Soup From a Bookworm's Soul just posted a very
flattering review of "Quest for the Red Sapphire"  It is on Goodreads and at
this link. http://bookwormsoul.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-bowl-for-soul_30.html

Writing is one of the great joys of my life.  My books both published and
unpublished are an immense source of pride for me.  I have talked with many
writers and their styles vary widely.  Some writers like to just sit down
and write what flows forth.  I actually envy such writers.  To be able
to just sit down without a second thought and produce a novel is nothing short
of miraculous.  Whenever I have tried to write in such a fashion, either
the entire piece I produce ends up being deleted or I need to do a major rewrite
that takes longer than doing it right the first time.  Other writers write
a rough draft and then write the finished work.  If that works for you, I
could not be happier.  It was the method I was taught in school back in the
days before word processors and automatic spell-check.  Now I find it
redundant and a general waste of my time.  My style is just that; my
style.  It is not meant to work for others and has taken many years to get
down correctly.  I base my style on the way I was taught to give a
speech.  You accumulate all your facts or in my case, story bits. 
Then you write them out in bullet point fashion on a piece of paper.  Once
that is done you number the points in the order that you want to go through
them.  Then you walk through the story, point by point, and see how it
flows.  If something is out of order or it is not leading to the next
point, you adjust accordingly.  Once you have it down, you write it. 
That is the easy part.  Once it is written you reread the piece from start
to finish and look for holes in the story or items that do not make sense. 
If you are satisfied, you move on to the next section of the story.  It is
far from the fastest way to write, but it is the one way I find I can be
satisfied with my work.  This formula can be used on both large and small
scales.  When you are coming up with the book you bullet point the major
events.  Then you put them in order.  The challenge is to go from one
point to the next while developing the story and characters.  Everything
you do must be leading to the next point.  Each point is further broken
down into the series of events that come to pass.  The same formula is
used.  Sometimes I storyboard the ideas when I am doing a complex series of
actions or conversations.  Otherwise the order becomes confused and I end
up missing out on something I needed to address.  The conversations can be
particularly taxing as your talk must start at one point and follow a logical
pattern to reach the next point.  If it sounds like a lot of work, you are
right.  Writing is a true labor of love.  If you don’t love what you
are writing it grows tiresome quickly.  I happen to be lucky enough to love
what I write about.

It’s another holiday season and the same question comes to mind that I wonder
every year.  Why is it that everything that tastes good is bad for
you?  I went to a Christmas party last week and had some chips and dip for
the first time in about a year.  Wow!  It was amazing.  I had
forgotten how awesome those two simple ingredients tasted together.  Only
fear of public scrutiny prevented me from pulling up a chair and diving in face
first.  Then I remembered about all the fat I would be ingesting and the
urge passed…eventually.  Then there was a cheese ball with these
scrumptious sesame seed crackers.  It was heavenly.  Then again, there
was the fat and cholesterol.  Christmas came and the stocking was
full.  I think Santa put an apple and an orange in to make it feel like I
wasn’t totally going overboard.  Then came the good stuff.  
There were miniature candy bars and nearly a full pound Toblerone bar. 
American and Swiss chocolate were meeting on a joyous occasion to be consumed by
me.  Talk about the spirit of the season.  Then there was the treat I
waited for all year…a caramel apple dunked in chocolate and rolled in crushed
Snickers bar topping.  Once again, however, if you take away the apples and
orange, it is a ton of sugar, fat and empty calories.  It’s so
unfair.  Why must we crave things that are so bad for us?  You never
look forward to asparagus.  No one ever hopes their stocking has spinach
stuffed inside.  We crave foods that are high in fat, sugar, cholesterol
and calories.  Then I recalled a program I had seen on the History Channel
in which they said humans are hardwired, so to speak, to desire fatty and high
calorie foods.  If you look at the whole of Human existence, we spent most
of our time on earth living hand to mouth.  Starvation was a real
problem.  In such situations having it ingrained in your body to want foods
that would store energy would prove most useful.  During lean times your
body would have a reserve to fall back upon.  Thankfully, for many of us we
no longer have to worry about starving to death but we still crave the high
calorie foods.  I guess when we were being made, it was never considered
that chocolate, sour crème, sugar, fried foods and cheese would become so
prevalent in our menu.  It sounds like a pretty good explanation. 
Then again, it also sounds like a great excuse to overindulge.  I confess
that I have had more than my share of savory treats.  We are forced to
restrain ourselves for much of the year and that restraint goes out the window
during the holidays.  I am sure we could have a Christmas without
chocolate.  It seems to me it has happened in the past.  Then again,
what fun would that be?  Part of the fun of the season is going
overboard.  So I ‘m keeping my candy.  Besides, whatever would I
choose for a New Year’s Resolution if I had already given up the fun foods?

