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Joan...and the Ladies...send their love... |  |
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Greetings! Enjoy these few short months until winter. Our brightest leaf season around Asheville, NC is usually the third week in October, so until the leaves drop from the trees and cold winds blow, I cling to summer. Joan
Have you gardeners noticed that no matter how well you have tended your garden, weeds explode in August? I see them from my office window, poking their heads above the red salvia and yellow marigolds in my flowerbed. One last weeding, I think, and sigh. But the final weeding and preparation comes after the first frost, when we must clear the flowerbeds and mulch them and the earth is bare. We wait for winter. Some of you anticipate it’s coming. You love snow and skiing, brisk cold days. I cringe from them. I love summer, even though on many a day this year, the temperature hovered close to or rose above 90 degrees. When I moved to the Asheville, NC area 16 years ago, we rarely used air conditioning. This year we used it nearly every day. I imagine many of you experienced higher temperatures as well. A fan from Hawaii wrote that the usual trade winds failed them this year. In the Virgin Islands, we count on trade winds from the east to cool us. It’s hotter there now, they tell me, and the crystal-clear atmosphere I enjoyed is often hazy with dust carried across the Atlantic from drought-ridden parts of Africa. We are indeed one world.
There are writers who struggle with the question, what will I write about next? Some struggle to meet deadlines. Until now, I have been blessed with ideas for novels, and have been blessed with time and have been able to turn in completed works considerably before their due dates. At this moment, my obligations for 2007 have been fulfilled. Two books, a mothers’ day ladies’ novella, AN UNEXPECTED FAMILY due out in April, and a stand alone novel THE MOUNTAINS ARE DANCING, due out in the fall of 2007, are in the hands of my publisher. The seventh ladies novel is three-quarters complete. It is set for publication in 2008. My head spins with story lines, and my dilemma is which to write about. In my October newsletter, I will offer you several short synopsis of novels that live in my head and would appreciate your feedback. Please do drop me an e mail and tell me which one or ones interest you most. Thank you.
A reminder: The photography contest ends September 14th. Winners will be announced and the first prize photograph will be included in October's newsletter and on my web site. I will enjoy a half- hour phone visit with the winner. The second prize winning photo will appear in November's newsletter and the winner will receive autographed copies of the first two hardcover (now out of print) ladies novels. In December, the third winning photo will be on the web site and in this newsletter and its creator will receive a self-published, autographed copy of a novel set in the Virgin Islands called BELONGING. ** The photos in this newsletter were taken on St.Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
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