Six-word Resolution

The bloggers over at Teaching Authors challenged their readers to write a six-word new year's resolution. There will be prizes - check it out! Here's my six-word resolution:

Embrace the changes that are coming!

Great Advice For Writers

If you are a writer or want to be a writer or just want to watch a cute youtube video, check this out. What a great way to start the new year! Happy new year everyone!!

Find Class Pics

I changed my blog, Find Class Pics, to allow people to make requests for class pictures they're looking for and to let people know what class pictures they have uploaded to the site. So far, there are class pictures from 32 different states.

If you have class pictures, I'd really appreciate if you would upload them to the blog - I'm sure your classmates who are looking for them will appreciate it too.

Please check out the blog and spread the word to your friends and family. Here's the link: www.findclasspics.blogspot.com

Got My Author's Copies!!

Wahoo! I got my author's copies in the mail from my editor!! I'm so excited! It's hard to believe that one little sentence that popped into my head 20 years ago, "You'll never believe what I saw at the zoo" is now a real, hardcover book from Simon & Schuster! Anyone who has edited a book will understand this - that sentence is no longer in the book - it got cut in the last round of edits. I don't care :-)

The big one is a full-size hardcover that will be in stores July 20, 2010 and the small one is a paperback that will be in Cheerios boxes in March. I can't believe it's almost here - it's been a long year!

Things I Like

Fellow blogger & writer, Kelly Polark, put a list of things she likes and suggested her followers do the same. Anyone who knows me knows how malleable I am so - here's my list (one thing for each year) - in no particular order! Like Kelly, it goes without saying that family and friends are at the top of the list.

1. Good puns
2. Sitting on the patio, listening to the pond & smelling burning leaves
3. Writing in rhyme
4. It's A Wonderful Life
5. Irish and English Accents
6. LONDON
7. Gardening
8. Kung Pao tofu & spinach at Big Bowl
9. Fortune cookies
10. Playing games
11. Winning Games
12. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (with white chocolate since I quit brown chocolate)
13. My mother's Neapolitan Casserole
14. Sentimental songs
15. Whistling
16. Singing (I'm sure I like it more than those listening to me)
17. The Dick Van Dyke Show
18. Ron Howard as a kid
19. Drinking beer by a campfire - then going to sleep in a BED
20. Olive oil & Parmesan cheese with good, crusty bread
21. Having a great memory for faces and names
22. A hot shower on a cold day - until I have to get out
23. The first Day in Spring that I don't need a coat
24. Movies that make me laugh and/or cry
25. Thanksgiving day
26. Cooking for company
27. Jigsaw puzzles
28. Traveling
29. New York City
30. My DVR
31. Crocheting
32. My students
33. Cheesecake
34. Not having to get up in the morning
35. Birds, especially Hawks
36. Bejeweled - unfortunately
37. Lox & bagel
38. Jitterbugging
39. My hair when it's wet
40. Word and number puzzles
41. Going to plays
42. Photographs
43. Popcorn with real butter
44. Spicy food
45. My I-phone
46. My laptop
47. My friend Jean's toffee
48. Playing jacks
49. Floating on a noodle in Table Rock Lake, drinking beer and singing with my friends
50. Sean Connery and Gregory Peck's voices
51. Laughing until I cry
52. Making people laugh until they cry