Stressed?

Now that the holidays are a fond memory, the long weeks of winter seem even longer. Perhaps it is because of the shortened daylight hours, but the days seem to go on for forever. Each day seems bleaker than the one before, making people testier than usual. Add to that a long day at work and it is the perfect recipe for stress.

Many suggestions by noteworthy sources tell us how to cope with "cabin fever", as it is often called. Taking walks, getting exercise, and changes in diets are touted on being the cure. Honestly now, who wants to take a walk when it is ten degrees outside and there is a wind whipping frozen rain in your face?

The thing that seems to help to relax me the most is listening to music for half an hour before dinner. Any music will do, from Bach to the Beatles. The thought of small respite at the end of the day starts to relax me even before I have left the office. It has also become a wonderful time to talk and to reconnect with my husband. No chatter about what went on at work, no complaining about the traffic, just quiet chitchat about what to plant in the garden come spring and where to go for summer vacation.

Sometimes, of course, schedules and deadlines rob me of this precious chill-down time, and that is when I have a restless night followed by a miserable day due to lack of sleep. When that happens, I spend a little extra time with my music and everything is once again all right with the world.

How do you, gentle readers, relax after a long stressful day? Inquiring minds want to know.

Where Do You Get Creative Inspiration?

At every book signing, one of the questions I can always count on being asked is: "Where do you get the idea for your books?".

My books, much to my publisher's chagrin, do not follow the current popular trends. If they did, I would no doubt be a more successful author. Instead, I follow my heart. My characters all have a basis in reality. Some are even modeled after friends (names have been changed to protect the innocent, she says with a smile and a wink).

I also find inspiration for characters and situations in the news. The short story that recently ran on my website was about a man who worked on oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Currently, I am writing a story about a soldier on leave in Paris.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, if you let it. Anything from a song to a movie to the weather can be the spark for a story. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein during a cold and dreary summer in Switzerland. Had the weather been better, would we have had one of the greatest monster in literature?

Imagination is also a contributor to creative inspiration. Without imagination, Jules Verne would not have pioneered the science fiction genre, and without science fiction would man have dreamed of going into space or exploring the oceans?

Over the years, there has been a mellowing toward certain characters as well. Anne Rice took the feared vampire and turned him into a tragic romantic figure. Stephanie Meyers took it a step further and made her character Edward Cullen a sex symbol.

So, my fellow writers, think for a moment. Where do you get the inspiration for your books? Share your thoughts here; inquiring minds want to know.

Happy New Year 2012

As the holiday bells ring out the old year, and sweethearts kiss, and cold hands touch and warm each other against the year ahead, may I wish you not the biggest and best of life but the small pleasures that make living worthwhile.

Sometime during the New Year, to keep your heart in practice, may you do someone a secret good deed and not get caught at it. May you find a little island of time to read that book and write that letter, and to visit that friend.

May your next do-it-yourself project not look like you did it yourself. May the poor relatives you helped support remember you when they win the lottery. May your best card tricks win admiring gasps and your worst puns win admiring groans. May all those who told you so, refrain from saying “I told you so.”

May all the predictions you’ve made for your future come true. May just half of those optimistic predictions that your high school yearbook made for you come true. In a time of sink or swim, may you find you can walk to shore before you call the lifeguard. May you keep at least one ideal that you can pass along to your kids.

For a change, some rainy day when you’re late, may the train be waiting for you. May you accidentally overhear someone saying something nice about you. If you run into an old school friend, may you both remember each other’s names. If you are on a diet, may someone say “You’ve lost some weight” without knowing you’re on a diet.

May that long and lonely night be brightened by a telephone call. When you trip and fall, may there be no one watching to laugh at you or feel sorry for you. Sometime soon may you be waved at by a friend, smiled at by a stranger, wagged at by a puppy, run to by a child, and counted on by someone you love.

More than this, no one can wish you.

Happy New Year!

Twas Assembly Before Christmas

 

Dedicated to parents (and all other adults)

‘Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
I searched for the tools to hand to my spouse.
Instructions were studied and we were inspired,
In hopes we could manage “Some Assembly Required.”

The children were quiet (not asleep) in their beds,
While Dad and I faced the evening with dread:
A kitchen, two bikes, Barbie’s town house to boot!
And, thanks to Grandpa, a train with a toot!