Let me start out by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.  This year was much
better for me on a personal level.  Last year I came down with the flu on
Christmas Eve day.  It kept me up all night and I ended up sleeping through
most of the present opening with my children.  This year I was fine and had
the joy of watching my children and granddaughter open their gifts.  After
the merriment had subsided, I made my annual phone calls to my siblings and
father.  My sister and brother-in-law live in Canada and own a large retail
franchise.  They were happy to have a day off and were getting ready at
work for today.  You see, December 26th in Canada is a holiday called
Boxing Day.  If you already know about it, indulge me while I inform
everyone else.  This is the day of the after Christmas sales when
traditionally seasonal goods are “boxed up” for the year.  It is the
busiest shopping day of the year in Canada.  It made me wonder why we
didn’t celebrate it over here in the USA.  Retailers love a good
sale.  There are after Christmas sales anyway so why not take advantage of
a well-established holiday.  I mean seriously; if Sweetest Day can be a
holiday, why not Boxing Day?  When I lived over in Canada we always went
out on Boxing Day to return what we didn’t want and buy the items we did not
receive. Durable goods were particularly prized on this day.  The day
turned into more of a Boxing Day week.  It is all strictly commercial but
the sales were usually pretty amazing and the retailers liked the boost at the
end of the year.  There are sales over here in the United States but there
is not a holiday associated with them.  Is it just that it isn’t and
American holiday?  That can’t be it.  We celebrate many holidays here
that they do in other countries.  Take Christmas itself or Halloween or
even Thanksgiving.  What would it hurt to give Boxing Day a shot over
here?  I can’t see a down side to it.

T’was the day before Christmas and all through my home, my wife was at work and
there was room to roam.  I could have slept in, since I did not have to
work; but I hadn’t finished my Christmas shopping like a forgetful jerk! 
So I rushed to the store at 7:30 in the morn’, to see sad faced employees sleepy
and forlorn.  I made my purchase quickly and took great care, for I had a
new drier being delivered and had to be there.  So I bought the family
bagels and rushed all the way to the mall.  I still had to park a mile away
even with it being 8 o’clock and all.  I returned a present of which I had
bought two.  It gave the grumpy salesman something positive to do. 
Then I picked up our order of caramel apples, our annual stocking treat. 
They were wrapped all in ribbons both pretty and neat.  I looked at my
watch and the time was not fine.  The delivery drivers would arrive any
time after nine.  So I hurried to my car and drove home quick.  I made
it by nine but just by a tick.  With my daughters still sleeping I began to
wrap toys.  Buying for girls is so much easier than for boys.  Girls
tell you what they want and print a list out.  Boys wait till you buy the
wrong thing and scream and shout.  I wrapped my wife’s gifts and the pile
looked so small.  You would almost think I had bought none at all. 
Though the mound was tiny, the price tag was higher.  How I wish I could
have just given her the drier!  But that would not be fair as it’s not a
gift for her.  Still the price to procure it was a lot to endure.  The
delivery men came and I opened the door, only to find that laundry soap had
spilled all over the floor.  I wiped it up as best as I could, before they
sat the new one down where the last drier stood.  They hooked it up fast
and moved the old one out.   Now all I need do is wait for the charity
truck to come about.  The kitchen was a mess with laundry room junk. 
If my wife comes home to this mess I’ll really be sunk.  But it seems such
a waste to clutter up the room, especially since it was just emptied with the
help of a broom.  So I’m leaving everything in the kitchen so the laundry
room is a glorious sight.  I sure hope the Mrs. is happy tonight.  I
watched “White Christmas” like every year before.   As my youngest
daughter lay on the couch and began to snore.  There are still gifts to
wrap so I must start once more.  I only hope my daughters don’t open the
door.  And so I wait for the old drier to be picked up soon.  They
said they would be here by 3 and it’s well after noon.  If they do not come
I will be forced to park outside.  In this blistering cold, that will make
for a fun ride.  During this magical season I think about others; the
fathers, the sisters, the brothers and mothers.  I think about those less
fortunate than me.   Those who have no candy, or gifts or even a
tree.  I pray that they find blessings in this merry season, when many
forget the needy for some strange reason.  So whether your year has been
good or it has been bad, be thankful for the gifts you have had.  As you
return to your tasks and finish this blog, have a Merry Christmas and go light
on the egg nog.

