Margery Scott

Wishing all of you a year filled with happiness, good health and success. May this be the year all your dreams come true.

I won’t be making resolutions this year. They usually last a week and a half, and then I feel like a dismal failure So, instead of making useless promises to myself, I’m going to “try” to meet some goals I’ve set for myself. Just try. Was it Yoda who said “there is no try; there is only do?” He would be horrified if he heard my plan, I’m sure. Sorry, Yoda.

One of my goals is to blog more regularly, if I can find blog-worthy topics to write about, that is. That means I have to actually get out there and not live such a boring life. Ooh, that’s two goals Okay, the list is getting longer.

What about you? How will New Years Day 2009 be different than today?

Do you know how to build a website? Install WordPress? Promote yourself? No? Then let me point you in the right direction to learn what you need to know to make your website/blog the best it can be.

Two very good friends of mine came up with a great idea . Suzanne and Kacey have teamed up to start a new blog offering information and instructions (including pictures for those of us who need to be shown, not just told) on setting up a website, blogging tips and strategies to increase traffic, promotion ideas and other business-y topics for anyone in any artistic field.

I don’t know about you, but I can use all the help I can get. Click here to check it out.

This past weekend, two writer friends and I packed up our laptops, jammies and snacks and headed to the lake for a writers’ retreat. Almost as good as RWA’s national conference, but closer to home and MUCH cheaper. I’d have photos, but the batteries on my camera died – again!!

The weather co-operated, staying chilly enough that we weren’t tempted to venture outside, and the sky was crystal clear, most important for watching the stars at night through the skylights where my friends were sleeping.

I personally didn’t do much actual writing in the evening, but I could still hear the other two working madly, the keyboards clicking away after I’d given up and gone to bed. I did play around with a few ideas though, and I tried converting a novel into a screenplay. Let me tell you, scriptwriting isn’t as easy as it seems, although I do LOVE the idea of not having to write much description and introspection! I gained a lot of respect for those TV and film writers who are out on strike right now. I also gained something else – about three pounds.

I think writers’ weekends should be mandatory, if for no other reason than to hang out with other people who don’t think you’re crazy because imaginary people talk to you.

It’s official! Summer is over for another year, which is enough to put me in a miserable mood for … oh, about eight months. I’m a summer girl. Love shorts, flip-flops, ice-cold drinks, lazing by the pool, golf. I love every sweltering degree of summer, and even the humidity and the mosquitoes aren’t bad enough to change my mind.

But just so I don’t get too depressed at the thought of the sub-zero temperatures ahead for the next few months, I’m thinking about things I love about Fall, in no particular order.

* nights cool enough to sleep with the windows open
* crunching leaves under my feet
* roasting marshmallows on a campfire at the lake
* Thanksgiving
* apple cider
* wearing sweaters again
* watching the leaves change colour
* Hallowe’en

What about you? Do you like Fall, or are you like me and it’s one of the seasons I have to suffer through to get to summer again?