Getting in the Spirit of Things

It's been one week since I powered on my laptop.

Certainly there have been other computers that I've used, at work, at home. And certainly I've had plenty of time with my iPhone. But my laptop is where I do most of my new writing. It's where I've written the bulk of my novels (though I prefer editing on my giant of a desktop). It's where I compose most of these blogs.

Today has been a day off and I have enjoyed sleeping in and being lazy and going for a long walk and seeing a rather absurd movie. I'll save myself the embarrassment of confessing which, simply because it doesn't matter. What matters, is that it got me thinking about love.

The book I'm editing is about love, certainly, but more than that, it's about friendship and those people in our lives who are there no matter what, despite whatever is said, whatever is done.  I've struggled a great deal with how to make the female lead more sympathetic to readers and as I was walking this evening, peeking in at the neighborhood's Christmas trees, I realized something rather important. It's hard to explain to those who know nothing about this book, but what I realized may just be the missing piece to Jezebel's humanity. It may be exactly what I needed to show her as the character I know her to be. And it kills me because it's just so simple I feel like I should have understand that about her all along.

This past weekend has been about Christmas. For many years I kind of gave up on Christmas, the decorating and such because my schedule just gets so out of control I get tired just thinking about it. This year, I'm trying the opposite approach.

Last Thursday night we got a tree and then decorated it. We also bought our first ever exterior Christmas lights. I just couldn't resist when I saw them at the store. They are giant lawn versions of the classic glass Christmas lights! They are beautiful!

Friday I watched Love Actually and wrapped Christmas presents. One of these days soon my husband and I will find time to go to the Zoo Lights. I will continue to find time to do these little things that make me so happy.

There are a lot of valid reasons for me to dislike the holidays. But this year, I've decided to spend more time exploring the positive.

Which reminds me that it's time for eggnog...