Shortly after school started I walked into a local discount store and saw that the Halloween displays were being put in place. It wasn’t even Labor Day yet!  read more »

After working on my new novel GARDEN OF HEAVEN in a very driven, manic kind of way for months, I'm in need of some down time now that the first query letter has gone out to an agent.

Frankly, I'm glad the network shows that disappeared with the writer's strike are starting to show back up. I need a diversion. I'm even happy to see the return of HELL'S KITCHEN.  read more »

As a matter of record we often times pass by milestones, some set by certain days celebrated each and every year. As a result I see a need to create an organized list of my greetings and well wishes passed along to all of my friends and fellow participants.  read more »

You've been all Elf'd up. Now go get Scrooged!

http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=9627869010

Go on and have some Fun and have a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  read more »

As the Thanksgiving holiday arrives, family gathers together around a feast. But how many really know the history of Thanksgiving? I found a site that offers a quiz to see what you really know. Here's a sample of one question:

What food was probably NOT on the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving menu?
Potatoes
Corn
Fish
Dried Fruit  read more »

Following on Sire's post about parenting, I'd like to report what our daily paper headlined today.

"3 teens, 1 week, $2000 of alcohol. What were their parents thinking?"  read more »

I've just started a series on my Writing Lab about my experiences of Disneyworld. I've got all the rants out of the way in the first post, called Done By Disney.

In future posts, I'll talk more about the fun we had and how I would improve the experience next time.  read more »

Here I am, procrastinating when I should be writing. Holidays eat up far more time than the actual time of your trip. For a week before you are preparing, and your mind is focused on the holiday. When you get back, you need to recover, and you spend time thinking about the fun you had.  read more »

In the old days, going on holiday was simple. You booked some time off, finished your work and disappeared beyond the reach of a phone for a few days or weeks. No one could get in touch with you if you didn't want them to and you didn't have to communicate with anyone. That's what my vacations were like when I started working 20 odd years ago.  read more »