Winter weather, an open book blog hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Winter is coming to the northern part of the world. (It's here!). Do you have any plans, or do you prefer to hide from the cold?

_________________

Currently I live in North Carolina, about halfway down the eastern seaboard of the United States, pretty much the northern part of what we call "the South." Since I grew up in the Midwest and spent my early adulthood in Alaska, I don't really find my current home truly cold most of the time (the mountains of NC do get "real" winter, but that's not where I am). 

In fact, I don't own a proper winter coat anymore. The two or three days a year I might need one, I wear a thick sweater beneath a heavy jacket. 

On the dark side of fifty now, I'm more sensitive to the cold than I used to be, especially where I have arthritis. But despite that, I like a nice snap in the air, at least for a little while. It's invigorating. And after I've gotten chilly, I have a great excuse to cozy up with a cuppa and a fire in the fireplace when I come back inside. Cozy heaven. 

 It's actually harder for me in the summer. I wilt in the heat. My favorite is that "cool enough for a sweater" weather in early spring and in the autumn.  

How about you? Do you relish winter? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

The Best Gift, an IWSG post

(Reminder: this site is now ONLY my blog. If you're looking for my book links or contact options, events, or any other aspects of my writer life, please visit http://dangerouswhenbored.com )

 

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG are Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!

December 3 question - As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

___________________________________

Winter Holidays, 2010. We had opened all the packages and were sitting there basking in the glow when my husband announced that there was one more gift. He left the room and came back with a little scroll, then handed it to me. 

When I unrolled it, I found that Sweetman had bought me a writing retreat! I'd be going to Pelican House for a week of quiet and writing. 

 It was quite a gift--not only in the dollar value of the retreat itself, but because it was also a promise to take on the extra labor to grant me the time. He'd be a single dad to our kids (they were nine and two at the time), take care of our house and dog, and leave me free to ignore my part of those responsibilities for a whole week and just focus on my writing!

 It was an amazing show of support.  

That week ended up being really important to my writing life. Not only did I make great progress on the book, but I made friends with a group of supportive women who boosted my confidence and helped me see the value in my work. It did a lot to fight my imposter syndrome and make me feel like this was something I could actually do. 

It's easier to find writing time now. Our kids are older. I changed jobs to something less stressful. I've got better at focusing under less-than-ideal conditions. But the writing space inside my head still looks a lot like the room at the top of the cupola at Pelican House.