Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas is over and life is about to return to normal, whatever that is. The kids will be going back to school and I will be headed back to Nevada soon. I have been involved in a project for quite some time now, 6 years to be exact. I have been co-authoring with another woman, a book on the history if the valley we used to live in. (Me , I mean.....she still lives there.) It's called Muddy Valley Reflections: 145 Years of Settlement. Anyway, Volume 1 was finished in October and Volumes 2 and 3 are almost finished. About 2 weeks more and it should be ready for the publisher. The last of the corrections need to be done, along with the dedication, acknowledgements, etc. And my partner's story. She has lived a very colorful life. She was the first female investigative coroner for the state of Nevada, as well as being on the Clark County Fair Board for 25 years, and a few more things. When these things are done, I get to come home to Oregon to stay.

Walking with my hubby.

I am looking forward to being here full time. I need to get a job so we can get out of debt. We need to find a house to live in. I need to get back to my family history and volunteer work. Lots of things to do! I'm also looking forward to the spring. If the photos of fall are anything to go by, spring should be absolutely beautiful! And there is so much to do, too. Festivals and Farmer's Markets and all kinds of events. I can't wait.

I hope you all have a great year to look forward to. These last few years have been lean and hard for us, and I hope this next year is better. I don't ask much, just enough to keep our heads above water. We have done more sinking than swimming this last year, and I hope its time for that to change. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me things would get better, they'd be better already. Anyway, enough of that. I'm not much of one for boo-hooing over what could have been. I like to see the glass as half full instead of half empty. We survived another year and that's what matters.

I wish all of you the very best new year possible. May all your dreams come true and all your socks match! And remember, new years are the start of new journeys, and you can become anything you want enough to try. 'Night, Gramma G.

Oh my goodness!!!! It's been a year and a half since I posted! My life has been in an uproar the whole time. I have been helping to write a book on the history of this little valley that I've spent the better part of 25 years in, and Volume 1 is finally done and Volumes 2 and 3 will be done in the next couple of weeks. They had better be! My husband has moved to Oregon while I have stayed here to finish, and I BETTER be there soon or he may divorce me! Not really, but he'll be really mad and I don't like "really mad" at Christmas time. My youngest son and his wife and two kids moved up there and asked us to go with them, so we decided "What the heck?" Only problem is, this book has taken a LOT longer than I thought it would, so Andy and his dad have been there since July, and Kristen and the kids since September. And I'm still here.......big sigh. I committed to stay until the books are done, and I don't want this hanging on my conscience again. (That's a whole nother story.)

Anyway....I'm getting ready for the 12 Days of Christmas again. Starting on the 12th of December (my birthday!) I will post 12 ideas for the days leading up to Christmas. I hope you will enjoy them. I might not have a sample photo of each, because all my crafting supplies are in Oregon, but there will at least be a drawing to go with each one. These are all fast and easy projects, so they won't take up all of your time. Most of them will be easy enough for you to do with children or grandchildren, so you can spend some time with them, too. I've been thinking of doing 12 things you can make out of pine cones, but I haven't perfected it all yet, so I may have to keep that idea for next year.
Well, gotta go for now. Be back in a couple of days. I'll have some photos of the family get-together at Thanksgiving. Not your normal festivities. See you soon.
Remember...Everyone has a creative side. Thank heaven they're not all the same, or this would be a boring existence. 'Night, Gramma G.

On Trying To Be an Author

I am trying to write a series of children's arts and crafts (mostly crafts) books. I envision them as small books, 5x8 or thereabouts. Soft covers, laminated for keeping them clean, hand-illustrated, 10 projects per book. I have 9 of them outlined and I've got the first one, which is actually craft recipes for moms, just about finished. I'm doing them in Adobe Pagemaker which is a fairly easy program once you learn it. My biggest problem is how to get them published! I looked into self-publishing and that's way out of my price range. Even the least expensive publisher I found, which was Trafford Publishing, was too much for my humble budget. I have no idea how to submit them them for publishing by a publishing house and probably wouldn't find one that would take them anyway. So now I'm looking at the REAL self-publishing. Printing them on my printer or taking them to somewhere like Kinko's. Either way, I would only have to print them as they were ordered, which would help with costs, but marketing is the problem then.

You've probably all been to fairs and shows and other events that have booths, and seen the people plying their wares. Usually there will be one or two authors who are trying to sell their books, and they usually look like they aren't having much luck. I don't think I'm up for that. So that leaves the internet. BUT....I've learned from trying to set up this blog that it isn't as easy as it looks. And if this easy thing is hard for me, creating a web page is probably impossible! I'm starting to get a little discouraged about the whole project. I will keep writing, and drawing illustrations, and doodling my little title pages, etc., but now it looks like the only children who will ever see them are my grandchildren. And that's OK, but it's a lot of hard work just for 12 kids! I shouldn't say JUST 12 kids, because that minimizes their importance, and I don't want to do that! They are the most important readers my books will ever have, but it IS a lot of work.
I have also written a couple of children's story books that I don't know what to do with, either. I wrote the first one 34 and a half years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, and it's been hanging around since then, just waiting for me to do something with it. I even wrote off for information on writing children's books - you know those ads you see in all the magazines. But it's hanging around along with the story (they just seemed to go together) and now they're both waiting for me to do something. I'm not sure the ad information is anything I will ever use, but it's nice to have the option.

So, now....................I'm hanging, too! I keep reading and checking books out of the library on publishing, and submitting manuscripts, etc. etc. etc. but it's a pretty scary thing, putting your work out there to be judged and criticized and knocked down. And that's before it even gets to the readers! Look at how long it took J.K. Rowling to get Harry Potter published, and I think those books are just about the best children's books I've seen in a long time. I don't even necessarily think of them as "children's" books, because their appeal is across the board. My little stories are definitely aimed at the younger crowd.

But, like I said, I will keep working on them, and maybe after I'm dead, one of my kids will do something with them. Enough rambling for now. "Night. Gramma G

PS - I've given up on the slide show for now and just put a photo of me and my hubby, instead.