It is a windy and chilly morning today. I have to look at the date on my computer twice as it is hard to believe it is already the end of November. 
My book is out!! A box arrived from the distributor via UPS yesterday and since we have a friendly relationship with our driver, I just had to show off the book to her. Last night at Zumba class, several of my fellow movers and shakers said they wanted copies to give as gifts as well as a copy to keep as they want to start baking. 
I am working hard to get involved in all the various social media platforms such as Pinterest and GoodReads so people can find me; feel free to email me with your questions and/or thoughts. 
(The crackers in this photo are from the book--the yellow are the Curry-Brown Rice and proceeding clockwise--Almond Lover's, Green Tea and Brown Rice, and Oatmeal Crackers.)
 

As the summer winds down on the calendar, life seems to be speeding up in other realms. The large maple by the brook is showing signs of color in its leaves and the evenings have been cool enough to warrant that extra throw blanket on the bed; fall is coming. And with that, the knowledge that there are many things in the garden to tend to such as digging the potatoes, harvesting the basil for pesto, freezing the beans, broccoli,  kale, and swiss chard for winter soups; the wood split in earnest back in June now needs to be stacked before the autumn rains really begin which means all those odds and ends stored in the wood shed over the past few months need a new home....the physical work is necessary though to counterbalance this life on the computer, a life that seems to grow larger on a daily basis as work steadily increases for this freelancer.
That is not a complaint, just a comment as I shuffle between keyboard, garden, and wood shed. An added fly in the mix right now is the sad but necessary fact that my husband is away for two weeks, attending a memorial service for a family member. He is at times bored, I am at times overwhelmed. I long to send him my editing or book reviewing work, he longs to be home stacking wood. We will both be okay.
The uncorrected proof of The Cracker Book arrived in the mail the other day. Chores were instantly ignored so I could hold the real product in my hands, a close facsimile to the image I have carried in my head ever since my publisher said 'yes' back in January. I am excited and anxious as the countdown to the actual publication date slowly but steadily advances upon me. I am still amazed that this idea is now a tangible item in the world.
Meanwhile, my first attempt at a novel is getting mixed reviews from beta readers. Some people are unable to put the piece down, others tell me to throw away the first one hundred pages and start the book from there. I am up one minute and down the next and need to pull back and listen to my instincts on how to proceed. I am eager to work on the next project but know this novel still deserves its time and space, so I force myself to be patient and continue to edit and revise and read yet another book on the art of writing a novel.
Meanwhile there are books to read and review, manuscripts to edit, papers to translate, and a steady stream of emails that arrive that need tending. I feel like the Internet has morphed into the sorcerer's apprentice; once my email address got on to certain lists, the steady stream of notices and blogs keeps advancing despite the numerous deletions I make on a daily basis of things unread. And so, life keeps moving forward even as the days grow darker a little bit earlier and the evenings cool off enough to make me start a new list of things to do with 'clean wood stoves' prominently on the top.

 Hello! My apologies for not writing for so very long....life, on multiple levels, has a way of commanding precedence over maintaining this blog.
First, I'd like to say that I now have an official title for my cookbook: The Cracker Book: Artisanal Crackers for Every Occasion. I got a chance to proofread the manuscript a couple of weeks ago and the thrilling part was seeing my Library of Congress information on the inside page. The book is scheduled to come out in early November, but if that should change, I will let you know.
I attended a workshop on writing children's books put on by the Maine Publishers and Writers Alliance. The instructor was the the Pulitzer prize winner, Barbara Walsh. The two-day event was very helpful and I received great feedback on the first two chapters and synopsis of the YA novel I am working on. So much positive information came back that I now am working on a two book project, instead of one--I had way too much good stuff to squeeze into one book!
I have just been hired as an editor/proofreader for Strategic Book Publishing--no work has come across my desk yet, but the people seem nice and it will be a nice change to do work related to my interests rather than the computer job I have been doing.
More book reviews keep coming out; check out my Published Works page for new links to places like Shelf Awareness, The Christian Science Monitor and High Country News.
 I am also editing and proofreading a woman's work-in progress which is going extremely well. It's amazing how having a new set of eyes look at a piece can reinspire an author to begin writing again.
My middle son moved to Hawaii in mid-May to work with my oldest son, who owns a construction company in Kailua on the island of Oahu. Guess where I will be spending more vacations! I went out in early May and fell in love with the place, so with two sons out there, it's a no brainer that I will be travelling to the islands a lot more.
My youngest son graduated from high school in June; I can't believe that phase of my life is officialy over. What a relief!
My husband and I are in the planning and purchasing materials stage of building him a woodworking workshop. Needless to say, that will take up quite a bit of time this summer, but it will be a good break for

Hello! It's been quite awhile since I have written any kind of blog and for this, I apologize.
After reading any number of articles on blogging--ways to make them more interesting, ways to grow readership numbers, etc. the one overall item I came away with was that a blog has to be specific, that a person must find their "niche" of expertise and then only write about that one thing.
I was suddenly confronted with the idea that I had to narrow down my writing options to one, possibly two topics. Frankly, the whole idea paralyzed me to the point where I couldn't write anything. How could I only talk about Maine, for instance, or Mexico--both places are important to me. How could I leave out things like gardening, or being the mother of three teenage boys, or writing, or any of the other numerous things that hold my interest?
So, everything stopped while I tried to decide what my "niche" would be and after days of moping about, I realized I just can't do it. I can't specialize; as one friend recently told me-- I am a Renaissance Woman--interested in many, many things and capable of doing and writing about all of them, with interests that keep expanding rather than shrinking.
Instead of specializing, I am going to buck the current trend and continue to write about what is currently of interest in my life, whether that is the manuscript I have almost finished or the latest book I've reviewed or some other item that needs to be expressed.
So, here's to being contrary once again in my life. Cheers!

This page is still under construction as I try to figure out how to move my old blog and postings to this new blog. Okay, I found out there is no way to move my old blogs to this new site. So, to read old links you still have to go to my blogger website http://leecart.blogspot.com