Ubiquitious Winter Letter

Kennewick WA 99337

21 December 2009

Ubiquitous Winter Letter, 2009

Yikes! This is the last year in the first decade in the new millennium – where has time gone? For starters, in this house at least, it has gone into writing and quilting and traveling, and some photography.

I sold my first novel, My Adventures as Brother Rat, to Sam’s Dot Publishing. I’ve also sold some short stories and a couple of poems. I’ve finished two novella’s, which are at Sam’s Dot for consideration, and two novels, which are in the fine-grit polishing stage and for which I hope to find an agent. (Warning! Blatant Commercial follows: For a signed copy of Brother Rat, contact me at lenoragood@charter.net. If you don’t care if it’s signed, order from http://www.genremall.com/fictionr.htm#brotherrat $10.00 for the book, $4.00 s/h)

In February I bought a Subaru Forester and named her Suvie Star Car. In honor of the occasion, my friend Kay, and I realized a long held dream and did a “Drive About” of the country. Three months and 11,500 miles later we got home. The truly amazing thing is we were laughing when we left, and laughing when we got home!

To read about our adventures, and see some of the photos, please go to my blog (archives) at: http://roadtripsandmore.blogspot.com/ Start with March. (You can read February if you want;-) Feel free to drop by the blog any time to get an idea of what’s going on in this house.

Took time out in Nov for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and started another novel, valiantly fought (and won!) a mild case of the flu, and attended Orycon, the Oregon Science Fiction Convention, where I sat on a few panels and schlepped Brother Rat. The highlight of the Con was meeting up with old friends – both writers and Scotty, a guy I used to work with at The Boeing Company in a galaxy and time far, far away from the here and now.

While in Portland I spent a few days with an old and dear friend, Martha, her son Mark, and his son, Eric. In 1960 when I babysat her kids, I taught her baby boy, Mark, how to swim. I’m happy to say, he’s all grown up now, and so is his son. (No matter how I phrase it, it comes out sounding like Martha is OLD, she isn’t. By the calendar, she’s got a few years on me, but I’ve met very few folks as young as she is! It’s just that we’ve been friends for 50 years!)

In the meantime, I’ve decided I’d rather spend a few weeks quilting than writing. This gives me a chance to catch up on some reading of fiction. Two fiction books I highly recommend: Space Magic by David D. Levine and Filter House by Nisi Shawl. Both books are collections of short stories. For memoir and humor, I don’t think you could find more entertaining stories than those found in Fat Girls and Lawn Chairs and Revenge of the Paste Eaters, both by Cheryl Peck.

All in this house are good and hope this letter finds you and yours likewise!

Hoar frost in winter

Flowers in summer

Love all year round

Happiest of Holidays and Bestest of New Years!

Love,

Lenora