Should I even try to catch you up with what’s happened since I last posted here (2 months ago!!) or simply carry on from today?

I’ll just give you the condensed version:

I finally quit school and that opened up an unbelievabnle amount of time for me to concentrate on my own writing projects.  (This includes learning how to spell ‘unbelievable’.) By my most rudimentary calculations, I’ve written about 210 academic papers on Christianity in the last 3 1/2 years. When I finally quit school and all that academic writing came to a screeching halt, I could not believe how much free time I suddenly had!

I am still working with the actress in NYC on various script projects, although I am still living in Ohio, for now. (A new development company is negotiating to buy my house and tear it down, but the city has to approve their plans first. So this could take either another really long time, or happen overnight. I have given up trying to figure it all out.)

I am working on a series of scripts for women’s TV, based on my cozy mystery story The Tea Cozy Murder Club. I am also still going to be writing the series as stand alone novels. In fact, I am kind of doing it all at the same time. (It wouldn’t be my life if I wasn’t in overdrive.) (I did have one publisher extremely interested in publishing the novels and it was an awesome feeling to see how much they really wanted the series, but I decided to hold out for something different.)

I am also working on a really great series of cozy mystery eBooks that revolve around my many cats, which is being illustrated by my friend in Brooklyn, who also has a ton of rescued cats. She has a daily comic strip about her own little critters, but I’m not sure I can link to it here because I am writing that series under a pen name. Well, once I figure out how to deal with that, I will post a link to her comic strip here.

Since my house is still standing, I decided to break down and buy a new Christmas tree. I had been putting off replacing the old one because I didn’t want to have to pack it up and move it to New York. But since I have no clue now when the move will happen, I bought a new tree and put it up yesterday, so now I have Christmas all over the house again and I couldn’t be happier. It’s been 3 years since I celebrated Christmas in my own home. Yay!!

I don’t know if you were as huge a fan as I was  of the PBS Masterpiece series from earlier this year, Grantchester. I watched each episode about 3 times, and now I am devouring the novels by James Runcie that the series is based on. They are so good. And I have to say, in hindsight, that the script adaptations were really brilliant; they are very much like the novels and yet entirely different. If you only saw the series (which continues on PBS early in 2016), then you should read the books. They are so enjoyable. I am up to the final book in the series:

Each of the books is actually dedicated to me, Marilyn. And the fact that his wife is also named Marilyn is only a bizarre coincidence.

Okay, one final declaration of joy before I take the day off and enjoy my Thanksgiving Day with friends downtown…

For literally years I have been searching for a poetry book from my childhood, The Big Golden Book of Poetry: 85 Childhood Favorites.  It was one of my favorite books of all time (aside from my copy of Betty Crocker’s Boys & Girls Cookbook from 1965, which I still have). My mother was not a big saver of books, so my poetry book eventually disappeared. I eventually tracked it down online but the asking prices were more than I could afford.  The prices vary from the 1947, 1949, and 1964 editions — the link is to a great price for the 1947 edition.  1964 editions are the hardest to find at a low price. The prices came down a bit, went up a bit, and a few days ago, I actually found a copy on Etsy that was really affordable so I finally bought it. It arrived yesterday and I simply cannot believe what great shape the book is in. It almost seems like no one ever really owned this copy or ever read it; it seems that ‘untouched.’ (If you read the customer reviews at that link above, you will see that this poetry book had a profound effect on children 50 or more years ago, and now adults everywhere are trying to replace it! Strange, isn’t it?)

Anyway, it is mine once again and it remains a truly wonderful book!

The illustrations in this book are just great (the cover illustration is from “The Owl and the Pussycat.”). They really fueled my imagination before I had even learned to read. Here are a couple. One from the poem “Moonsong,” and one from “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.”

Okay, gang, on that lofty note, have a terrific Thanksgiving if you live stateside, and if not, have a wonderful day! See ya!