We opened the boxes, my heart skipped a beat…
Let no parts be missing or parts incomplete!
Too late for last-minute returns or replacement;
If we can’t get it right, it goes in the basement!

When what to my worrying eyes should appear,
But 50 sheets of directions, concise, but not clear,
With each part numbered and every slot named,
So if we failed, only we could be blamed.

More rapid than eagles the parts then fell out,
All over the carpet they were scattered about.
“Now bolt it! Now twist it! Attach it right there!
Slide on the seats, and staple the stair!

Hammer the shelves, and nail to the stand.”
“Honey,” said hubby, “you just glued my hand.”
And then in a twinkling, I knew for a fact
That all the toy dealers had indeed made a pact

To keep parents busy all Christmas Eve night
With “assembly required” till morning’s first light.
We spoke not a word, but kept bent at our work,
Till our eyes, they went bleary; our fingers all hurt.

The coffee went cold and the night, it wore thin
Before we attached the last rod and last pin.
Then laying the tools away in the chest,
We fell into bed for a well-deserved rest.

But I said to my husband just before I passed out,
“This will be the best Christmas, without any doubt.
Tomorrow we’ll cheer, let the holiday ring,
And not have to run to the store for a thing!

We did it! We did it! The toys are all set
For the perfect, most perfect, Christmas, I bet!”
Then off to dreamland and sweet repose I gratefully went,
Though I suppose there’s something to say for those self-deluded;

I’d forgotten that batteries are never included!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Resolute Resolutions

With only a few weeks left in the year, some people (and you know who you are) are still striving to complete the list of resolutions that were made back in January.

In my wild and crazy youth, my resolutions were lofty goals – volunteer in causes that would change the world, contribute to worthwhile charities, etc. Hey, what can I say, I grew up in the generation that lived to protest anything and everything. As I grew older, the resolutions became more personal – work toward a promotion, find the man of my dreams, go back to school, write an epic novel. Still lofty, but definitely more realistic.

Looking back on all those promises to myself that I meant to keep, I find that a surprising number of them were completed. Not always in the same year that I made them, but kept still the same.
Perhaps that is how it should be. Goals and dreams cannot always be fulfilled with the confines of a year. Twelve months is far too short a time for the important things in life. It is the perfect time, however, for the small goals – saving for and then taking a grand vacation, buying that something special you’ve wanted for years. When scaled down, resolutions can actually be kept and then proudly checked off the list at the end of the year.

As for me, I still have one more item on my 2011 list of resolutions, but I am not worried. I still have time to accomplish it, and then I can look forward to sitting back on New Year’s morning with one last glass of champagne in hand and writing down my resolutions for the coming year.

How about you? How many things are still on you 2011 list?

Star Light, Star Bright

Now that the days are growing shorter, I find myself leaving for work in the dark and returning home in the dark. There is a bright side (excuse the pun) to the shorter days, however. It gives me a chance to cast my eyes upward and gaze at the stars.

I am lucky enough to be far enough in the suburbs that I can actually see the stars from my garden without the interference of streetlights. Not an astronomer in any sense of the word, I am still able to pick out a few of the major constellations - enough of the to make my junior high school science teachers proud.

Seeing the multitude of twinkling lights overhead never fails to fill me with awe. How beautiful they are! I look at them and wonder how many more worlds like our own or out there. Will we ever get to see those worlds? Are beings on those worlds looking up at the sky right now and thinking the exact same thing?

And what better place to sit and hold hands with the one you love than under a brilliant canopy of stars! It is the perfect time to reminisce and to dream.

Fellow stargazers and dreamers, share your favorite place to look at the stars with us.

As we prepare for Hurricane Irene’s arrival in New Jersey, I find myself delving into the Oreo cookies to keep my stress level at a minimum.

According to Science Daily, it is common to reach for comfort foods – chocolate, salty, or greasy food – during times of stress. They cited a lot of highly technical explanations for this, but it came down a chemical in fatty foods that reduces the amount of adrenaline in your system and calms you down.

Now, that sounds all scientific and factual, and I’m sure a lot of research went into it, but I really don’t care. I just know that when I bite into the crisp chocolate cookie and taste the creamy vanilla filling swirl around my tongue, all is right with the world.

What’s your favorite comfort food to help you deal with stress?