Edith Maxwell's Blog, page 242

Wicked Fun Resolutions — Did We Keep Them?

Last year we included something fun we wanted to do in 2015. Edith: I don’t know much about writing poetry, but I think it’s fun to try. I resolve to write a poem for each of my family member’s birthdays this year. And maybe for the Wickeds’ birthdays, too! Liz: I ordered P90X3 – so I’m going to complete the 90 days of the program (I worry about her concept of fun), Barb — I resolve to enjoy being in Maine more this summer. To take a trip to Monhegan and another to Bar Harbor and to spend some serious time at the Boothbay Harbor Historical Society (which will only partially be work), Julie: My goal is to keep up with a gratitude journal, Jessie: I want to learn some basics of Icelandic, and Sherry: I am going to learn to kayak this year.

So Wickeds did you keep your fun resolution or not? How about doing it differently this year?

Liz: Ha, funny you should mention workouts….No, I have to confess I didn’t. I slacked on my workouts in 2015. I certainly didn’t complete any one program, either. This year I’m going to take a different tactic – I’m going to resolve to move more, where it’s a walk on the green, a high impact Body Combat session, or Qi Gong. Putting all of those things together will be more balanced anyway, and will put less stress on myself.

Edith: Total fail! I don’t even remember writing that goal, that’s what a fail it was. Wait – only a ninety percent fail. This fall I wrote a seven-stanza limerick poem for Margaret Press, the mystery and true-crime writer (and past Al Blanchard Award winner) who has hosted my writers group for more than a decade. She’s retiring and moving to her native California to be closer to family. I read the poem aloud at our farewell dinner – “There once was a writer from Salem…” – and Margaret was delighted. This year? I resolve to write poetry only as the spirit moves me.

Margaret Press at far end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessie: Já,ég gerði. Which means, yes, I did make some progress on my Icelandic goal. I downloaded a couple of apps on my phone, began listening to some YouTube videos on basics and signed up for and started lessons using Mango. It’s really fun and I like the way it stretches my brain differently than the other sorts of activities I try.

Barb: Yes and no. I did enjoy Maine more this summer. I did make it to the Boothbay Historical Society, partly to research the book I’m writing now and partly to do some research on our old house. I didn’t make it to Bar Harbor, but I did get as far as Castine, which is the next peninsula over. I did several library talks in Maine over the summer and found it a delightful way to explore the state. Didn’t make it to Monhegan. This year!

Sherry: I did go kayaking thanks to my friend Mary! As soon as she saw my fun resolution she invited me to kayak at her lake house. I went last June and, although I didn’t go very far, I gave it a try. I have an open invitation to go back and one of these days (well, when it warms up) I’ll take her up on it!

Julie: Beware writing goals on a blog! While I did actively practice gratitude, I did not keep up with the journal. Will try again this year. I’m tempted to try something I saw on Facebook–write down every great thing that happened, and then read them all on New Year’s Eve. I suspect I’d lose track of that my March at the latest. Sigh.

Readers: Did you make any fun resolutions that you kept?

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Al Blanchard Award, Icelandic, kayaking, Mango Language Lessons, Margaret Press, resolutions

Past and Present

by Sheila Connolly

It’s the first Monday of a new year, so here’s my kick-off for the year.

While our daughter was home for Christmas, we watched the 2013 movie Inside Llewyn Davis. I remember reading reviews of it when it came out, but somehow we never think about going to movies, or even watching movies at home (and my husband has a tendency to fall asleep in his chair after the first hour or so anyway). Not that choosing a movie for three people with very different tastes is easy. I think we looked at everything that On Demand offered, and by the time we’d read all the titles, we couldn’t remember what had sounded good when we started.

Finally -we settled on Inside Llewyn Davis, directed by the Coen brothers. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s about a musician in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, back when the folk movement was just picking up steam. I lived in suburban New Jersey back then, so I’d hear about that scene occasionally, but I was too young to venture into New York on my own, at least until I turned 18. (Okay, I was too chicken to even try.) But I knew about it—among my school friends, it was always pronounced reverently: The Village.

Anyway, whether by design or by coincidence, the movie turned out to kind of mirror our daughter’s current gypsy lifestyle, if you substitute theater for music. I don’t know if she knew that when we chose it, but she didn’t disagree, and we all enjoyed the movie.

