Hi there, guys and dolls!  Well, this happened before I knew it.  This is blog post number 100!  It’s been over a couple of years, and there’s many favorite posts I’d love to mention.

My very first one was titled ‘You’ve Written a Novel…Gee, That’s Swell, Now What?’ and started with the very beginning of the journey, before queries, rejections and acceptance.  And then it grew.  I got an image and a publishing home, thank you Cozy Cat Press, Patricia Rockwell specifically, for believing in the wonderful world of Santa Lucia and its social set.  It opened up a whole new world of friends and readers.  I’ve loved doing my Take 5 interviews with my fellow authors with more to come.  And I’ve talked about myself and being an alter ego in ‘Which One’s Barbara, Which One’s Jean?’

Others have be such a fabulous support and have become great friends.  Although I don’t think the post captures them all, ‘Giving Thanks’ makes a good attempt to share how I feel about my people — for those of you not mentioned specifically, please know I am still so very blessed to be included in your world.

The writing life is certainly not static, nor without its challenges.  ‘Sometimes You Just Gotta Laugh’ and ‘Oh, Good, You’re Not Working Today’ talk about that.  ‘Gone Fishin” and ‘Ready, Set Nope — A Hooky Day for You!’ have some great remedies for filling up the tanks and revving  a girl up to take on the world for another round.

Now of course you know your truly is all about the glamor and the fun.  Some of my favorite essays have been about the Poppy Cove Mysteries time setting and a nod to ’50’s culture.  ‘Just Stepping Out for a Quart of Milk…’ and ‘Everything Old is New Again’ were just plain entertaining and a joy to research and write.

Thanks again to all of you who have been with me from the beginning and a warm welcome to those we showed up to the party along the way.  I leave you with this and a toast of the bubbly —  ‘Swinging Holiday Partytime’, as it turns out is right around the corner already!

Toodles,

Barbara Jean