An Attitude of Gratitude

My sister Susan is the first person to tell me about the attitude of gratitude. She read about it in a self-help book. It’s always rung true with me. I try to be grateful every day for all the things I have, put a smile on my heart and my face, be thankful for the little things as well as the big ones.

And I have a lot to be thankful for – on a daily basis. I had my yearly mammogram last Saturday and found out yesterday that all is perfect. Most people know I was diagnosed with DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) in 2006. If you’re going to get breast cancer they say that’s the one you want! It can only be detected by a mammogram. You cannot feel it.

I will always be grateful for the radiologists at Alameda Hospital. The cancer is considered Stage Zero – woot! – and mine was so far off the chest wall that I didn’t have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation or take drugs. I was cancer-free the minute I had my mastectomy. Double woot! Therefore I would say, for me, I’m grateful every day for dodging a bigger “C” bullet which would have required one of those horrendous cures.

But each year I enter the Carol Reed Breast Center with dread in my heart, thinking it’s going to come back. So far I’ve remained cancer-free. However I always remember that day in 2006 when I got “the call”. And I’m not talking about “the call” that all authors wait for from that agent to whom they sent their query letter. Ha!

What are you thankful for?

I am “The Worrier”

I worry about driving off a mountain cliff and crashing into the ravine below.

I worry about working in the gardens and being attacked by one of the large predators that wander through our yard.

I worry about dying slow and painful instead of dying fast and easy.

I worry about my mom being alone in her house and having an accident while I’m not there to help her.

I worry about not seeing my siblings when my mom is gone.

I worry about my boys never finding a girl who’ll make them happy or finding one that makes them unhappy.

I worry about my tender new plants getting hit by Jack Frost.

I worry about getting old, gaining weight, going gray, and losing my eyebrows.

I worry I may never finish THIS BOOK or any more after.

I worry about the icy winter roads and the people driving on them.

I worry about the farmers getting too much rain during their spring planting and then again, during their fall harvest.

I worry about the planes passing overhead crashing into my backyard.

I worry about the crickets and frogs in the pond finding their way into my house and <shudder> into my bed.

I worry about moving, downsizing into a smaller place, and having to decide what’s necessary and what’s not.

I worry about leaving behind my computer and iPad and iPhone, and not being connected to the world.

I worry endlessly, needlessly, about all things big and small.

Why am I not crazy yet or is that still to come? Or are writers naturally worrisome people?

What do you worry about and how do you keep the craziness at bay?

A List of Favorites

I’m reading Alexandra Sokoloff’s WRITING LOVE: SCREENWRITING TRICKS FOR AUTHORS II. I always read a craft book in between novels to jumpstart my next book and get my head in the right place. 

In Part One: Story Structure, the assignment is to list ten books and films similar to our story in both genre and structure. She then asks readers to break the stories from our list down and analyze why they have an impact on us specifically. She says the movies and books that make it onto our list say a lot about us and what we like or what we are trying to say with our books.

I find this theory very interesting and thought I’d share my list. We had to list at least five movies and three books. Here’s mine, in no particular order:

1. When Harry Met Sally

2. Love Actually

3. Catch and Release

4. The Wedding Date

5. Pretty Woman

6. Chesapeake Blue (Nora Roberts)

7. Belong to Me (Marisa de los Santos)

8. After You’d Gone (Maggie O’Farrell)

9. Nobody’s Baby but Mine (Susan Elizabeth Phillips)

10. Peachtree Road (Anne Rivers Siddons)

I made this list pretty quickly and I’m sure I left off some good ones, but I feel pretty comfortable with what I’ve put down. I haven’t analyzed what they mean yet, but I’m looking forward to figuring out what it is about each of these works that speaks to me.

Just for fun and if you have the time, I’d love to see a list of your favorite books and movies. If not, go ahead and guess what my list means.

A Whirlwind Week

This is how my week has been.  To say it’s been crazy would be an understatement.  But, it’s also been crazy fun!  May is always very hectic in the Solheim house with both the Slumlord and the Prodigal Son celebrating birthdays.  Add in all the end of school year-wallet-draining-events, Mother’s Day and graduations and I always end up at Memorial Day wondering where the month went.  Of course, sandwiched right in the middle of all of those was the release of my debut novel.  Which means the last five days have been one BIG party.

