My World is in the Garden and in my Home

The title of this post is a spin-off from the title of the book, THE WORLD IS IN MY GARDEN by Chris Maser. I met his wife, Zane at Fitness Over 50 in Corvallis about three years ago. I've been intrigued with the title of this book since I heard about it from Zane.

My world is now in the garden and in the house on my acreage in Alsea. Gas prices and a lack of money has forced me to look hard at my choices in life. I can't afford to make all the trips into Corvallis to exercise or to do extra things. Just a fact. Corvallis is 45 minutes away from Alsea.

Life these days needs to be about having everything you love near to you. My dream would be to live within walking distance to a great grocery store (notice that I listed food first), the library, a gym, and shopping. It would also be great to find a church home and be part of a hobby group, like knitting or quilting. Right now that's not possible. Zip. Nada. Since I'm dreaming at the moment, let's also add dancing, science and history museums, zoos, the symphony, travel, art museums, Broadway plays, friends, and mah jongg.

I'm hard at work in my garden and working on three novel manuscripts. I'm taking three correspondence courses through the mail. I'm working on a mystery aboard a cruise ship for Long Ridge Writers Group with my character created last November for NaNoWriMo. The second one is a mainstream novel about elder issues for Writers Digest School, and the last one is a juvenile novel about two sisters who deal with the death of their mother through writing plays for the Institute of Children's Literature. A chapter yesterday and more today.

I have the honor and privilege of working with and learning from three amazing and talented writers. For Writer's Digest School, I'm working with Gloria Kempton, one of the editors from Writer's Digest Magazine. I'm working with the science fiction and mystery novelist, Mary Rosenblum for Long Ridge Writer's Group, and the non-fiction children's writer, Linda Durrant from the Institute of Children's Literature.

Sometimes it's hard for me to stay home all the time but too much outside activity is destructive to my writing process. I am hoping my writing will earn periodic vacations and opportunities to visit great events like the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. So much to see. So much to learn. Writing must come first.

I'm having fun today because my character for one of my novels just leaped off the page and I love her. I finally figured her out. She was going to die at the end of the book but I changed my mind. She's too much fun. I must keep her for more books.

Fade out until the next time...........