I’d like to introduce the cover for my April 2010 release, THE COWBOY’S BABY. I love the pose they have of the little girl and the man. I hope it will entice many readers to pick up the book and read it. Hopefully they will enjoy the story equally as well as the cover.

WHAT I’M DOING TO GET ORGANIZED:

One thing always needs doing, every day, every SINGLE day, is supper. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at the clock knowing I have done nothing about supper and men are starting to circle like vultures. So I have been trying to change that as much as I can. One thing I’ve done is prepare meat ahead of time. This is how to prepare a large batch of ground beef.

Take about 10 pounds of ground beef. Spread a little at a time on a cookie sheet. Do not crowd it. Bake in a 350-375 degree oven for about 10 mins. Remove cookies sheets (I do two at a time), drain and break up the lumps of meat. Return to oven and continue cooking until all pink is gone. It’s okay if some pieces get a little crispy. Salt and pepper to taste. Dump cooked meat into a large bowl to cool and continue cooking the rest of the ground beef until it is all cooked.

Meanwhile, stir fry a finely chopped onion. Mix into cooked meat. Allow it to all cool then package into freezer bags in quantities sufficient for a meal. It can be used in soup, stew, chili, casseroles or anything you’d normally use ground beef for. It helps make mealtime easy.

HEALTHY HINT: Put drained beef in a colander and wash with hot water to remove more of the fat. Put back in oven to cook/brown more. Browning again after washing is essential for good flavor. (This also works well if you are frying ground beef.)

ANOTHER HINT: grate a carrot and stir fry with onion for added nutrition. One medium carrot for each pound or two of meat works well.

WHAT I’M READING:

I am a Claude Monet fan. One thing I really enjoyed on my long-ago trip to London <insert longing sigh> was the National Gallery where I got to see Monet paintings up close. I enjoyed equally as much my visit to Musee D’Orsay in Paris where they have much space devoted to this famous French painter.

I discovered a fascinating book in our library called, MONET AND THE IMPRESSIONISTS FOR KIDS by Carol Sabbeth.    It describes in easy-to-read style the beginning of Impressionism. There are some lovely quotes. Claude Monet, “When you paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field, or whatever. Instead think, ‘Here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow,’ and paint it like it looks.”

Pierre Auguste Renoir thought paintings should be "likable, joyous , and pretty." He said, "There are enough unpleasant things in this world. We don’t have to paint them as well."

The book is interspersed with drawing and painting lessons. They were so simple and straightforward I am almost convinced I could become a painter artist. (Though not of the caliber of these famous painters. )

On second thought, I think I will return to my writing. LOL.

Writing is demanding.

Deadlines are inflexible.

Requests from editors for more work on a project are unpredictable.

For instance:

On Friday I sent in the proposal for the Alaska story. One inflexible deadline met. I was anticipating a weekend with nothing pressing to deal with in my writing world.

Late Friday afternoon the courier man arrived and handed me a package. It was line edits to be done on Dakota Cowboy and returned by Mon. Seeing as they go back by courier, Tuesday is the earliest I can manage it.  Line edits is when the manuscript comes back with strike outs and notes in the margin. ‘Add something more here about the hero.’ ‘Change this word. Used too many times.’ ‘Why didn’t such and such happen? Explain.’

It sounds easy but it feels a lot like one of those math problems when someone gives you a list on unrelated numbers and asks what would come next. Do you guess or do you know?

It’s further proof that material from the editors is unpredictable.

Every moment of the week end will be spent getting this ready to return. Which proves that writing is demanding. (I will find balance just as soon as I have time!!!)

What I’m reading:

From age 45 to 59, Hannah Breece taught in the most primitive areas of Alaska. She once ‘held a hundred wild dogs at bay by herself and escaped. She traveled in a kayak wearing bear intestines! A bear almost ate her right from her bed and this time the dogs saved her!’ She scaled cliffs, fell through ice and outran a forest fire. This story is full of information but also reads like a story. I really enjoyed it.

What? It’s Saturday again? Already? Where has the week gone? I had such wonderful ideas of balance and organization.

It seems all I did was write and deal with interruptions. Mostly in the form of phone calls. (Do you still have kittens to give away? I could have give them away three times over!)

Why the pressure on writing? It’s because I have 2 deadlines this month. One was met Wednesday when I sent the package off via courier. The other has to be met before the end of the month. Plus I had non-negotiable demands from editors on yet-to-be released books such as filling out the detailed information required for cover art. DAKOTA FATHER is the title of my Jan. 2011 release. It goes rather nicely with DAKOTA CHILD (Sept. 09) and DAKOTA COWBOY (July 2010).

So most days this past week has found me at my computer.

My to-do list has changed very little all week. In fact, rather than change the list, I’ve taken to simply crossing off yesterday and changing it to today.

But as soon as I get these projects done I will find a way to be balanced–my goal for the year.

I’ve been reading some wonderful research books. GOLD RUSH WOMEN (picture to the left) is full of information and stories of unusual women. Anna De Graf was 55 years old when she climbed the Chilkoot Pass walking with the help of a crutch, her sore feet wrapped in rags. She wasn’t looking for gold but for her youngest son who had gone in search of gold. She supported herself working as a seamstress, sewing tents, making clothes for the miners and dance hall girls.

Ethel Berry found Klondike gold before the great Klondike Stampede. She spent the previous winter huddled in a small wooden shack with only a flour sack for a window. She panned paydirt by lamplight in a washtub

. She arrived in Seattle in rags but with $100,000 in gold in her bedroll.

Josephine Marcus Earp (yes, Wyatt Earp’s wife) set out with her husband to the gold fields. She turned back when she discovered she was pregnant but they set out again the next year. Again, they did not make it before freeze up. In the end they opened a canteen and sold beer and cigarettes.

This is a very interesting book about the last frontier in North America.

By the way, I intended to be more organized this year but we won’t talk about that this week for obvious reasons. (Most the total lack of organization.)

Christmas is over and it was lovely. Time spent with family, enjoying babies and growing grandchildren. Here’s the two little girls watching a toy. They are getting so big so fast.

The cold weather made for some beautiful scenery.And the heavy snow fall was great for building tunnels.

The new year is over a week old and I made some resolutions or as I prefer to call them, goals. I need to adjust my life to a better course.

I am determined to do is be more organized and balanced. Seeing as I never even managed to blog last week the organized part is not off to a blazing start. But I will continue to aim for that. Perhaps I’ll post some of my lessons.

Balance? I know it’s there. I see it every time I swing by. I just don’t know how to achieve it. Perhaps FEELING  organized is one way to find balance–living purposefully, knowing my priorities instead of responding to the urgent. I’ll let you know how it works out for me.

Oh yes, Diet. This year, instead of determining to lose weight I am committing to a year of eating well, and exercising regularly. Good luck to me.

In the meantime, I am enjoying re-reading a couple of books by one of my favorite authors–Elizabeth Berg. I just finished True to Form. I suppose you might call it a coming of age story but it is not typical. It’s so much more. A child who sees life with a very mature, but growing, point of view. What I really like about EB books is the way she captures life in such rich detail. I feel like I’ve jumped into the deep end of life and see things I’ve never before noticed. Perhaps seeing life through a kaleidoscope–richer, fuller, more colorful. If you’ve never read Elizabeth Berg, give her a try. Or re-read an old favorite.