Winter in the Valley of the Sun

I hope those of you in the U.S. had a nice Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for my family, my grandmother died the day before Thanksgiving. She was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's and I think was ready to leave this existence. That day was also my nephew's birthday, the first after his recent death, so we had a bit of an emotional weekend. This has been a trying year for my family but we're doing well and looking forward to the new year.

Desert Magick: Superstitions has had a delay in publishing, as I'm sure most of you who've been following my blog already know. The publisher made a few mistakes so we're working to get those fixed before it goes to print. Yeah, it happens and I just have to roll with it. For those of you who have been inquiring, I will post as soon as the book is available for purchase. I hope those who took the National Novel Writing Month challenge at least got a good start on your novel. I finished editing two last month--is it December already?-- and got several chapters written on a first draft. I feel good about that.

I'm also feeling good about the weather. It's finally winter in the Valley of the Sun and time to break out those sweaters and jackets. And by that, I mean highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s. Those of you in snow country are probably laughing your butts off right about now. But hey, when you get 7 months of 100 plus degrees, 70 is darn cold! We love it and are outside in droves walking and biking, grateful to be able to flaunt those colorful exercise pants we bought three months ago but couldn't wear and thankful they still fit after all that food we just ate. Now, where is that last slice of pumpkin pie?

Happy reading!