Welcome 2011!  It is a beautiful, clear day in Seattle, what a perfect way to start the new year!

"Life has got to be lived — that’s all there is to it."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Auld Lang Syne

  Well, it is my last blog post of 2010.  For me 2010 will always be the year that I began to take my writing seriously and I joined the blogosphere.  Let's raise a glass and toast the year that was, and the one that lies ahead.  Here's to a happiest new year and the possiblities it holds!

A few resolutions for 2011, in no particular order:



Write more

Blog more

Attend an SCBWI conference

Continue to build, grow and nuture relationships within my writing community

Be a more attentive, affectionate and giving girlfriend

Write something I truly love and am proud of

Lose the self-doubt, worry, anxiety

Be more open. Less afraid

Be a better friend

Read more

Do something that inspires & challenges, everyday if possible

Believe in the possibility of publication, and do everything I can to get there!

CHEERS

On the Twelfth day of Christmas Francis P. Church wrote to me:

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies...
Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

~ Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus

 

"And God bless us, everyone!"

~ Tiny Tim, A Christmas Carol 

Merry, merry Christmas 

On the Eleventh day of Christmas Santa said to me:

"This bell is a wonderful symbol of the spirit of Christmas - as am I. Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart."

~ The Polar Express

On the Tenth day of Christmas Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) sang to me:

"If you're worried and you can't sleep,

just count your blessings instead of sheep

and you'll fall asleep counting your blessings..."

~ White Christmas

On the Ninth day of Christmas Linus said to me:

"I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It's not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love."

~ A Charlie Brown Christmas

 

On the Eighth day of Christmas Kris Kringle said to me:

"Oh, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind... and that's what's been changing. That's why I'm glad I'm here, maybe I can do something about it."

~ Miracle on 34th Street