A week later, I was driving along Route 44 from Plymouth. Driving alone in the car is about the only time I get to listen to “old” music, and believe me, I sing along. I decided on Peter, Paul and Mary’s album, A Song Will Rise. (Confession: I have every album they ever made, bought new, up through  Peter, Paul and Mommy, and I’ve purchased several of the earlier ones on CD for the car. Yes, I still have a turntable so I can play the records.) The album was released in 1965. Yikes, that’s fifty years ago. Way to feel old fast!

One of the songs on that album is “Wasn’t That a Time,” and I’ve heard it a few thousand times. But this time one line stood out to me:

“There is no freedom in a land/Where fear and hate prevail.”

Okay, a brief history of the song: it was written by Lee Hayes and Walter Lowenfels, in 1948, at the height of the Cold War. Hayes and Pete Seeger were both members of the singing group The Weavers, and Seeger made it one of his signature songs. He and Hayes were both forced to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, as suspected Communists. The original lyrics for that stanza went:

“There is no victory in a land/Where free men go to jail.”

Someone changed the lyrics along the way—I have no idea who. But the point is that Peter, Paul and Mary chose to use a modified version, which they released in the midst of the Vietnam War.

Maybe they were thinking about Vietnam when they recorded that song, but their version still rings true today. Look at us now. People—ordinary citizens—are buying guns because they’re afraid that they’ll find terrorists at their door or their school or their mall. Large blocks of our population want to ban immigrants from our borders. I keep yelling at the debates and commercials I see on television, “but we were all immigrants once!” My grandfather came from Ireland in 1911. He arrived in New York, got a job, worked hard, married, bought a house, had kids, and lived a respectable life. Should I point out that there were plenty of “terrorists” in Ireland at that time? Should the authorities have turned him away?

Why should we, one of the most powerful and successful nations in the world, believe we are threatened in our homes? Or on a city street? (And why at the same time are towns and cities cutting police forces because they can’t afford to pay them, and the voters don’t want to see their taxes go up to cover the cost? But that’s another story.)

It makes me sad. It’s why I like to spend time in Ireland, particularly West Cork, where the crime rate is very low, and where even the police don’t carry guns (unlike in Northern Ireland). And I think it explains why we at Wicked Cozy Authors choose to write cozies. There are plenty of suspense and thriller writers who are very talented—and very successful. I admire them. But I find more and more I don’t want to read their books, even though I’m pretty sure the main character will live to fight another day—after leaving a trail of carnage behind. Who needs the anxiety and stress? Yes, there are deaths in cozies, but we write about ordinary people who seek and usually find justice. And cozies sell because our readers want to believe in small safe communities where people care about each other, and care about doing the right thing. I’d like to think such places do exist.

It should be an interesting year.

And now the pitch: A Turn for the Bad, the fourth book in the County Cork Mystery series, will be released February 2nd.  It’s about high-dollar (or euro) international smuggling (surprised?), but it’s also about people helping each other, at their own risk, because the people–friends and relatives–matter.

 

Filed under: County Cork Mysteries, cozies, Peter, Paul and Mary, Sheila's Posts, Uncategorized Tagged: sheila connolly

Happy New Year: Goals for 2016

Happy New Year!! As we ring in 2016, it’s time for the Wickeds to fess up to some writing goals for the new year!

Edith: My first goal is to thank all our lovely blog readers and commenters! We love having you pop in to share our world, our guests, and our celebrations, and hope you’ll keep coming around all year.

Now, for more mundane goals: Write Local Foods Mystery #5, Mulch Ado about Murder, due May 1. Finish polishing Country Store Mystery #3, When the Grits Hit the Fan, due March 1. Organize a big splash to release Delivering the Truth, Quaker Midwife Mystery #1, on April 8. Turn right around and celebrate the release of both Murder Most Fowl and Grilled for Murder on May 31. Write Quaker Midwife Mystery #3, and later do copyedits and proofs on #2, Breaking the Chain. Oh, and also write proposals, which will hopefully be accepted, for Local Foods numbers 6-8 and Country Store numbers 4-6. Fit in attending Malice Domestic, Bouchercon, and Crime Bake. And exercise. And a family vacation. And a summer garden. Yes, I’m already tired!

Liz: Echoing Edith in the thanking department! Also thanks to all our guest bloggers for jumping in and adding variety to our blog. We love you!

First up, I have to finish book 5 in the Pawsitively series, Custom-Baked Murder, by April 1. Then I’ll be deep in the editing process of Cat About Town book 1, as well as writing book 2. And of course, synopsis for book 6 in the Pawsitively series, and most of the writing on that. And I still have that other book I wanted to finish editing to start shopping around…

Going to work in a real vacation – a visit to Key West – in 2016, as well as the typical conferences. Plus the day job. Yikes.

