Holiday Celebrations Not Over

From time to time, I'll be posting more updates concerning my unemployment, but don't want this blog to be only about that.

I finished taking down the very last of our Christmas decorations this morning. It's amazing how I every year I get so used to seeing them up, and every time I take them down the house looks bare.

Fortunately, the Holiday celebrations are not over. Tonight is the annual holiday party with my Chicago-North Romance Writers of America writing buddies. This celebration used to take place before Christmas, but one year a snowstorm got in the way, and we had to delay the party. Turns out everyone liked the idea of having the party at a less busy time, so we've kept it at January.

I'll post some pictures from the event soon.

Do You Celebrate Holidays on the Exact Day?

Group shot: Morgan Mandel, Debra St. John, June Sproat, Margot Justes, Sherryl Bodine, Carrie Loftus.






Valentine's Day was a busy one. After my husband and I exchanged Valentine's Day cards early Saturday morning, I was off to Step Class at the Park District, then a book signing at the Des Plaines Library, along with fellow Chicago-North RWA Chapter members.

Then came a long walk with Rascal, ending up at where else but her favorite hangout, Bentley's Corner Barkery, where we caught the tail end of their doggie Valentine's Day Party. Here's Rascal in the Kissing Booth

Instead of going out to dinner for Valentine's Day, we decided to eat in, in favor of going out to an early dinner on Sunday instead. It's always so crowded at restaurants on Holidays anyway. I don't mind celebrating on another day. When you've been married a while, any day is as good as another.

What about you? Does it bother you if you don't celebrate a Holiday on the day itself? What do you do? Please share.

Do You Belong to A Writing Organization?

Here I am with Mary Micheff, on the left, at our Holiday party. She was the President of Chicago-North RWA when I first joined.

I've been a member of the Chicago-North Chapter of Romance Writers of America for years. I was trying to remember how many and came up with at least 13, maybe more, since time goes by so fast.

As you may know from previous posts and remarks I've made in person, I credit my local chapter for passing along enough encouragement and know-how to launch me on the road to publication. I doubt if I could have made it without them.

I also belong to Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and EPIC. Through listservs and networking, especially at conferences, such as Love is Murder, I've learned valuable information.

What about you? Do you belong to any writing organizations? Has membership helped your career? Or, do you go it alone? Please share. Feel free to brag about your organization.

BOOK CLUBS

First photo - Left to right - Morgan Mandel, Lenore Stevens of Prospect Heights Book Review Club, Margot Justes

Second - Left to right - June Sproat, Morgan Mandel, Margot Justes

The AREA AUTHORS CREW took to the road at Rolling Green Country Club for a Nov. 19 presentation and book signing for Prospect Heights Book Review Club -

For many years, my husband and I have volunteered for the Festival Committee in Arlington Heights at Frontier Days in various capacities such as Disability Day preparations, the 4th of July parade, marshalling the gates and the fire lanes during the concerts, doing all sorts of things to help with the annual event.

This past Summer I got inspired to participate in a new way. Instead of merely buying items at Frontier Marketplace on Saturday and Sunday, I thought it would be a good idea to set up a booth. I invited my two friends, fellow authors and Chicago-North RWA members, Margot Justes and June Sproat to join me and they accepted. We called ourselves AREA AUTHORS, put up a great sign that one of June's children made up on the computer, which looked better than anything I could have done myself, pitched the tent supplied by another author/member of Chicago-North RWA, Debra St. John, and went about selling our books. We had a great time and made many sales.

In the photo above, I'm wearing my red volunteer gear because I was doing double duty that day, putting hot dogs in buns for Disability Day, then coming back to our tent to sell books. While I was gone, Lenore Stevens, Chairman of Prospect Heights Book Review Club, just happened to come along and just happened to ask Margot and June if our crew would like to do a presentation for their club on November 19 at Rolling Green Country Club in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Of course, they agreed for themselves and for me.

It seemed like a long way away, but we marked our calendars. Before we knew it, the day was upon us. The funny thing was we thought our audience would be perhaps 10-15 members. When I arrived, there were about 100 gathered, which was a pleasant surprise.

We were made to feel welcome and our program went on without a hitch. Many of the book club members asked great questions afterwards and also lined up to buy our books.

As a special treat, we were also invited to stay for lunch. All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a Wednesday morning.

Do any of you belong to book clubs? Have any of you done programs at book clubs? What were your experiences?

Chicago-North RWA

On Monday night, I attended another meeting of my chapter, Chicago-North RWA. I've learned so much since I've joined there, but I'm always learning more. Sometimes I say I'm going to class when I refer to my meetings, because it seems like one, yet even better.

I don't know what I would have done without the support and friendship of my fellow members. I only know without them I would never have gotten either my mystery, Two Wrongs, or my romantic comedy, Girl of My Dreams, published. Both of them were the object of critiques, where I learned which parts didn't make sense, and I was pointed in the right direction - the path to publication.

Each time a member gets a publication contract, the tradition is to bring chocolate to a meeting. Lots of chocolate made the rounds Monday night. That's a good sign. It means our members know what it takes to get a book published and can help others toward that goal.

On Wednesday, I'll be hosting Debra St. John, a special member of our group. It took a little nudging for her to realize it, but she is very talented. I was honored to provide a blurb for her debut romance, This Time For Always. That was an easy task. I couldn't say enough good words for such a wonderful read.

Debra is one of the many gifted members of our chapter. Anyone who doesn't belong to a supportive writing group such as RWA is missing out on a lot. Check out what's in your area, ask around and see which groups contain people-in-the-know, and consider joining one. It's hard enough to get published. It's even harder if you go it alone.