Holidays 2008

I have fallen down on my blogging. Thanksgiving hit, and I've been on a roll ever since, not on my blog, however. Got the Christmas decorations up right after Thanksgiving including the new frosted greenery I found on sale at Marshall's last year. As usual, decorated the guest bathroom in snowmen including the shower curtain, the rug, and every inch of available space. It looks really cute, if I do say so myself. I even have snowmen soap and a snowman night light in there.

We went for a smaller tree in the living room this year. Actually, it's one I bought at the Festival of Trees last year, about 3 to 4 ft tall. Decorated it in lots of red ornaments and myriad tiny twinkling lights. It's sitting on a small table so the cat hasn't bothered it much. Dan hung blue lights outside, and I added a tree with colored lights and wooden ornaments made by our good friends, George and Judy Kidd.

We've had a good Christmas visiting with our chidren and grandchildren, Chuck, Michele, Damien, Daniele, Candie, and Tailen. I always hate to see them go though. I refuse to take down any of my Christmas decorations unil Epiphany on Jan. 6. I may even leave them up longer than that. It's really fun to sit in the living room with Noel, the cat, and a glass of wine savoring the holiday decorations. I'm in no hurry to take anything down.

Opryland Hotel visit

Here we are at the lavish Opryland Hotel in Nashville while Dan attends the state school board meeting. Christmas decorations are everywhere from poinsettia trees to glimmering lights that transform the gardens to a fairyland. I have walked myself to death visiting the shops and the mall across the street.

None of my shoes are comfortable anymore. Maybe I'll start using roller skates instead. We ate at our favorite restaurant, The Water's Edge, last night. I have never seen such a spread of appetizers, salads, breads, soups, vegetables, pasta, meats, and desserts. I ate so much hummus and veggies and pasta I had no room for dessert, but what a delicious meal!

Another benefit of book signings, meeting people

I have spent the past few weeks going to numeous book signings and meeting lots of new people. At the local fitness center where I exercise, I've discovered many old friends I haven't seen in years. Everyone seems to have a different workout schedule so I've been selling my books at different times, early morning, lunch, or late afternoon. That way I see just about everyone who goes through the doors of the club.

Saturday I did a signing at Jefferson Drug Store and renewed acquaintances with so many people. This place is a quaint little restaurant with gift shop that reminds you of Mayberry. The lady who rings up the sales, Peggy, is just as friendly as Aunt Mae. I had a hearty breakfast at 8 am with my friends, Pat and Joanne, then went into the gift shop to sell my books. My husband Dan and daughter Candie came down about 12 pm and we ate another hearty meal. While in the restaurant, we ran into an old friend we hadn't seen since she was about 4 years old, Victoria. She had turned into a beautiful young lady with long dark hair and striking brown eyes. She is now a high school graduate. Seeing her was the highlight of my day.

Book readings and signings

Well, I had to admit to my publisher that I got a little carried away with scheduling readings and signings for my new book. I forgot that even an energetic person like me has to rest once in a while. When I looked at my schedule and realized that I had scheduled 7 talks/readings in a two- week period, I almost fainted. Doing readings isn't a problem, but when you have to prepare talks and workshops, you need time to do it.

I talked to the Roane County Writers in Kingston on Oct. 16 and had a wonderful time with them -- after my friend, Fay, and I finally found the library. I had gotten directions over the phone, but naturally I didn't write them down coherently. The only words I could read were "near the courthouse" and "on Kentucky Street." The library is near the courthouse but not that near. Fortunately, I had the library phone number so we were able to call and get more specific directions.

On Oct. 23, I speak to the OR Chamber of Commerce Diplomats on the power of humor. I'm pulling that talk together right now in-between working on the 5-hr humor writing workshop I'm doing for the TN Mountain Writers on Nov. 1. I get to rest a little after that workshop and don't need to prepare another talk until Nov. 12.

My grandson's football season is almost over so I'll have Monday nights free again. It's been a lot of fun watching him on the freshman team, but I don't enjoy watching him get tackled by some of the behemoths on the field.

KWG anthology launch

This was a great week for the Knoxville Writers' Guild (KWG). We launched our 8th anthology, Outscape: Writings on Fences and Frontiers, at Laurel Theatre on Thursday night. Edited by Jessie Janesheck and Jesse Graves, the anthology is a real treat with dozens of talented writers represented, I am very proud to have my memoir included, "Seashells, Hula Skirts, and Bob Hope: Memories of Guam." I lived on Guam in the early 1950's when my father was stationed there with the US Army. It was a magical time for me, and I hated being evacuated because of the threat of attack by North Korea.

The KWG also had readings at Barnes&Noble today where several of us read our poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Coincidentally, the piece I read on Guam was one I composed in a writing workshop I took from Jeanne McDonald at the TN Writers' January Jumpstart two years ago. Jeanne also was one of the readers today.

