What Have You Learned This Year?

And just in time for Mother's Day . . .

Visit my Mother's Web AudreyFrankAuthor

My mother posted the following on her blog today. She is an author and a role model and taught us we could do anything at any age. Health issues have slowed her down this year - but not so much with her writing, as she has a new novella on Amazon. But it has slowed her down to getting out of the house and being active to do the things she likes.

As I approach my eighty-seventh birthday, I find myself asking have I learned anything this past year? Yes, I have – patience. Patience to endure pain and not feel sorry for myself. Humility and gratitude for the friends who have had the guts to stick by me even when I knew they didn't want to listen to another gripe. My best friend, Claire, (my adopted sister) should get a medal for bravery in the face of turmoil. I have also reached that point in my life when I realize: who matters, who never did. I have stopped worrying about people from my past. There's a reason they aren't in my future. I can never be the person I was, but I can make the effort to be the best I am at this point in my life. Thanks to my daughters Barbara and Pam. They are the joy of my life. Thank you. Lord, for carrying me through the worst of times. If I'm lucky, I'll still be around to celebrate next year.

I kid her we are living in parallel universes. My health has slowed me down this year, I am getting ready to launch a picture book this weekend, and I have hip replacement surgery scheduled for next week. I am out of sync with my normal life, too. It is so hard to walk. Everyone tells me surgery will make me a new person again. I hope so.

We are both learning patience, although, me not so much!

Last week I chatted with a realtor to let her know I want to sell my house as soon as I have had time to get on my feet after surgery and physical therapy. It is not a listing -just a heads up my house could be for sale. For some reason knowing I have put those vibes out to the universe makes it easier for me to relax and do what I have to do the next weeks. If it is meant to be, well, so be it. Someone knows I can be had - well, my house can be had! I am working on what needs to be done the week before surgery; letting the universe know I am ready to sell my house and finding the right flattering attire for physical therapy. I don't own sweat pants or T-shirts for working out. I found the cutest leggings (large size so I can slip in and out without trouble) and tops at Marshalls this weekend so I can be the PT fashionista. As I laughed with a friend. I am not vain. I don't think I look that great - but I know how bad I can look, and prefer not to share that with the world. In pain in pink sounds easier to deal with, too.

My Chinese fortune cookie the first of the year told me all I needed to know. My dreams will come true by the end of this year!

But what is that dream, exactly. I am fickle and it changes with regularity. Right now, as I sit and visualize the days ahead, I see a charming farmhouse, an hour outside of Atlanta, on an acre or two of land (just like the farmhouse in my novel, Danger In Her Words).  A house that will work for me and with me. A writing center with classes, book club meetings, rooms and a cottage to rent to writers who want a picturesque retreat at a nominal fee for their writing getaway. Rooms for friends to visit. A place my mom can move too when she is ready to leave St. Augustine.  A safe haven for my six dogs. It is something I can do, not outside the realm of possibilities, even though my few pain meds let me see this dream in Technicolor!

We all have dreams. Miss April in Paris, one of my dogs from a local shelter, dreams of visiting Paris, the city that shares her name. Her diary, A Dog Dreams of Paris, will be available on Amazon later this month. It is a charming picture book designed by PD King Design. Not a children's picture book, but a book for those who dream at any age.

I hope you will check out my mother's website and books. She writes romantic novellas about people that could be your neighbors! Unlike me, the writer with dogs!

The years pass so quickly. Some we have control of, some control us. I think my mother hit it in her post. I can make the effort to be the best I can at this point in my life. As always, she is an inspiration to me to be my best, no matter what, to be thankful for what I have, and, because of her encouragement over all these years, to dream big.

Everyday is an opportunity to learn something new. What have you learned this year? I love to share stories on how we grow!

Rambling as I like to do, I come back to how I started this most - in time for Mother's Day . . . Happy Mother's Day, Mom! Love you.

 

"Danger In Her Words" Published In Time For Valentine's Day. A Romantic Romp!

 

Paperback on Amazon. Kindle coming week of February 17th.

 

 

The best of news on a snowed-in day in Georgia. My book is now available on Amazon. A work of fiction, a bit girly, sassy, sexy, and fun, I am so happy to have finished it. My life since spring has been centered on writing, re-writing, and editing. An anticipated publication date of Christmas with a marketing theme of 'naughty or nice' got postponed until Valentine's Day.  I think it is the perfect romp for the most romantic holiday of the year!

 

 

 

 

 

A TV sitcom pitch gone wrong turns dog-column writer Susan Meyers in a tailspin. Sex Sells was the topic of the day at the writers’ convention. Susan decided to try something new and a steamy romantic novel seemed just the answer. A widow who hadn’t dated in three years, Susan was out of practice with men and sex. She turned to an online dating site to find inspiration for her book and unleashed a predator with the words she wrote. Tucked an hour away from her friends in a small town where she kept to herself, with only her tiny dog for company, Susan felt safe from the world. Little did she know her life was about to change.

