Happy Turkey Day!

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to wish y'all a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope you get to spend the day with those you love around you, with a warm roof over your head, and plenty of good food and fun.

I know all of you aren't in the US, but the same wish can go for you as well, just leave the happy Thanksgiving part out. (Smile)

Hugs,
Charlotte

Agent Kristin Nelson Workshop

Agent Kristin Nelson is doing a free workshop hosted at my RWC group. So, if you are a romance writer and want to take part, hurry up. (Smile)

To join, send a blank message to RWClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

There will be other workshops and Q&As coming up over the next year, all free for RWC members. By the by, RWC is free too. (Smile)

If you are a romance reader, I haven't forgotten about you. That's why there's the RRC group for readers. There will be some really good romance authors doing short Q&As there over the next year too. RRC is also a free group, and the guest authors will often be giving away prizes. To join RRC send a blank message to RRClist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Oh, and yes, authors are as welcome at RRC as they are over on RWC. (Smile)

E-Mail Trouble again

Hi everyone,

This time the trouble isn't mine. It's Yahoo. If you use Yahoo for mail -- not Yahoo Group mail but Yahoo personal mail -- and you sent me a message and you are still waiting to hear from me, it's not me. I can't reach any Yahoo e-mail address. It seems Yahoo mail is blocking my ISP, BellSouth. I don't know why, but every time I try to send mail to any Yahoo address, BellSouth tries for three days, and then finally has to bounce it back to me. So, if you have sent me a message from a Yahoo address and are now wondering why I never sent you a reply, please send me another message and include a different e-mail address where I can reach you and I'll be happy to reply right away.

By the way, if you are using a Yahoo address and you are waiting for other messages that should have come but haven't, other servers might be blocked too, so you might want to contact anyone you were expecting to hear from who uses not only a BellSouth address, but others also, and just let them know you haven't heard from them and give them a second e-mail address that isn't a Yahoo one where they can reach you at.

My Desk is Under There

At least I think my desk is under there. The computer is sitting on something. But there are so many papers and odds and ends on my desk, maybe they are just what's holding the computer up.

I don't know how the top of my desk gets so messed up. I swear I just keep the things near to hand that I need the most often. Okay, maybe there are a few things that I don't need that often, but I do intend to get to them soon, so might as well keep them close.

Even notice there are a number of places in your home that seem to be the perfect catch all? I think every home has at least one, either the kitchen table, a coffee table, a counter top, and end table, ect... I guess my desk is just the catch all in my office.

Since I've had to shuffle and dig to find three things already today, maybe it's time to take a computer break and see if I can clear things out some.

Now let's see...where can I move things to? I hear the second catch all spot calling to me, and since I did just clear it off yesterday, no need to let all of that room go to waste. (Smile)

Reading Glasses

I finally gave in and admitted I needed glasses. A few months back I went to the eye doctor, and a couple of days later, I had my glasses. He said I only needed them for reading. I will admit I spend lots of hours a day either writing or reading, so I guess my eyes deserve a break since I am mumblemumble years old.

I thought reading glasses wouldn't be bad at all. I wouldn't have to wear them all the time. Reading glasses were surely better than the kind you have to wear from the moment you wake up until you go to bed.

WRONG!

They are awful!

I'm one of those people who usually has five things in the fire at the same time, so I'm almost never just sitting here writing or doing e-mail. I keep the TV in the room going and glance up to watch what ever, especially if I'm doing e-mail or working on my website. I have my desk in kind of a center spot in the house, so from where I sit I can see into the kitchen, into the living room, and even into my daughter's bedroom a little. Family members pop through and ask me this or tell me that, dogs come up wanting in and out, I lean forward a little and glance into the kitchen to see if I really did cook the flame out from under supper, ect... The same thing happens if I'm reading a book or doing paperwork or paying bills.