Sherry: I want to write two really good books — book four (A Good Day to Buy) and book five (I Know What You Bid Last Summer) in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale series. I want to make each book better than the last. And I want to write two proposals for series that have been rolling around in my head.

Jessie: I will be revising the first book in my new Change of Fortune series and writing the next one. I also want to write one other book I have in mind. I need to develop a website for my new series and all the accompanying social media that supports it. And, of course, there will be blog posts here and at Killer Characters and Maine Crime Writers.

Julie: Writing/finishing Book #3 in the series (working title Chime and Punishment), and celebrating the release of Clock and Dagger in August. Like my friends, I will also spend some time noodling with some new ideas. I am also going to conferences–Sherry and I will be at Left Coast Crime, the Wickeds will be at Malice, Jessie, Sherry and I will be in LA this spring for a Sisters in Crime event, many of us will be at Bouchercon, and of course, there’s Crime Bake.

Barb: My year feels very front-end loaded. My Christmas novella Nogged Off is due to Kensington on January 15. Thankfully, it is mostly done. Just polishing left. Then, book 5 in the Maine Clambake series, Iced Under, is due April 15. On the personal side, my daughter Kate and fiance Luke will be married in The Wedding of the Century in Portland, Maine, in May. After that, I’ll be writing Maine Clambake #6, but honestly that feels very far away.

Readers? Happy New Year! From all of us to all of you, may your reading and writing year be a wonderful adventure in 2016. Now, tell us your goals, small and large, long-range and immediate!

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Change of Fortune Mysteries, Killer Characters, Maine Crime Writers, new year's goals, writing goals

Happy New Year: How Would Your Protagonist Celebrate?

Tell us, Wickeds, how would the protagonist of your series celebrate New Year’s Eve? Do any of your books take place on New Year’s Eve?

Edith: After Grilled for Murder (Country Store Mystery #2) takes place, Robbie Jordan goes to Pisa, Italy over New Year’s to visit her new-found father, Roberto. There they celebrate abundance on New Year’s Eve with a rich meal of risotto, lentils, and pork sausage. They throw old pans out the window, and everybody wears red underwear (under their clothes). And of course there are fireworks!  I haven’t set any books on New Year’s Eve – yet.

Liz: In the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, one of Stan Connor’s favorite places to hang out is at her boyfriend Jake’s Irish pub, McSwigg’s. I’m betting there’ll be a big bash there on New Year’s Eve! I’d like to go, myself.

Jessie: My protagonist, Dani, would likely celebrate with her extended family, gathered round a bonfire in the back pasture sipping hot mulled cider and roasting marshmallows.

Sherry: Until her divorce Sarah spent New Years Eve at parties at the Officers Club. They were big parties, with bands, dancing, and breakfast buffets in the wee hours. Now she’d more likely attend a smaller party with a group of close friends.

Barb: Julia Snowden is now running a restaurant with her boyfriend, Chris. I think they would be open New Year’s Eve to provide a gathering spot for the year-round residents of Busman’s Harbor. Then, after closing, she’d open a beer with Chris, her sister Livvie, and Livvie’s husband Sonny, and they’d toast the New Year. It would be quite a contrast to the parties Julia attended when she lived in Manhattan, but I think she would be content.

Julie: Clock and Dagger (next book) ends on New Year’s Eve, so I know how Ruth will spend it–in the Cog & Sprocket, with her friends and family, murders solved. Can’t tell you much more than that for now, but I do know that Ruth’s journey has been to rediscover her roots, and her family. Moving back to Orchard, and discovering what makes her happy is part of that journey as well.

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Barbara Ross, Dani Greene, Edith Maxwell, Grilled for Murder, Jessie Crockett, Julianne Holmes, Just Killing Time, Liz Mugavero, mulled cider, New Year, Pisa, roasting marshmallows, Sherry Harris

Wicked Wednesday: Who is Your Favorite Celebrity Chef?

We are celebrating the release of Murder Most Finicky today. The wicked question of the week, in keeping with the theme of the book: Who is your favorite celebrity chef? The cooking show you like to watch?

Liz: I’m probably going to be the worst at answering this question because I don’t watch cooking shows! I’m going to go with Kris Carr. She’s not a traditional celebrity chef, but her Crazy Sexy food revolution is helping people use food as their pharmacy. Via her blog and cookbooks (Crazy Sexy Diet, Crazy Sexy Kitchen, Crazy Sexy Juice), Kris offers tips on how to eat way better without sacrificing enjoyment. Her recipes are yummy, vegan, and offer gluten- and dairy-free options.

