It's 2010. Resolution: Read More/Write More

Happy 2010 everyone! May it be a year of good writing and inspiring reading for all. For those who didn't buy a copy of 'Sadie the Ballerina' when they had the chance, you can still find it in the special Scholastic Canada collection 'Merry Christmas: A Canadian Keepsake Collection.' Five stories in one big book. Rush out and buy it if you haven't already.
Today is New Year's Day and last night, instead of being a party girl, I re-worked a short story I'd written many years ago. I also did some work on my ongoing smuggling story. Then my husband called upstairs to inform me that the hockey game on tv was over, and it was safe for me to enter the tv room. We watched a couple of black and white, Thin Man movies. Love them.
Today I visited a friend who is now 95 and lives in an old age home. She's one of the most interesting people I know, and always has something to tell me that could one day be useful in a story. In fact, another friend phoned me this morning to wish me happy new year, and she also told me something about her family history that I've put in a little drawer in my head. It's all material. I can never stress that enough. Every conversation you have with someone contains a story starter - or finisher.
It's going to be a busy year. I've finished the final draft (well, maybe there'll still be tweaks) of the picture book that's due to be published in the Fall of 2011. The publishers have not found an illustrator yet. I'm also hard at work on the story I'm adapting for a short children's play. The pressure is on, but maybe that's what I need to motivate me.
Right at this moment I'm being creative in another way. I'm baking a turkey breast for Shabbat dinner, but I've smothered it in some kind of Indian sauce (I do this to fool guests into thinking I'm terribly inventive in the kitchen. I might have mentioned this before, but my son once said, "Mom, when I say we should have something different, I don't mean just change the herbs on the chicken"). I really have to put that in a story one day.
I'm reading two books (not at the same time). Just finishing 'Bootleg' by Alex Shearer - a very funny kids' book, with rather an important message, I think. And I've just started a murder mystery about the intrepid librarian Helma Zukas, who solves crimes in between helping library users. This one is called 'Catalogue of Death,' by Jo Dereske.
Read, write and be merry. Yours in creative blogdom - Joan