A good friend of mine shared a web site that can tell you where you are from
based on the way you answer 25 questions about the way you talk.  It has
been remarkably accurate.  Try it and see if it works for you.  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?r=8010488k0400104j00002040080800050210j1400102020000. 
It’s quite interesting how certain phrases are only used in certain parts of the
country.

As I sat in my chair the other night going over Christmas lists my youngest
daughter came and sat on my lap.  She was carrying a photo album and handed
it to me without saying a word.  I opened it up and was stunned to find it
filled with pictures of our late dog.  It was one year to the day since she
died and my daughter was brokenhearted.  Though I seemed to complain about
the dog much of the time, I really loved that little beagle.  As I looked
at the pictures I was reminded of the good and bad of dog ownership. 
History seems to bring out more of the good about a lost person or pet.  I
mostly thought of the good.  There were pictures of her lying by me as she
was prone to do.  She also was on the bed in “her” spot.  She was
pictured eating quite contently whatever was put in her bowl.  Then came
the pictures of her being poofed.  That’s the word we use in our family to
describe petting or rubbing your dog until they are so contented that their eyes
begin to squint.  It is the moment of total relaxation when the dog knows
she is loved just for being our dog.  My heart ached.  I had forgotten
how much that dog had meant to me.  When I was sick, she never left my
bedside.  When my son didn’t want to eat his dinner, she sat under the
table and waited for rewards from him.  When strangers came to the door she
howled relentlessly until she decided they were friends and would proceed to try
to make them rub her belly.  When I was down I would ask her, “Are you my
girl?”, and she would lick my face once.  She didn’t fetch or walk without
a leash or heal or any of the other things T.V. dogs are supposed to do. 
My mother, however, put it best some years back.  “She is trained perfectly
to be exactly what you want in a dog”, she noted.  It was true.  I
could have the worst day in history and that dog would be thrilled just to be
let outside at the end of my day.  Before coming to bed, the dog would go
into each of my children’s rooms and check on them.  Then she would ball-up
at the foot of my bed.  She was a great dog and I miss her.   As
I closed the photo album I saw all the Christmas lists.  So and so wanted
such and such.  Don’t buy this IPod, buy this one.  In that moment the
lists looked trivial.  Here I had memories of a dog that was happy just to
get a little attention followed by lists of goods needed to make people
happy.  Maybe dogs have the right idea?  Maybe just the simple things
in life are all we really need to find happiness.  I can enjoy sitting next
to my wife watching the news.  I like talking about football with my
son.  My oldest daughter always keeps me entertained with her stories from
work or school.  (Yes my children are story tellers too.)  Even
watching a Disney show with my youngest daughter brings me joy.  My
granddaughter will sneak up by grandpa every once in a while and snuggle. 
Those gifts mean more than anything written on those Christmas lists.  I am
thankful that I already have my gifts.

