Letters Books Paradise Author Events Readers Photos Reviews Press Home   Well, you know you are busy when you think you did something that you really did not do -- like write the October letter. So here it is a week or so late but what the heck already. October 1 was my son's 20th birthday. I called him from the road, where I was in the middle of several events and he was happy and said that he had celebrated by having a steak for lunch and then going back to class. He's a good boy -- really a man -- and he wrote me the most beautiful letter for my birthday. Here is one paragraph: "My gift to you is to let you know that even as you let me go out into the world, you are still with me. You are in my clean ears and the ideas in my notebook. You are there when I talk to my professors or listen to a different idea. You are with me when I choose what door to walk through because you have opened them all. I always feel your hand on my heart." Now isn't that absolutely lovely? What a fine way to start the month. I was up in Northern Wisconsin signing books and talking and meeting lots of readers and then I spent a little time sniffing the beautiful fall leaves and managed to canoe a little bit in the rain and do a little writing. Back on the home front, I finished a piece for an anthology called, The Dress Up Chronicles, and have been happily working on the sixth novel. I am now into the last fourth of the book and tying up all the pieces and ends and sections and loving these characters so much that this book may go on for thousands of pages. I am having a great time. I am also gearing up slowly for the April 1 release of Searching for Paradise in Parker, P.A. The cover art is out and I will be showing that on this site very soon and including some information about the book in the newsletter I have been working on and hope to send around to all of you by the end of the month as well. During the past month I also made a very big decision to stop writing my weekly columns. I have been writing two nationally syndicated columns a week for the past 7.5 years. That is a lot of words and a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. I've been thinking for a long time about stopping so I can focus on new areas of fiction and some other types of non-fiction, but as you know, change is sometimes a reluctant friend. Once I made the decision, I very quickly received two offers to write non-fiction pieces for books. This is what happens when you open to the door to change and welcome it. It's like stepping into paradise even if the journey to get there was a little painful. Since this decision I have filled up pages of a notebook with ideas that I have for short stories and ideas for other editorials. I cannot wait to see what happens. During September I also had the most absolutely wonderful birthday -- I'm 54 now, which some foolish people consider past middle age -- but what do they know? Madonna and I traveled to New Mexico so I could do research and spend some time with my mentor, Susan Wasson. On the exact day of my birthday we toured Georgia O'Keeffe's home and then did a landscape tour of the places she loved to paint. During the tour, because it was my birthday, the guide let me stand in her studio alone for a few moments and I spontaneously started crying. I have always been attracted to Georgia, not just for her work, but for the way she lived her life and followed her passion -- and maybe that all came to a head while I was standing there. It was an absolutely fabulous day and I am dreaming of my own cabin on the same river she loved to watch as she worked. This weekend, I am off to a Schwartz Books readers retreat and then I have several weeks of hard, yet wonderful, writing ahead of me. Yesterday my daughter Rachel, who is now a senior, totaled her car. I think she does these things on purpose to keep me grounded. She is fine, but she will not be getting another car, and because of a string of mishaps, she will lose her license. This, of course, will also change my life. In between all of this, we are applying to universities and hoping to keep her safe until she graduates in May. So many parts of my life are just like yours. My knees hurt after I work out, I cannot seem to lose the last 10 pounds around my middle, my parents need more and more help, my teenage daughter makes me cry myself to sleep some nights and makes me smile on others. That is the stuff I love to write about -- real life, you know? As we swing through October, I want to thank you for letting me share my life with you as you share yours with me... and remember PARADISE is just around the corner. As Always,
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