Well, with reading glasses, it turns out doing other things at the same time isn't as easy as it used to be. As long as I'm looking right at what I'm writing or reading, all is great with the world and my eyes hurt so much less. But...if I have to look up to see who is coming in the door, or to talk to someone, or even to see what one of the dogs is doing, or what's happening on TV, it's a whole other story. While the words look fine, looking any further away that a foot, means every thing just blurs out of focus, so every single time I look away from my papers, computer, or book, I have to lower my glasses. In my situation, that can be every couple of minutes sometimes. That means instead of typing on or trying to read on, I have to completely stop, lower or remove my glasses to see who or what I want to see, then when done, put the glasses back in place. Talk about slowing me down. I think it will be better when I just move up to the kind you have to wear all day. At least I'll be able to put them on and leave 'em there until I'm done with my eyes for the day. (Smile)

Update on My Book

I heard from my agent yesterday. The pitch worked. (Smile) My non-fiction book is with the editors at Random House Reference. Now it's time for more waiting. Keep those body parts crossed a little longer. (Smile)

V*A*C*A*T*I*O*N

I can hear that old song playing in my mind. The one where you spell out the word vacation. (Smile) That's because I'm on vacation this week. That means I'm doing only a little e-mail and leaving most things until next week. So....if you sent me a message and haven't gotten a reply, just hang on. I'm going to jump into my in box starting Monday morning and catch up with everyone. (Smile)

The Race

That's hubby finishing the 5K run this morning. He came in 4th in his age division, 11th over all. Not bad. He finished in 25 minutes and 30 seconds. It was only his second race, so he was really happy with his time and his placement.

He missed getting 3rd by only about 40 seconds. He actually had a bus thing pull in front of him on the road and had to stop and go around it, and then just before he made it back to the fair grounds he had to go around some people, or he might have cut off some if not all of that extra 40 seconds. We were still proud of him. (Smile)

It's fair time.

This time of year, every year, there's a big country fair near where I live. We start going to it when we are babies, and when we grow up, we take our babies. I don't have any babies to take this year, but I'm going. (Smile)

My husband, our daughter, our son and our daughter-in-law will be going with us. The first thing we are going to do there tomorrow is support hubby. He has signed up to the 5K. This will only be his second race--don't have them often around here. He's trained so hard though, so we are really hoping the best for him.

After the race, and hubby has some time to catch his breath, we are going to jump right into the fun. I like to go through the section where they have old log cabins and other log buildings, make soap and cracklings and cornmeal and fresh sugarcane syrup.

Then we are going to go see all the farm animals, then go through and see which quilts and cakes and jams got the blue ribbons. There are a few other things to look at and do, including the rodeo and all of the rides, and all of the food booths. They have normal things like ice cream, funnel cakes and burgers, but they also have alligator gumbo and hot pigskins and lots of other fun stuff that taste great but is oh so bad for you. (Smile)

Don't worry, I'm going to be good. I've lost nine pounds so far, and my blood sugar is doing better, so I'm not going to ruin all of that hard work with a funnel cake, no matter how badly I'd love to have one.

Thanks & No Mail For Me

First, I want to thank everyone for all the good luck wishes I got, and all of those crossed body parts. It was so nice to open my e-mail program yesterday and see all of those wonderful messages. That goes for those you posted here or sent through the contact form on my site as well.

Which brings me to today's problem. (Smile) My e-mail has been down since last night. I can actually get on line, and get to my on line e-mail program, but that's not the normal e-mail address I use. It's a big outage here, so my normal e-mail address might not work for a couple of days or so. That means if you sent me anything after yesterday evening, I haven't gotten it. That goes for my normal BellSouth address, the contact form on my website, and even all of the group owner addresses for RWC. I'm hoping I'll get all of those messages when things get back up and working. Hope! Hope! For now though, if you need or want to reach me, please use this address charlotte@charlottedillon.com You can find it on my site, www.charlottedillon.com, on the contact page, but don't use the form. Look below that contact form and you will see a link you can use by clicking on it. That's for the other address, the charlotte@charlottedillon.com

Thanks again for all of the congrats and the so sweet wishes! It's amazing to me how many of you seem to be cheering for me and wishing me only good things.