This is how it started:Yep, those are forks, flamingos and flags in my yard along with a few witty tombstones.  My fun-loving neighbor (who has yet to turn the big 5-0 and who’d better be on guard) decorated it in honor of hubby’s big day.  Of course, his birthday got a little overshadowed by other events, but he says he doesn’t care.  He’s getting a nice beach trip in June when things have settled down.  I can’t wait for it myself.   Although, he hasn’t mentioned if he’s taking me…hmmm.  I’d better check on that.

Then came Tuesday:  Release DayThe big day was spent with friends hunting out my book in local bookstores, enjoying a little lunch and then partying on my deck.  My college roommates were in from out of town and it felt a little like a wedding.  At least we ate and drank like we were at one!

On Wednesday, I was off to a book signing.  Not only was it fun to meet folks eager to read the book, but we raised money in honor of a bright young man no longer with us.  Thursday was airport taxi day and another impromptu book signing.  Friday, it’s off to the first graduation of the season.  At 9:30 am.  Two hours from home.  That’s how much I adore this beautiful young woman.  Later that night, we’ll celebrate the amazingly talented high school students in the fine arts.  It’s one of my favorite events of the year.

I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to Mother’s Day on Sunday. I really need some rest. Everyone will be home and under one roof again–at least for five days–before the whirlwind starts again on Monday.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!  I hope it’s relaxing.

The Reason is You with new digs!

Yesterday was release day for THE REASON IS YOU.  Again.

It debuted last year in trade paperback, and this year it is back in mass market with a hot new cover and new price.  With a dog—because my editor decided that dogs are the new blue, and boots and bluebonnets because Texas is evidently the thing.  Now, I live in Texas and there are no bluebonnets around me, and I don’t own a pair of boots, but I’m game.

And I love that cover.  It’s so much fun, and I’m tickled to death that Bojangles the Rottweiler made the cover.

In addition to a new cover, I got creative with some swag that really reflects both my main character Dani and myself.  Because let’s face it, we all end up writing about some version of ourselves.

Do you like to eat?   Do you like to cook?  Do you like to bake?

I love food.  Like—way too much.  Like—I plan my day around what we’re going to eat that night.  Now, that being said, that does not mean I like to cook.

No.

Cooking, no.  Baking?  Yes.

I don’t do it as often as I’d like, which is probably a good thing, but I love the smell of things baking and bubbling and filling the house with yum.  I love that look my dog gets when it’s all just too much and she’s about to go postal on me from the sheer drool-worthy aromas.

So, when I was writing THE REASON IS YOU, and Dani and her daughter Riley go into this boardwalk restaurant, Ella’s, I had to go there.  And I had to go with dessert.  Here’s a little snippet…

Just inside heavy double-oak doors was a giant framed chalkboard that looked to weigh a thousand pounds and sported several specials in different colored chalk. The floor appeared to be the original planking, and stainless steel buckets lined the wall, filled with napkins and wrapped silverware. A waitress snagged a bucket and nodded for us to follow her.

“We’re just getting something to go,” I said, pointing at the menus under her arm. “Could we just—?”

The perky little blue-eyed blonde glared at me as she handed us the menus.

“Thanks.”

I opened one and we perused with our heads together. Bread pudding. Key lime pie—yum, but already had pie. Already had lots of things, but somehow still ended up with my nose in the dessert section. Giant brownie volcano. Sopapilla cheesecake.

“Oh, now that has possibilities.” I pointed at what was likely death by butter.

“I recommend the banana pudding.”

The voice came from behind and over my head, and I spun around to see Jason walk past us and up to the counter.

Riley’s eyebrows shot up. “Who’s that?”

“Satan.”

“He’s hot.”

“Like I said.”

In the last year, I cannot tell you how many book club events I attended that made both of these dishes!  It so inspired me, that I got recipe cards made up for the sopapilla cheesecake.   Are these cute or what?

They are 3×5 and will fit beautifully in a recipe box.  And because I couldn’t stop there, I did one for my other book, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, too.  Couldn’t help myself.

Have you ever had sopapilla cheesecake?  I make it for every holiday, every event I have to bring a dish to, and every event my husband has to bring a dish to.   Dani says it’s death by butter, and she’s right.  It’s not good for you.  But it’s reallllllllyyyyyy good.  And these crackers are so easy to do, it makes appetizers a breeze.

What are your go-to dishes?