I AM BACK!
Hello,
Yes, I am back! I am so excited to catch up on what has been going on. It’s been a very busy past couple of years. Lots of life changes.
The biggest change is the novel I have been working on for 25 years is finally completed!!!!! On my side anyways. So many roads traveled to get to this point. This process was amazing and brought so much joy to my soul writing it, sharing ideas and feedback with others, and working with a very successful author Wade Rouse: pen name Viola Shipman. Even during the many times I wanted to bang my head against the wall during all of the rewrites, I never once gave up not getting the book completed. I sometimes wonder if it took so long because I didn’t want the process to end. No matter how many times I did the rewrites, it never got old reliving the stories. It was like I was right back there experiencing the best time of my life. Thank you to all of you – you know how you are – who have had to listen to me talking about this book for so many years and are still my friends. Hopefully one day soon we will be walking down the red carpet for the movie premiere. If you’re going to dream, dream big. I see this novel as a future movie. The is the end game for this book.
Now I am on a hunt to find an agent to get the book published. So on to chapter two of the writing a novel process.
The children’s book The Sun Jumped Over the Moon keeps on, keeping on. It is still being very well received. I have been busy doing onsite readings at schools and private birthday parties throughout the counties of Broward, FL, Chatham SC, Midland, MI, Saginaw, MI and Bay County MI. What a joy to get the message of this book out to the children. Will do another blog on those adventures at a later date.
The job I loved started to become a job I was hating!!! We never recovered fully from the COVID era,so I decided to retire. You’re never too old to make a change when life is constantly not happy and no matter what you do to make changes, nothing changes for the better. To me, that is a neon sign to get out.Best decision ever!!!!!! I am having so much fun with retirement. There is not enough hours in the day for all of the fun things that keep coming into my world. I will be sharing some of those stories at a later date.
I lived in Pompano Beach, Florida for 20 years. I LOVED it there. I have the greatest friends, the sun shines every day, I loved my little condo on the golf course, and there was always something to do. Lots of changes happened to the area over those 20 years. The population has exploded – the biggest generation this country has ever seen is now getting into retirement and I swear they are all moving to Florida. I lived four miles from the beach and it would take an hour to get there on most days. Cost of living is high and crime was becoming an issue. I bought a new car the day before COVID shut down and I had 3 hit and run accidents that first year I had the car – some one hitting me and running not me hitting anyone and running.
So, I moved back to my hometown of Michigan in the month of October. Ok, that was not the smartest time of the year to move to the great white north, but that is how it worked out. At least the fall colors of the trees were still in full brilliant display easing me into what was to come for the next season. The first winter was mild they told me. As I was living in long johns, hats, scarfs, fur lined boots, heavy socks, (God Bless my Florida friends for sending me 20 pairs of heavy, soft fuzzy socks. You were all life savers for me- I can’t stand cold feet) a fully lined winter coat and big woolly mittens, people were actually out and about in shorts with boots wearing a light winter coat. No gloves or mittens, no hats. This is my third winter here and I still dress as mentioned above and am still freezing. However, the average temp this year is in the teens, so I am not seeing too many short clad people these days. I do love the four seasons. The winters are so beautiful. I live in the woods so I see the beauty of the snow in the trees almost daily. I have so many critters roaming around in my small back yard. In the mornings there are various footprints in the snow of animals all over my back yard. I am learning to figure out what footprints belong to what animals. I forgot how kind, nice, fun, polite, friendly and honest Michiganders are. It is a blessing to reconnect on a regular basis with family, friends and meeting new people.
I am at peace.
Kathy