Amazing! With Sally's help, I have managed to get online to blog! It is nearly 5 pm here, and we had quite a full day shopping--we started at Warr's Harley Davidson, where my sister the biker chick stocked up on shirts, etc. After that, we shopped in the King's Road, Chelsea, and did we ever have a ball. We bought all sorts of cool stuff at Boot's--love the homeopathic remedies. We visited LUSH, the exquisitely decadent bath supply shop, and a Chinese herbal place. We're rising VERY early tomorrow for a day trip to Paris. Suffice it to say, the trick is a success. I visited the coolest art supply house ever.

More after PARIS.

Tomorrow! I can't believe it! I'm actually getting on a British Airways jet tomorrow and flying to one of my all-time favorite cities! And Sister Sal is going with. It doesn't get any better.

Today, I will finish drafting "Dylan", and what an adventure this book has been! I'm planning to do the revisions when I get home--just let the story cool off for a week. (Trust me, anything with Dylan Creed in it is HOT.) In fact, the pages sizzle when I touch them!

Good news at Weight Watchers last night--I've now "released" (you're not supposed to say "lost", because then you'll try to find it again :))--ta-da! 20 pounds. (That whinnying you hear in the background is my horses, looking forward to a lighter-Linda summer!) I've still got a ways to go, but truth to tell, I love eating WW style. I decide what I'm going to eat the night before, write it in my food journal, and forget it. That way, I'm not constantly obsessing about what I will eat. And I feel so good--more energy, etc.

If possible, I will send at least one blog from the hotel business center computer. Since I'm not exactly a techno-wiz, this is a crap shoot. :)

"A Wanted Man" is doing GREAT. Thank you, pardners.

Back the 18th, so if I don't manage to pipe you a message before then, look for the first episode in the travelogue on the 19th.

"Pet" being the operative term, most of the time. :)

You hear so much these days about pet peeves. I'd rather list a few of my favorite things:

My dogs, with sunlight in their fur.
My cats, cuddling close to give me cat-Reiki when I'm under the weather.
The horses, running and kicking up their heels in the pasture.
Macaroni and tomatoes
Weight Watchers' Key Lime Pie
Making ATCs
Playing with polymer clay--especially making image transfers
Getting new art supplies via UPS
My Cricut machine--whiz bang, what a dandy tool!
Reading other peoples' books :)
Studying the Civil War
Visiting ANY book store
Ditto any craft store
Going to the movies on cloudy afternoons
Mini series like "John Adams"
Peonies in bloom (not yet, but coming soon to a garden near you!)
Laughing until I cry
Hot baths with bubbles
Red wine
Going back to London, after many years away
The Park Lane Hotel
High Tea
Harrod's
The British Museum
The flower shops on every corner--color spilling everywhere you look
Choosing and sending post cards
Finding that special memento for that special someone
Time with my Sister Sally
I could go on. (And on.)
But I have a book to finish.
Oh, yeah. Finishing a book!

(You: "How late are you???")

Me: So late, I almost didn't get here at all! This book, I'm telling you, is wearing me out. These Creed men are BEYOND wild. I expect to finish the story ("Dylan") tomorrow, and do some last minute polishing on Friday morning. Today, I'm getting a new crown put on one of my teeth (I'd rather have one that went on my head), and since I slept so late, I'll probably be pulling a swing shift this time.

It doesn't help that a lovely box of metal shrines, etc., arrived from Silvercrow Creations today. My head is just buzzing with ideas--but Dylan and Kristy must come first. And Kristy was in a very dangerous situation yesterday when I finished, so I can't just leave the poor girl in suspended animation. So the SC goodies will have to wait.

Rats. It's my Gemini nature. If ONLY I could be in two places at once. :)

Yes, Virginia, there is a connection.

There are those who wonder why I mess around with glue and paper at all, when I can command significant money for spending the same amount of time writing. A logical question, I suppose, but painfully obvious to the terminally creative. :) Visual art stokes up the old idea machine in ways that often surprise me. I have come to believe, even a short distance into this particular journey, that my collage and polymer clay work ARE, in some difficult to define way, integral parts of the writing process.

I wax philosophical today because I'm nearing the end of yet another book--"Dylan", (Book 2 in the Montana Creeds series, to be published next spring.) While I'm always happy to be finished, so I can start a new story, there is some letting go involved, too. I've spent a lot of time with these characters, and learned to love them, and even though the book will be in print for a good many years, most likely, this is still a good-bye. I've compared it often to sending a beloved child off to college--you've worked hard to prepare them for progressive degrees of independence, but you still have to stand in the driveway or the airport and smile bravely as they leave. Sure, they come back for visits, and books do, too, given the pre-publication process, etc., but not to stay. And things are never quite the same as they were.

On the bright side, Tyler and his lovely Lily await, ready to tell their story. (Book 3--Book 1 is "Logan"). When I get home from London, I will rest for a few days, and then dive in.

In London and Paris, I will no doubt make magical discoveries--Portobello Road is a favorite source of collage elements--and these collages, in turn, will awaken new ideas, new insights.

Have I mentioned lately that I absolutely love my crazy, mixed-up, glue-sticky life???