Hello!!

I’ve missed you! Things in Serendipity-land have been fun and exciting, although sometimes keeping up with it feels a bit like trying to drink from a fire hose! It is time, however, to stop and catch up with my friends!

First, the book is coming along wonderfully! The copyedit is finished and we are moving into layout and design, choosing a photo for the cover and diving into a thousand other decisions and details. I’m SO thankful for the amazing team of experts working on this. We expect to have books in your hands by the fall!

After a meeting with the publisher, the editor, the designer and the marketing expert, I saw an opportunity to get a little “river fix” and I took it! I beat it over to a lovely piece of the Illinois Great River Road and, as I love to do, just let go of the reins.

Wandering along back roads in unknown territory felt like a homecoming of the most heart-swelling kind! it didn’t matter where I went or what I saw or whether I got any photographs, I was just being there, drinking it all in.

The dogwoods were in bloom and the grass and trees were wide awake and fully alive with that brand-new, impossibly green, color that can never be reproduced.

When I rounded a bend and the river burst into full view, it felt like finally laying eyes on a loved one in a crowd at the airport. I sighed, rested, breathed deeply and felt realigned and reconnected.

Then I met someone, who introduced me to someone else, who owns property on a towering bluff with a magnificent view of the confluence of the Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers. With their gracious permission, I was there for a muted, silvery sunset

and again before sunrise, when a passing barge made the scene even more interesting.

Then I made fast tracks back home, did my laundry, repacked and headed west to Denver for a two-day conference – the “Author U Extravaganza.” I learned so much that I thought my head might explode. Being with so many talented, creative people and learning about all their unique projects was such a high that it was nearly impossible to shut my mind down at night. And, having so many seasoned experts in the world of book publishing respond to Surrendering to Serendipity with excitement and offers to help, made my heart feel like it might burst. I left tired, but filled to the brim.

So, I’ve recharged my soul with a river fix, stuffed my mind and my heart and had some perfectly wonderful family time as well – and I’m rarin’ to go again! Lead on, Serendipity!

P.S. – I also came away from the conference with this…a caricature done by Jake Williams, a fun, talented and very nice guy!  Whatcha think?