today is my birthday!

What better way to start my birthday and also end the year than with Maz? He makes me laugh and I hope all y'all have a little chuckle, too!

Here's to all of you! Much love, much joy, always Peace and a wonderful New Year! I'm honored to share this day with all of YOU!

(pictures tomorrow or soon after)

 

28 DEC or my birthday is right around the corner!

ha, ha!

that's right, i had to say it, but that's not what this post is about.

for the nine millionth time i just read about that other social media site being the death of blogging. for me, it's sheer laziness on my part that i'm not blogging more. i think of things to blog about or tell the MITM about something i want to write about and then. . .

POOF

it's gone and i've not written a word! 

i love reading everyone blogs even thought sometimes i don't comment. but that's on me, not any of you! (here's the deal, sometimes after reading what y'all have written, i feel such the complete idiot i'm hesitant to comment!)  but again, that's my hang-up. 

so, where does that leave me?

here's my answer:

i shall continue to write about things that interest me and hope y'all will continue to read.  every time i stray away from blogging i realize how much i miss the interaction with all y'all. the comments make me smile, always make me think, and always remind me that none of us are alone in our doubts/joys/secrets - we are a community of people who've found each other!  i am grateful and humbled and absolutely delighted to count all y'all as friends!

no challenges, no resolutions, just a reminder to myself that i really do like blogging and it really is still a lot of fun!

and then, there are the baby pictures...

BBC posing for the camera

Moxie and BGM

i'll be back soon!

The Case of the 25 Year Old Promise. Guest blog by Thomas M. Hewlett

“Mom, I’m going to be a writer someday.”  I was only fourteen and I’d made pronouncements like this before about being a police officer and, most notably, becoming a waiter.  So my mom smiled at me indulgently and said, “Fine, but you have to write me a mystery one day.”

Fast forward twenty-four years and I’ve done it.

“One Death at a Time” is my first novel, a detective story told in the classic first-person voice of the private eye who’s seen it all.  It tells the story of Jack Strayhorn, an ex-L.A.P.D. detective who was killed in 1948 chasing a suspect in the Black Dahlia murder.  He was reborn a vampire and uses his powers to solve the crimes that the human police force can’t.  In this first book of the Twelve Stakes series, Jack is on the trail of a supernatural hitman who took out a city councilman and an innocent girl.  When the councilman turns out to be the eldest son of a powerful Faerie clan, Jack is drawn into an underground supernatural war.

This is probably not what my mom had in mind when she asked for a mystery.  When I was growing up, her shelves were crammed with the likes of Agatha Christie, Mickey Spillaine, and the Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I loved science fiction and fantasy like Isaac Asimov and Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”, but I was a voracious reader and fell in love with those detective stories early on.  I loved the eccentric characters, the dramatic reveals, and the frantic chases through foggy midnight streets.  Holmes still tops my list of all-time favorite fictional characters.

Of course, Holmes and I have something in common.  He was an addict just like I am.  My experiences with drug and alcohol addiction inspired my novel as much as pipe smoking detectives and blood drinking vampires.

I started drinking and using drugs in high school, picked up speed in college, and crashed and burned in my early thirties.  I finally hit bottom three years ago. I ended up in the psych ward for two weeks followed by a month in rehab.  I lived in sober living for the next nine months, trying to get my life and marriage back together.  During that time, a good friend of mine urged me to start writing about everything I’d been through.  “But make it supernatural,” he said. “Like vampires in A.A.!”  The idea was infectious.  A vampire alcoholic.  Alcoholics Anonymous as a secret cover for vampires trying to help each other survive their disease.  The addict as monster and the monster as hero.  One day at a time, one death at a time.  The Twelve Stakes series was born.

My books are a strange alchemy of murder mysteries, fantasy stories, growing up in Los Angeles, and addiction and recovery.  But it wouldn’t have been possible without my mom’s early influence on my imagination.  I learned from those old books that even though the heroes aren’t always the good guys, it’s their darkness that makes their stories impossible to put down.  Like my characters, they are forced to turn their curses into gifts in order to survive the shadowy worlds they inhabit.