Jessie: I don’t watch cooking shows either. I do love to watch Anthoy Bourdain travel the world and experience other cultures through food. Does that count?

Julie: Jessie, we’ll let him count. I have three favorites. #1, of course, Julia Child. #2 Martha Stewart. #3 Emeril Lagasse.

Edith: Ha. I don’t watch cooking shows, either. So Julia Child gets my vote. And does anybody remember Graham Kerr, the handsome Galloping Gourmet? I watched him in high school. I was so impressed that he would pour some wine into his cooking, and then some into his glass (my parents did not drink) and drink it right there on air. Now I AM him. (Look, I found a picture of Julia Child and Graham Kerr together!) And congratulations, Liz!

Sherry: It’s ironic that I’m probably the worst cook of us all and yet I love to watch cooking shows. One of my favorites is Chopped on the Food Network. I love the judges on the show but have a new favorite, Chris Santos. There was a recent episode with military vets, one of them (the first runner up) was having a particularly hard time in life. Chris said he was opening a new restaurant and offered him a job adding that he didn’t do it lightly and thought the vet was a great cook. It touched my heart because I’ve never seen a judge do that before.

Barb: I have to go with Tom Colicchio and Top Chef. It was eleven years ago that I spent a snowy Saturday wrapping Christmas presents and watching a marathon of the first season of Project Runway. I had never watched reality TV before, not even American Idol or Survivor, but Project Runway spoke to me. I’m not into fashion, but I loved watching creative people solve problems to compete in interesting challenges. When I learned the same production team was doing Top Chef, I had no interest. “If you can’t smell it or taste it, what’s the point?” I said to my husband. But nonetheless, around the second season, they got me. I have to say I’ve learned a lot about cooking and a lot about food from Top Chef.

Readers: Cooking shows or no? Who’s your favorite TV chef?

 

Filed under: Book Birthday, Wicked Wednesday Tagged: Anthony Bourdain, Chopped, Chris Santos, Crazy Sexy Diet, Food Network, Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr, Julia Child, Kris Carr, Murder Most Finicky, No Reservations

Cooking, Italian Style

By Liz, hoping the first winter storm warning of this season is a joke.

Happy last Tuesday of the year, Wicked Cozy friends! There’s a lot to celebrate today too – it’s launch day for Murder Most Finicky! What a fun way to ring in the new year, right?

I had a ton of fun writing this book, which takes Stan out of her new Frog Ledge comfort zone and plops her in the middle of a bunch of crazy celebrity chefs–one of whom is, naturally, murdered. I had a blast with Sheldon Allyn, the head of this nutty pack, and the chefs he’s tapped along the way to help build his empire. These guys range from the quintessential Italian who loves her cannoli (and I can say that, as an Italian) to the brooding, troubled hunk, to the up and coming vegan chef. They’re all a little absurd, but a lot of fun. I hope you like hanging out with them for a few hundred pages.

But back to cooking. Most of you who read the blog or have heard me talk know that I’m a little bit of a fraud when it comes to the cooking thing. As in, I barely cook. Don’t get me wrong – I do sometimes, and I’m perfectly capable of following a good recipe. But I usually don’t have much time or patience for it. As a kid growing up in the aforementioned Italian home, cooking was EVERYTHING. My mother was not a gourmet chef, but she made all her food, including sausage from scratch. That was a sight to behold, when she and my grandmother set up the ancient sausage making machine at my grandmother’s big table in her basement and cranked out pounds of the stuff. I remember watching in (slightly disgusted) fascination as my mother fastened the casings onto the end of the machine and fed the meat inside while my grandmother cranked the handle. No wonder I don’t eat meat today.

On a happier note, my family made tons of Italian cookies. Pizelles, anginetti (Italian lemon drop cookies), Italian Christmas cookies, the wandies with all that yummy powdered sugar. Wandie making was a huge deal too. My mother, grandmother and a couple of great-aunts would gather around that same huge table in my grandmother’s basement (on a different day than sausage day) and make wandies. I don’t really remember what went into it, but I remember it was a huge project. Lots of time, dough and confectioner’s sugar. They weren’t my favorite, but the tradition of them always seemed special. Me, I preferred the fudge.

