Merry Christmas (a little late)

Well, Christmas came and went while I was locked out of my website – sorry you missed my holiday excesses. I have green and red nail polish, holiday clothing, Christmas paper plates, cups, napkins plus two sets of China holiday plates. Our tree is gorgeous and all is well in the land of Stuart.

I’m really chomping at the bit to get to work in the new year. 2021 was a dud, work-wise. Oh, I wrote. I wrote and I wrote, tons of stuff. Problem was, it was garbage. Well, that’s being a bit too extreme, Being a relatively secure person, at least as far as my work goes, I don’t think I can write garbage. Nevertheless, I wrote tons of stuff that didn’t work and needs to be revised. With an ax.
First there’s the historical, which is half done. I don’t have much to do on that one – just change the heroine, the villain, and give it a plot. Amazing that one can write half a book with no plot.

Then there’s my classic romantic suspense, which needs passion and focus. I’ve been working on it for so long, and at such a leisurely pace, that I have a hard time summoning up the energy for the second half (when I was bursting with enthusiasm for the first half).

At least there’s a fresh one almost perfectly formed in my head that’s an off-shoot of the first one (entitled It Takes a Thief – second one is To Catch a Thief). All I need is a swift kick in the rear end and i’m off.

Of course, with my recent knee replacement it’s hard to kick oneself in the butt, but I’m determined. Every year I come up with a new word or phrase to encompass my hopes and dreams for the new year. This year I’m thinking along the lines of “just go for it.”

I may even break my usual record of never posting here, and I might even get a newsletter together. All sorts of things are possible when you’re determined. Maybe that’s my word for the new year – determined.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, and if it was at all melancholy I hope you were able to find comfort. 2020 sucked. 2021 might have sucked even harder. 2022 isn’t going to make our troubles go far away, but we can carve out goodness, kindness and joy if we try.

Let’s do that.

Happy Holidays.