Catching Up, Moving Forward

The past few months have been as filled with writerly activities as this year's autumn has been filled with glorious colors. I participated in several author events and taught workshops at two writing contests. I traveled several hundred miles around western and central Pennsylvania, meeting people in Pittsburgh, Bedford, New Wilmington, Volant, and Hermitage. In mid-October I made a weekend trip to Erie to teach two workshops at a conference and before going home I drove around the Presque Isle. Fall foliage was beautiful and the sun was shining for the first time in many days. The next couple of weeks are a bit of a blur since I spent them mostly coughing and sleeping. It was a price I was willing to pay for stopping a few minutes to visit my three-year old granddaughter who had "whatever was going around" and shared it with me. After the non-stop schedule I've had since May, it was a rest that I needed more than I realized. I'm happy to announce that my poetry book Raw & Unfinished was given an award at The Author Zone Book Awards. I was on the panel that evening and it was nice to add a third book award. A few days ago I learned that one of my new poems, "Amish Autumn" will soon

be published. I'll share a link when that happens. What's next? More rest? No. Next up, packing my bags for a trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for my daughter's graduation from the university there for her master's degree. Of COURSE while we are there, I'll be exploring as many important writer places as I can. There are many, quite possibly more than any other one place in the world. I'm excited for the trip for both the writing connections and of course the graduation! After that I will catch up on editing work and compiling a new anthology dedicated to celebrating the positive things in life. The working title is: CELEBRATE.

Which reminds me of another thing that will be keeping me very busy. In early spring, my family will be growing. One daughter is giving me a 5th grandchild. She has a boy and a girl and my son has a girl and a boy. A couple of months later my other daughter (the one graduating) will be getting married. Later in the year my husband and I will have our 40th anniversary. There will be many reasons to CELEBRATE in 2019.