So, here we are. Christmas Eve and I’m wondering what my greatest accomplishment of the year was. I have to say, it was making it through 2020, alive and well.
Who would have ever imagined last year at this time that we would have had the year we have? I know many, many people have had it worse. Have suffered worse and are still suffering, either from losing a loved one, losing the joy of a good education in classes with friends and an actual teacher, losing the sense of worth that comes from a job well-done, losing their life’s work altogether. Jack and I have had our ups and downs this year, our scares and relief. But we’ve come through the year unscathed, pretty much. For that, I feel blessed.
I pray for all of us and for our country, that we can all feel 
blessed and that we come together to face the New Year stronger and united.
What was your greatest accomplishment of the year?
Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.
Burning Bridges by Anne Krist–Gold Medal winner, Best Romance 2020, Coffee Pot Book Club
One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers
What’s the bravest thing you’ve ever done?
called brave is trucking. I gave up every material thing I had and a very good job that wasn’t easy to get, in order to go on the road. And I was scared of failing—what would we do if I hated it or driving a tractor-trailer didn’t work out? But my fear was mitigated by 1) a wise woman reassuring me that our parents wouldn’t let us starve on the streets if we didn’t make it as truckers, and b) I wasn’t alone—I had hubby with me. Add to it, I was too young and stupid to be afraid, so does that count? I don’t know. Can’t help it, though, it’s as close as I can come.
This week, the topic is what is the most important aspect of a romantic relationship. Like anything, there are all kinds of important things to consider in a relationship—trust, compatibility, respect. But I like humor. Not that relationships are all that funny all the time, but being able to laugh at yourself and with your partner will sure make the good times better and the hard times easier.
give yourself time to breathe so you don’t say or do that thing in any time you wouldn’t want to say or do.
What’s the most important thing in a romantic relationship?
couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary at an aged care home surrounded by family and friends. These two nonagenarians sat side by side holding hands while cards and gifts and messages from the prime minister and the Queen were given to them. Would anyone be able to live together and still hold hands after 70 years without respect and affection?
There actually isn’t too much I would like to have for Christmas. Most everything I’d like to have, we have. We don’t live too high, but with just the two of us and very small extended families, we generally buy what we want when we want it. I know I’m blessed, and I try to be appropriately grateful. However… I do wish we could afford some household help. As a housekeeper I make a great trombone player. I was raised by a mom who loved to read, and she told me that dust bunnies can always wait until after the next chapter…and the next. I learned the lesson well. But now, I’m physically unable to care for things as I should. It would be nice to have someone come in every two weeks or so and just do the things very hard for me to do without pain—like vacuuming/scrubbing floors or cleaning the bathrooms.
know things will get done eventually by me. I’m my own little elf! 😉
This year I made a big, fat boo-boo. I had in mind to fix a ham for dinner. Ham is something we rarely have, so it sounded appealing—a treat in this year that has been no treat. So I bought a ham. Jack, at nearly the same time, said that a local grocery had turkey thighs and breasts on sale. Since he doesn’t like white meat and I don’t care for dark, and there are only two of us, so we didn’t need a whole bird, that seemed like a great solution. Without conscious thought, we ended up with both turkey and ham for Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about a plethora of goodness! We’ll have a little of each for dinner and then I will cut and package the rest to use in leftovers or to freeze.
ham and mac & cheese, and of course sandwiches. But with the turkey I’ll make turkey pot pie. Here’s my recipe, give or take. I kinda make it up as I go along but this is a reasonable facsimile. I make two—one with white meat and one with dark. I know, I know. I spoil the man but what can I say? I love him.
The question this week is whether characters are more fun as idealists or pragmatists. You know, do you prefer to write (or read) those characters who always strive for the vision and tilt at windmills, perhaps, or characters who see tings as they really are—and who maybe take advantage of that realism, as J.R. did. I think the answer is, too much of anything can be, well, too much.
dream a little bit are necessary. In my newly (re)published erotic romance The Cinderella Curse, heroine Charlotte dreams of meeting and capturing her Prince Charming, the head of her publishing firm. He’s somewhat out of her league in that he’s rich, influential, and worldly. And she’s…not. But still, she sees her goal and simply won’t accept that she can’t have him. We all know what happened to Cinderella when she made her wish and then made it to the ball: Katy bar the door!
Would I have enjoyed these two if I had written them too strongly in one direction or another? No. Charlotte had to have some common sense and Cooper some flexibility in order for them to be fun and realistic. A good book is composed of characters of both stripes. That can create good conflict and fun reading, no matter which type of character you tend towards.
Someone asked me a while back if my book, Burning Bridges, was romance or women’s lit? She said the description sounded like women’s lit, and she doesn’t review that genre. Gosh, this was something I hadn’t considered before. I thought of my book as romance. I think of women’s lit as centered around a woman and how she solves her life problems, but with elements of romance. In fact, so many books I read as “women’s lit” were actually (in my mind) romances. The woman’s problem was so often being alone (after a long-term breakup or a failed marriage) and finding a new partner while solving her problems. I fail to see how that is different from most romances.
there is very little romance or bonding with someone else? Is that women’s lit? 
While I know that eating healthy is best for all of us, and it’s darn hard to eat healthy and not cook the food yourself, I still like food that someone else cooks, serves up, and lets me eat at home without all the hubbub of preparation and clean-up. Plus, timing is always right. There’s no having the potatoes done at one time and the meat done at another. If necessary, I can stick the carry out container in to be zapped and have everything hot and ready at once.
restaurant, and their chicken parmesan is fantastic! For that dish alone, I’d have to say that’s our favorite and most used takeaway restaurant. When things were locked down pretty tightly, we could call in our order and they would bring it out to the car. Yummy!
No, I’m all for comfort now and looking back, I must have been dull and boring because I was a middle of the road person with fashion. Let’s face it, hemlines and hair are the best barometers of social change and the sixties was dramatic. Women were demanding equal rights and hippies were demanding peace and love. Mary Quant, Twiggy, Marianne Faithful and Nancy Sinatra cast aside the prim fifties and the impact was huge. The model Jean Shrimpton sent shockwaves through conservative Melbourne when she wore a mini skirt to the prestigious Melbourne Cup Racing Carnival. Even worse, the outraged matrons huffed, her legs were bare! It didn’t take long for hems to rise and it didn’t matter if we were A-shape or pear shape, miniskirts and boots, black eyeliner and teased hair were in. When the four mop tops from Liverpool hit the music waves, the older generations threw up their hands. Not only were skirts growing shorter, hair teased higher, young men were growing their hair longer!
disco! We were letting it all hang out and the winds of change were not welcome in some Australian boys’ colleges. The threats of detention or expulsion if students refused to cut their hair were met with walls of resistance. Fashion was more important. After dark mutterings on this out of control generation, the schools gave in with dire warnings – keep the hair off your face!