writing winter off

If you have a favorite author or a favorite series chances are you know ahead of time when the next book will be released. You grow impatient waiting. Anticipation mounts. You devour the pre-release publicity. I knew the exact date Joan Didion's memoir, "Blue Nights", was due out on bookshelves.

I knew when "All New People" by Anne Lamott was sceduled for release.

And I waited anxiously for Julia Cameron's "The Prosperous Heart" to come out recently.

These three women are among my favorite authors so I look forward to every new book of theirs.

I was also looking forward to curling up under a warm quilt with a mug of hot tea on snowy evenings this winter to read...

while the wind howled and the snow drifted outside. I conjured up memories of snow angels, and icicles, and snowmen from my childhood.

I imagined romping with the dogs in the winter sun under glacial blue skies. Oh, how I looked forward to winter! As autumn wound down, my eagerness grew. Winter is my favorite seaon. The problem is that winter let me down this year. It has remained mild and gray and muddy, not at all reminiscent of my childhood.

Thankfully, even though winter was a disappointment this year, these three books were consolation enough for me.

Is there a book you're waiting for? What about spring??

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"The cold was our pride, the snow was our beauty.

 It fell and fell, lacing day and night together in a milky haze,

making everything quieter as it fell,

so that winter seemed to partake of religion

in a way no other season did,

hushed, solemn."

--Patricia Hampl--

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It is snowing as I write this!

jan