Letters to the Moon....

Hello everyone, I thought I would share another piece with you, in the “things you did not know about me” vein. Today’s piece is called “Tools of the Trade.” Would you scrape ice off your windshield using a loofa sponge? Would you play a piano concerto on a kazoo? Would you perform surgery with a pair of fingernail clippers? Would you climb Mount Everest with only a rubber band to support you on your climb? No, of course not. You would use the right tool for the right task. As I am a writer, my tools are pen and paper, and occasionally a computer keyboard. I have forever loved writing pens and stationery. I love a good quality pen with good quality ink writing on good quality paper. If you watch a good pen go with good ink across a good piece of paper, you can see the ink soak into the paper. It’s almost like watching an ice skater gliding across the ice, achieving the perfect line with the blades on her skates. https://solo50.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/pluma-fuente.jpg ...

It is such a daunting and stressful task, to sort through every little thing you own, to decide if you are going to keep it, or should donate it to charity, or throw it away. You might be asking yourself, “Why would any sane person do such a thing?” For one simple reason- I am moving. I have lived in my home for fourteen years now. I still love my home, but there are things I want in a new home that I do not currently have. For example, my complex has curbside parking. A home with a garage would be lovely. Every winter when digging my car out from an eight inch (or more) snowfall, I bemoan my fate and dream of having a house with a garage. My realtor came to inspect my home, and found it to be in wonderful shape. He gave me a great piece of advice, which  I would like to pass along now: Consider donating things you do not want to move to charity. For those items you want to keep, box up the things you do not use every day. That way, when you are ready to move, you wi...

Today is a monumental day in the history of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States voted that marriage should be afforded to every American, homosexual and heterosexual. As an ally and a believer in equality for all I hoped this day would come. I was skeptical about the court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, yet I remained hopeful. Last night I watched a documentary for the right to marry in California. The program also highlighted the first ever court case for same sex marriage, filed by Richard John Jack Baker and James Michael McConnell in 1970. The case, Baker vs Nelson, went to the Supreme Court in 1972. http://www.marriageequality.org/jack_mike_our_pioneers My introduction to the cause for marriage equality was when Proposition 8 was being voted in California. The case eventually went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2013 the court ruled that the state of California could not deny the right to marriage to any of its...

Have you ever been to an event where you felt a part of a community? Have you ever been part of an event that promoted tolerance, love, acceptance and equality? I had the opportunity to be at such an event, last week in fact.   I marched in the Indianapolis Pride parade. If you have never been to a Pride event, it is an event which celebrates diversity, inclusion, tolerance and acceptance with the LGBTQ community and their allies. The acronym LGBTQ stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning. The word ally refers to a person, often times not in the LGBTQ community, who believes in equal rights for all, in marriage, employment, and in the eyes of the law. . I had the honor of initiating my status as an ally last year by marching in my first Pride parade event. It was a magical day.  I wrote about the event last year: Pride To be truthful, I had never been to a Pride event before being involved in last year's parade. It had such an eff...

Hello everyone, I hope you have been well. I thought I would try a new topic on this blog, which I will contribute to periodically, in addition to my other musings here. I thought I would write about myself, share things not a lot of people know about me. Today’s writing is called “Fashion and Function.” Not many people know this about me; however, some friends and family members will know what I am about to share.  I am a collector of things. I collect movies on DVD and Blu Ray. I collect music, in CD and digital formats. I collect books.  I also collect watches. Wristwatches, as they are properly known, have always served as a fascination for me. I see a watch not only as a time piece but as a fashion piece, a method self-expression, a reflection of the person wearing the watch. That is certainly the fashion statement I prefer. I will never be wearing particularly fashionable shoes. But you can bet I will be wearing a beautiful watch. . I find many things a...

What a whirlwind the last month has been. I never thought publishing a book would change my life. Well, let me clarify that thought-I never thought how publishing a book would change my life. My life will never be the same. The world will never be the same. Of course, my day to day life has not changed. I still get up in the morning, feed the cats, go to work, come home, feed the cats, watch some television or a movie, and go to bed. I have not quit my day job. I have not purchased my home overlooking the ocean in Malibu just yet. Nothing has changed in my daily life. Yet I am changed forever. It is a true sense of accomplishment to reach your goal, to make your dream come true. There is nothing that compares to that feeling. The only time I have felt anything similar was when I graduated college. My mother told me,                   “You earned this. No one can take this away from you.” That is exactly how I feel about publ...

Dreams are a wonderful thing. They do not always come true. Yet, sometimes, they do. As I began to write poetry and share it with the world, I had the dream of becoming a published author. I did not know how to begin, or what steps to take. Thankfully I had a conversation with a patron in my local library, a patron who is a writer and self-published author. He told me that yes it is possible, and that he in fact had done it.  That gave me the inspiration to publish my writing. While I had the desire to be a published author, I did not know how to get started. I had heard stories of writers sending samples of their work to publishing companies, only to be continually rejected. That prospect did not appeal to me.  I continued to do research, to weigh the pros and cons of each option, to self-publish or not. I found that, when signing with a publishing company, the company would take 20% or more of the profit off the top. Stores and distribution outlets would take anot...