It seems like such a simple thing.  I have been using it since
childhood.  I never thought it was at all complicated but it would seem
that I am wrong.  I am talking about the phone book.  That heavy
yellow and white paged book I used to sit on as a child at the dinner table.
(Before booster seats)  We always seem to have several, whether they are
for different areas or different years.  I have looked up everything from
Appliance Repair to Zoo Hours.  It has just been brought to my attention,
however, that my tech-savvy children topping out at 22 years old do not know how
to use this simple information source.  I have shown each child how to use
them on several occasions and like a foolish parent I believed they had learned
the simple principles of alphabetical order and category look up.  So it
was a sad shock when I asked my son to look something up in the phone book and
he just stared at it like it came out of a tomb in Egypt.  He didn’t even
touch the book.  He just looked at it and said, “I’m getting no reception
here on my phone.  Can’t I just use your computer to look it up?” 
“Just look it up in the book”, I told him.  “It’s in the business
pages.”  Again he didn’t touch the book.  He just looked at it from
the side.  “Are those the yellow ones?” he asked.  By this point I was
highly bothered and looked it up myself, showing him how as I went.  “Dad”,
he told me.  “No one uses those things any more.  You just look it up
on your phone.  It’s way faster.”  Though he had a point, I was
frustrated.  “Apparently you can’t do that when you have no service”, I
told him.  “It is important to at least know how to use a phone
book.”  “Maybe for your generation”, he said.  “People my age don’t
have time for that.”  I found what I was looking for in less than a
minute.   How does someone not have time for that?  Am I becoming
an albatross in a society of eagles?  I cannot be the only one to still use
the book.  In past blogs I have mentioned how lost I would be without my
cell phone.  If my children are any indication, though, this generation
would be totally incapacitated without them.  Technology is great; but even
eagles have to come down to earth at some point.

This was actually supposed to be the topic of yesterday’s blog but I was
sidetracked by the folly of Victoria’s Secret.  So there I was, People
Watching in the mall.  It was busy for a Tuesday and I was surprised by the
number of customers milling about.  Most people we shopping in pairs. 
Individuals were always fast paced.  I figured that was because they knew
what they wanted and were in a hurry to get in and get out.  It turns out
there could have been another reason.  Mall Carts!  You know the carts
in the middle of the aisle in the mall?  Every time I passed one, a
salesperson tried to engage me with their product.  It started with the
cell phone case guy.  “Do you have a case for your phone?”  “Yes”, I
replied with disinterest.  “Well we have different colored ones and ones
where you can drop your phone on the ground and it will be alright.”  I
smiled and kept going.  “Thanks, but no thanks”, I said.  Right after
him was the remote-controlled helicopter stand.  He used the remote to
swerve the craft around my head.  “Do you want to try?” he asked. 
“It’s really easy and fun.  You can even do it indoors.”  The thought
of a remote-controlled helicopter zooming through my house was terrifying. 
It reminded me of the commercial where it is flown into the Christmas
tree.  I figured that was just begging for trouble so I respectfully
declined.  Each vendor tried to stop me.  We had the “Magic Magnet”
shoe insoles, the heated massage rocks, the custom letters for your house so you
can spell your name in style and the infinity lights.  (They look like they
are made of paper machete and glow.)  The funny part of it all was that
people were stopping and trying the demonstrations.  I brushed passed the
sunglass stand, the cosmetics cart and a few others in an effort to just reach
my wife in Bath and Body Works.  It was like a carnival where you’re
walking down the midway and everyone wants you to try their game.  At last,
my goal was in sight!  Bath and Body Works was just ahead.  As I
neared the door a gentleman stepped in my path and held out something that
looked like a communicator from Star Trek.  “Care for a massage?” he
asked.  “No thank you”, I replied.  Then a second gentleman stood next
to him.  “You should really try it.  It’s amazing!”  They were in
my path and so I stepped around.  “Where are you going?” one asked. 
For some reason I answered, “I am going to meet my wife.”  “Well bring her
back with you”, the man said.  “We’ll massage you both!”  That didn’t
sound even the slightest bit appealing to me.  When I entered Bath and Body
Works the female employees saw me and flocked to my aid.  It makes
sense.  A guy going in there this time of year probably is gift shopping
and is as lost as I would be if I was actually shopping.  They all asked if
I needed help and told me the specials.  Some pointed at products and said
what was new.  I appreciated the assistance and all but I just wanted to
find my wife.  At last I saw her and ran over to her side.  I gave her
a great hug and all the sales associates disappeared.  Yes, my wife is
salesman Kryptonite!  I wonder if it would have worked at the stands. 
Probably not.  They likely would have pestered us more.  For the
moment, however, I was safe.  I told my wife, “Unless you want some weird
guys to give you a massage, we’ll head out that door.”