Writing Jack’s story helped me rewrite my own story.  I stayed sober, got my life back on track, and fulfilled a lifelong dream and a long held promise.  I wrote my book.  And I wrote my mom a mystery.

meet the author HERE!

 i've mentioned this before, but there's a new book out that is available on Amazon for $2.99 or £1.84 or 2.18€.  it's the first installment of a 12 part series.  there are great reviews up on the amazon site already, if you don't believe me!

the author, thomas m. hewlett is going to be doing a guest blog here soon, so you have time to buy the e-book and read it because i've asked you nicely!

One Death At A Time

we all live in blogville, so you're still shopping local!

xoxox

a proper post

i left a comment the other day on brother exile's page and his gentle nagging reminder set me to thinking about my lack of blogging! after being gone for almost 2 weeks, the idea of sitting down and writing about the trip got lost in the reality of coming home and resetting our body clocks. the MITM had been gone even longer because he and part of the coconut krewe had gone pheasant hunting in one of those cold states almost on the pacific, but not in the middle of the country. (how's that for vague?) anyway, he did that for a week and then we met in lalaland for a couple of days with the rest of the krewe for a very big dinner! captain chaos and the MITM were in charge of the main meal and The Kid made dessert BECAUSE not only were we celebrating the hunt, but also the captain's 42nd birthday! (i KNOW, he's getting so old, right?)  somewhere we have pictures, but it seems that we're doing a lot more being present in the moment when we're together and not always taking pictures. (maybe, we're all getting old) or maybe, my mind's camera/eye is storing the images for me to retrieve when i'm alone and phoneless. i don't know, but i'll check the BIG camera's card and see what's there later and post what i find.

after we left SoCal*, we flew up to NoCal** to meet Big Shelly and MissK for a few days in The City*** before driving up to the wine country.  we've made this journey with our BFF's before, but always late in october and never for as long as this trip, so we had a few different experiences. one being that since we were  in The City we had a chance to celebrate Big Shelly's birthday at 
Balboa Cafe (yes, yet another of our favorite places to eat and drink) because everything served there is just so damn delicious and wonderful and special, it was the perfect place to be again! 

the next night was at Scoma's! check out the menus and you'll see why we love both of these places.  good food, good wine, a gorgeous city and best of all, our friends.  

who could ask for anything more?

i think we've talked about our adventures in napa/sonoma and staying in healdsburg and if i haven't, i think i'll just list a few links and let all y'all peruse them at your leisure. 


sinskey

unti

reynolds

imagery

benziger

twomey

cosentino

plumpjack

now, i KNOW that seems like a LOT, but we were there for a good length of time and didn't see all of them in one day, darlings! there were a few other places, but if you're going to visit napa/sonoma, it's always fun to discover new places on your own, so i won't spoil it for you by giving away all of our secrets...

if you ever have a chance to visit a wine producing area, do it. there is something about this sort of agriculture that far transcends the glory of the fruit. for me, it's the motivation of the families that run the vineyards and their determination to grow the best fruit possible and make their wines as perfect as possible. many of the vineyards we visited are producing bio-dynamic wines with the move towards sustainable and organically grown grapes without the use of pesticides is paramount.  (for more info about bio-dynamic farming check out: https://www.biodynamics.com)  there is a difference, i can assure you! especially the day after!  for this city girl, being in an area that celebrates the dirt, the fruit and veggies, the animals, the bees and the flowers, it was beyond an experience, it was a reminder that there is a real satisfaction in pulling a baby carrot out of the ground and knowing that it will be on your plate later.  we had the farm to table tasting at sinskey and it was HOT.DAMN.GOOD.

Big Shelly and MissK flew back to SAV and the MITM and i flew down to lalaland for one more overnight with the coconut krewe before flying home and it was a blast! BGM is walking and her big boy cousin, BBC, is leading the way to mayhem and true to his name, chaos! (i love it) 

you know what's next...

BBC, BGM and Turtle

Remember, 
nothing is guaranteed. 
be present in your life and not an observer. 

Remember, 
say i love you to those people who mean something to you. 
don't wait for a reason or an event or the perfect time.



I Love All Y'all!





* southern california
** northern california
*** san francisco