Not enough hours in the day

Where do the hours go? After I did some laundry, fetched my daughter's Yorkie to spend the day with me, ate lunch with a friend, did some early Christmas shopping at Linkous & Green jewelry (the best jewelry store around), worked on some writing deadlines, walked sixty minutes on the track while waiting for my 14-yr old grandson to finish football practice, came home and helped him with his Spanish homework, Civics, algebra, biology, etc, (assisted by my husband Dan), I finally looked at the clock and it said 8 pm. We hadn't even had supper yet! This is how our weekdays go. It is hard to concentrate at the end of the day, but until football is over we have to keep our minds fresh enough to look over homework. And this homework at ORHS is challenging. Luckily, Tailen has great teachers so we are very lucky. I'm just glad I didn't have to pass these classes in high school!

Cherries Internet Cafe

Yesterday I had a new experience -- getting interviewed at Cherries Internet Cafe, downtown Knoxville. It was just like a regular TV interview with hostess Donna Starr, Eva Live, asking me questions on live Web TV. When the show is archived and up on the net, we'll be able to watch the interview. We discussed my humor writing career and my new book, Life Among the Lilliputians. Donna is the publisher of a wonderful women's magazine called Eva Mag. I 've written for it several times, and it's very popular among area women. Donna is looking for more writers to interview so let her know if you're interested.

Today I made a new writing friend, Mary Clark Capito. She and I both took an online humor writing course together and discovered we lived in the same area. Small world!

First talk on my new book

Today I spoke at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Oak Ridge, to a wonderful audience. I told them about the process about publishing my new book, Life Among the Lilliputians, with Celtic Cat Publishing. I outlined the numerous steps required, and revealed all the help my husband had given with technical issues such as sending zip files and developing this blog. I couldn't have done it without him! Thanks, Dan. So far we've sold 135 advance copies of the book!

Haitian Boys' Choir

This has been an extremely busy but fun week. My sister Mary and her husband Chris arrived on Monday night for a short visit on their way back to Houston. may and I enjoyed going to Erins' Meadow Herb Farm and shopping in Oak Ridge. They left Thursday and made it home before Ike struck. Luckily, their house was not damaged although they are still without power tonight.

On Friday, the Haitian Boy's Choir arrived in Oak Ridge. We sponsored four boys who spent the night with us after their wonderful concert at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on Friday night. The group of 44 is touring the US for 3 weeks and sings at the National Cathedral in DC tomorrow. They are a very professional group with high standards and beautiful voices. We loved hearing them and the instrumentalists who accompanied them on some of the pieces. My favorites were the Haitian folk songs. I couldn't keep my foot still in the pew.

Still learning

I've still learning how to be a blogger. Have tried to add on several blog sites but have failed. Must ask my husband Dan for help again. Without him I would have no website and no blog! No working on book manuscript today. Instead preparing for talk at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Lunch Bunch next Tuesday on humor writing and how I got my book accepted by a publisher. This week has been spent having fun with my sister and brother-in-law from Houston, TX. Tomorrow we visit Kathy's Herb Garden and smell fresh mint and basil.

Book Talks

Finished proofreading the first official copy of my book, Life Among the Lilliputians. Wasn't too bad, just a few missing periods and some extra spaces. The next hurdle is getting all the permissions together for the book. This means contacting every publication who has previously published one of the essays and light verse in the book. Some of the pieces are no problem as they appeared in anthologies that plainly say on the cover copyright belongs to the author of each individual piece. Others require a little more effort. So far everyone has been very cooperative though.

The next challenge is the schedule of talks I have about the book. I already do quite a bit of public speaking, but lately I've gotten even more invitations than I usually do. I spoke to the Red Hat Society of Roane County in August, along with St. Stephen's Lunch Bunch and EvaMag Live in September. Then's it's the Clinton Wednesday Club and Roane County Writers in October followed by a 5 hr humor writing workshop for the TN Mountain Writers on Nov. 1, OR Association of Education Office Professionals on Nov. 12, and Delta Kappa Gamma on Dec. 8. I'm also doing some anthology readings for the Knoxville Writers' Guild new anthology, Outscape : Writing on Fences and Frontiers. I'm not sure when I'm supposed to sleep these days!

Book work

So you get the book prepared. You send it off to the publisher. He accepts the book.You redo and reformat it somewhat. Then the graphic artist and designer get involved. Now you have to review the first proof copy very carefully for typos. So this weekend I'll be staring at page after page of Life Among the Lilliputians trying to catch any errors. Instead of life among the lilliputians, this weekend will be life among the proofreaders.

Readings and talks

I never expected to be making so many talks about humor writing. By the end of 2008 I will have done about 20 talks on humor writing or my new book. I've done a few readings, too, but they don't involve as much work as a talk or workshop does. I'm speaking to the Roane County Writers on Oct. 16 in Kingston and doing a mini-workshop on humor writing. Then I do a five-hour workshop on Nov. 1 for the TN Mountain Writers. Its focus is also humor writing. I am madly putting together the format for both talks right now and wondering who wants to listen to me for five hours? ha.

A book at last!

It's been a long time coming, but I'm pleased to say I will finally be a real author with my own book. Yes, Celtic Cat Publishing (Jim Johnston) is publishing Life Among the Lilliputians, a collection of my humor essays in December. I am thrilled pink, but my hair is still white. You can preorder the book for jut $12 by visiting my website at judyjabber.com.

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