The one thing I did manage to take from my Italian upbringing was a talent for tomato sauce. This is one where I don’t even need a recipe – and it’s different every time. The past two summers, we’ve had a farm share at a lovely local farm. The tomatoes were perfect for sauce making, and there were so many of them that I’ve got frozen containers of it for the long winter days. Even though nowadays I eat gluten-free pasta, that sauce still brings back a lot of memories. My mother would bottle all her tomatoes and have sauce at the ready all the time. Back then, we followed the Italian meal plan: Pasta on Wednesdays and pasta for Sunday dinner. My father and I used to argue over the type of pasta we ate, especially on Sundays. He preferred ziti, while I was a rotini girl. I still have a fondness for those spiral-shaped pastas today.

So even though I’m not the best cook you’ll ever find, I have enough happy food-related memories to get me to the stove every now and then. I even got new cookbooks for Christmas. Not exactly Italian food, but yummy just the same. And a chance to make new foodie-related memories.

Readers, what are you favorite memories of food?

Filed under: Liz's posts Tagged: cookies, cooking, gluten free, Italian food, Murder Most Finicky, Pizelles, sausage, wandies

Taking a Breather

Edith here, post Christmas, in between books, still north of Boston.

In between books? Is she ever in between books, you ask?

Preston knows how to take a breather – under the Christmas tree.

Well, yeah, sort of. On Friday I’ll start writing a new book (Local Foods #5, Mulch Ado about Murder). After I finished one round of polishing of the March 1 book on December 16 and sent it along for our very able Sherry Harris to edit, I realized I could take a little break. Shouldn’t we all take a breather now and then, especially at this time of year?

Me and Allan

Sure, I have blog posts to do, and a couple of proposals to get ready, and a launch to gear up for. Those can wait. One of my sons has been here for more than a week, always a treat. I’ve also spent time with my young friends and with older friends, and will have a whole day with Master J (age 6) on Wednesday.

What a delight it’s been to not anchor myself to 1500 words per day, reading through a manuscript on paper for two or three days straight, or doing multiple editing passes. I really do treat this fiction-writing thing as a job, and a job means working every day but Sunday. So I guess I’m taking a staycation!

I’ve seen movies, baked, played Scrabble,  socialized, gone on a beer tour (fun!), taken

Wine glass coasters made from West African cloth

endless walks both alone and with others. And sewed. I love sewing. I learned it from my mom, and really enjoyed spending a couple of days creating these cute (and complicated) wine glass coasters for several friends as Christmas gifts.

But mostly I’ve been reading! I have SO many books I wanted to catch up on, and it’s the holidays, after all. Here’s my list since December 16 (and I still have four days left…):

An Interpretation of Murder by BK Stevens. The first mystery I’ve read with a sign language interpreter protagonist, and a great read.
To Brew or Not to Brew from Joyce Tremel – who was our guest right here recently. I loved this Brewing Trouble mystery – and boy, did I think of her on my brewery tour yesterday.
Guilty as Cinnamon by Leslie Budewitz (who has also guested with us), the second and very delicious Spice Shop Mystery.
Ho-Ho-Homicide. I’m finally getting to Kaitlyn Dunnett’s Liss MacCrimmon series and am glad I did – I really liked Liss and her adventures. Kaitlyn, aka Kathy Lynn Emerson, is another Wicked friend.
The Gerbil Farmer’s Daughter, my author pal Holly Robinson’s memoir, to which I was very tardy getting to. I knew I would love it, and I did.
Princess Elizabeth’s Spy from Susan Elia MacNeal. I’m slowly getting through her Maggie Hope mysteries, which all take place in England during World War II. This is the second I’ve read and I can’t wait to finish the series to date.
I read an ARC of Wendy Tyson’s A Muddied Murder, which was right down my alley, since it’s a Certified Organic Greenhouse mystery. Nice job, Wendy – I’ve already sent in my endorsement.
Murder at Beechwood from Alyssa Maxwell, another intriguing Gilded Newport Mystery. And she has a new early-1900s series coming out, too!
And of course, Murder Most Finicky will be out tomorrow from Wicked Cozy Liz Mugavero, so I’ll be sure to finish that by the end of 2015, too

It’s a real breather for me to immerse myself in my author friends’ book – and yes, I know all these authors personally. I suppose I could read books by people I don’t know – but the To-Be-Read pile by people I DO know never gets down to zero!

Readers: How do you take a breather, recharge, regroup? Are reading binges part of it?

Filed under: Edith's posts Tagged: Alyssa Maxwell, BK Stevens, holly robinson, Joyce Tremel, Kaitlyn Dunnet, Leslie Budewitz, Murder Most Finicky, Susan Elia MacNeal, Wendy Tyson

Holiday Wishes for Our Readers!

