Giving Thanks

We have the turkey.  Both of my grandsons, my sisters, and cousin are coming to our house to celebrate.  It’s a pretty low-key, happy event.  We eat and yak and enjoy each other.  This year, I’m feeling a little frisky.  I’m going to chop up my pretty bird and try to make The Pioneer Woman’s turkey roulade and Michael Symon’s braised legs and thighs. My friends and family are brave souls who let me experiment on them:)

I’ve been having fun experimenting lately, and I have lots to be thankful for.  If you follow my blog, you know that I broke my left leg–and did a good job of it–on June 17th.  I couldn’t put any weight on it for three months before I graduated to a walker.  But in the last few weeks, I’ve been getting better and better with a cane.  Whoopee!  AND, I can manage stairs now, even if they don’t have a railing.  I’m moving up in the world:)  I can leave the house for restaurants and friends now, not just for therapy.  And I’ll graduate from that soon.  I’ve had the most wonderful therapists a person could have, but it will be nice to get up in the morning, stay in my PJs, and write, write, write!

I’m starting to feel better about romances now, too.  An odd thing to say, maybe, but it’s taken me a while to feel comfortable writing them.  For my first novel, COOKING UP TROUBLE, I felt like I was hanging words on a tipsy clothes line.  I liked the characters and the humor, but I was never sure if I was getting it right.  The characters made it easier for me, though.   I liked Brody so much from book one, I couldn’t wait to give him a story of his own. By the time I reached book three, I was brave enough to play with my format a little.  I’ve known quite a few smart women who have terrible taste in men. The same can be said for men–they can choose Ms. Wrong over and over again, too–but since Paula was my protagonist in book three, I focused on her.  I was worried I’d confuse the reader by having her fixated on Mr. Me, but I decided to trust that they’d realize she was going in the wrong direction and pick up on the clues her friends kept giving her–“Not him.  Look in THAT direction.” I hope it works.

For book four–which won’t come out until next spring–I made a bigger leap.  I liked Tyne so much, I wanted to hear his voice.  I wrote the first three books from a single POV, the female’s only.   But for Tyne’s book, I added the guy’s POV, too, because Tyne doesn’t have a problem expressing himself.  And I loved it, going back and forth between the two leads.  I liked it so much, I kept doing it for book five and for book six, which I’m working on now.  I don’t expect to ever get everything right in a book.  That doesn’t happen very often for any author of any book.  I can count on my fingers the books that I’ve read that I considered flawless, but I hope that I keep learning and getting better and better with time.  And this year, I feel like I’ve made a few strides I’m happy about.  So I’m thankful.

Hope you’ve had a good year, too, and happy writing!

My webpage with free short stories: http://www.judithpostswritingmusings.com/

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