 

 A romp of a story about writing and finding yourself in this book within a book. If you love girl-talk, farmhouses, antiques, country towns, a touch of murder, a sprinkle of suspense, and a bit of naughty fun, come join Susan as she learns about life from her character Jamie. Two widows looking for love in all the wrong places might still get it right if they live long enough.

 

 

Book and cover design by pd king design. Published by Gilbert Street Press.

The Scene : A Farmhouse Kitchen The Crime? Girl Talk To Make You Blush

Glass front cabinets and cut flowers from the garden. Part of Susan's dreamy farmhouse kitchen.  Photo Pinterest.

 

 

  “This is just like old times!” Susan opened the bottle of wine and started to fill their glasses. The four of them huddled in the kitchen in their PJ’s drinking and laughing. . . .  And oh the stories they shared, but wait, you'll have to read the book ... coming Christmas 2013.
 

 

What inspired the kitchen in my upcoming naughty thriller? A cottage kitchen that would hold a killer farm table and let me act out my own farmhouse fantasy. That's the only fantasy I'll fess up too.  Or else I'd go from cottage white to blushing red!

 

A little bit of this and a lot of that pulled together to make the perfect kitchen space. Photos from Pinterest helped me design Susan's kitchen, the heart of her two story 1800's grey shingled cottage farmhouse in a small town close to Atlanta.  As an antique dealer, details are important to me.  Susan and I have the same taste, painted furniture, large cupboards and more paintings than wall space. Perhaps you'd like to join us for a glass of wine!

 

 

Susan's kitchen is large enough for a farm table to die for, surrounded by eight French style chairs. That little dog, why that could be Daisy, Susan's loveable, spirited, mixed ball of fluff! Pinterest

 

 

 

Who wouldn't love this wonderful farm table and chairs?   Pinterest   I dream of white at night and soft pastel colors during the day. Susan's cottage is a lovely mixture of both.


My cottage style farmhouse fantasy went from a blog where I tried to exorcize the notion I had to move out of my house, to the scene in my first stab at  fiction - a romantic, somewhat naughty, thriller!

As a non-fiction author, The Unfaithful Widow, a personal memoir, available on Amazon and Kindle , writing fiction is awesome! I am having fun with it - perhaps you will too.

I've a deadline to meet so I'd better whip myself in shape and get back to the job at hand!

 

The Plot Thickens

Graphic from the web. Google Free Betty Boop Graphics.

 

The plot thickens as I continue to write my romantic, slightly erotic, thriller. Two murders at the college, a farmhouse to die for, a trip to eat fried green tomatoes, an outstanding antique architectural piece purchased at a local shop, a missing dog, and a revealing kiss in an ally have my heroine Susan on edge.

But Susan is no more on edge than I am! Susan is taking me on a writing journey and I am her willing slave. I never know what she will do next, but I can't wait to find out where this all ends.

Hopefully not with me face down in my bottle of sherry. A victim of my own writing folly.

Available for Christmas.





 

Writing About Sex OMG

Graphic from 123RF

 

I am obsessed with sex at the moment. Sex is on my mind day and night. I wish I could talk to someone about it. No, not a therapist, another writer. I am in the midst of my first work of fiction, an erotic thriller.  

I am out of my comfort zone, but learning how to deal with it.  

The idea for my book started a year ago. I wrote ten thousand words, then let it alone. I kidded my friends I was writing porn (which is what it seemed like to me) and had started smoking and drinking Jack Black as I sat at the computer at night. I don’t do either, but laughed myself silly with the image in my mind.  I wrote a funny article for an on-line site about trying to write erotica. A tongue in cheek piece. I couldn’t decide where to put the tongue in my erotica, so I made a joke of it, got a bit of mileage, and put my story on the back burner until I was mature enough to make it work. 

 A few months ago I decided it was time to bring the book out of the closet. Sex is integral to the plot (no spoiler here, but trust me, the book would be stupid without sex if you knew the storyline.) But I wanted clean erotica. Now there is a challenge. How to make my book work, make it hot, but just not so graphic it kills the rest of the story. 

I feel like a tease on her first date. A virgin trying to lose her virginity. Should I or shouldn’t I? 

I read and reread the chapters. I’ve cleaned it up so much I startled myself on the last go-round. Yet I still blush at some of the scenes and wonder where did that come from? 

I don’t want sex to drive the story. Yet, without it, there is no story.  It is a fun, chick-lit, women’s fiction, semi-erotic tale that runs the gamut from vibrators, farmhouses, antiques, art, roses, hydrangeas, a neurotic dog, fried green tomatoes, and a dash of murder.  

A recipe for disaster or a blue ribbon winner? 

When I figure out how to make the sex in my book work, I might be ready to date again.