Filed under: Group posts Tagged: Barbara Ross, Edith Maxwell, Holiday Wishes, J.A. Hennrikus, Jessie Crockett, Julianne Holmes, Liz Mugavero, Maddie Day, Sherry Harris

Opening Lines

Add your opening line for this photograph:

Liz: From my vantage point on the balcony I watched, hoping to catch a glimpse of her in the Christmas melee below. I had a clean shot from up here and didn’t want to waste it.

Edith: Christmas, Shristmas. Wait’ll that fake cone-shaped tree pops. The explosion is gonna send everybody divin’ for the deck. They’ll be fishin’ for them hundred dollars bills as soon’s they look up, though. Hey, I’m not the Grinch. They don’t call me Old Saint Nick for nothin’.

Jessie: It used to be easier to arrive unseen every Christmas Eve. But ever since they invented the electric light crowds gather around my sleigh at least five times each night.

Sherry: His first mistake was wearing the khaki pants. They almost glowed in the dark. But that wasn’t really his first mistake, going after my family was.  Hopefully, with luck on my side, it would be his last.

Julie: “Wanna build a snowman” he said. Actually, he sung it to me every time I walked past him in the mall. Buddy, I get that dressing up like a snowman sucks, but really. Really? I’m old enough to be your mother. Listen, I told him to stop, but did he listen? No. But honestly, I have no idea how the surf board display fell on top of him. Surely, you don’t think I have enough brute force to make that happen, do you?

Barb: Busy as I was, I spied the surfboards below as I flew off in my sleigh. “One more day, and you’re on vacation,” I told myself. “Sun, sand, surf, here I come!” Just the pick-me-up I needed to get through the rest of the night.

Readers, give us your opening lines.

Filed under: Opening Lines Tagged: Christmas, khaki pants, Old saint nick

Wicked Wednesday: Best Gift of Advice in 2015

Wickeds, we are closing in on the new year. For some of us, Christmas is two days away. So tell me, what is the best advice you got in 2015? How was that advice a gift? What did you learn that you can pass on?

Edith: My fifth and sixth novels were published in 2015. This stuns and delights me, and is still a little hard to believe. Advice is often given to debut novelists, like, ahem, the AWESOME Julianne Holmes (aka our own Wicked Julie Hennrikus), to enjoy the ride. I think this is still one of the best admonitions, despite nobody actually saying  it to me in 2015. Even when it’s our second or sixth or sixteenth published book, it’s important to celebrate. To toast with a glass of bubbly, to do a dance, to order a cake. To walk out of your house and yell, “Whoopee!” Don’t ever stop celebrating. And you know, everybody has something to celebrate.

Liz: Some words I’ve been trying to live by: Everything will happen exactly as it’s supposed to. I try to focus on this if I start getting ahead of myself, like thinking I should have published a certain amount of books by now, or be at a different place in my life. I have a laminated card in my office with a slightly different take: Whether or not it is clear to you, the Universe is unfolding as it should. Good reminder for all.

Jessie:  The best advice I received was to start a gratitude journal. I think of myself as a person who is generally appreciative but makign a habit, every Sunday morning, to sit at my desk and to write down those things in the past week for which I feel grateful has made a real difference in what I focus my attention upon. I feel uplifted on Sunday mornings and I can remind myself by just thumbing through of all the wonders, large and small, my life affords.

Julie: As Edith said, the advice to enjoy every minute was well taken. Also, to stop and celebrate each milestone. Too often goals are met (like finishing a draft, or getting copy edits in), but we just blow past them and set the next goal. Now, I am trying to take every milestone, and celebrate it.

Sherry: My daughter gave me my best writing advice this year. I was upset about a review that wasn’t very nice and she said (paraphrasing someone) “You can be the sweetest juiciest peach in the whole world and there’s still going to be someone who hates peaches.” It’s why I know can occasionally be seen chanting “not everyone likes peaches.” It’s so true and applies to all of us. Then she painted the saying for me and I keep it in my office.

Barb: The best advice I got this year was during Julie Hennrikus’s interview with Elizabeth George at Crime Bake. George said something like, “Always move in ways that open up the story.” This struck me as good advice not just for writing but for life, especially as we get older.

What do you say, readers? Good advice or bad? What’s the best advice you got this year?

Filed under: Wicked Wednesday Tagged: book release, celebration, gratitude journal, peaches