I have been finishing a book…Done! It will be published in June 2020 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, the same publisher and editor that have made all my books happen, and as they like to say: details to come, and I turned 60 and got the best present ever from my children and grandchildren– an illustrated literary journal about life at our house.
Because, as Sarah said, “How hard can it be to write a book?”
Then I took off on my new birthday bike for a long ride from Haines to Skagway with two biker chick friends, Fran and Kate, for a week.
Kate took all the pictures, except that one of herself. We had a cushy support vehicle with hot coffee, and even a shower.
I know, on a map it is only about 14 miles from Haines to Skagway by water, but it’s more like 350 miles if you take the Haines Highway, Alcan, and Klondike Highways up and over and down and around, which we did. The weather was perfect and the smoke from the forest fires cleared just in time.
So, now I’ve deadheaded the flowers, pinched back the suckers on the tomatoes, brushed the dogs, changed the beds, done the laundry, cleaned the fridge, and grocery shopped. I still have to clear off my desk.
It took a while to get through town today to buy kosher salt to brine some sockeye for the smokehouse, what with the continuing construction and a big ship, but I managed, and it was fun to people watch.
I continue to email Alaskan lawmakers (the Gov’s budget is a disaster, but thank goodness the legislature is standing up to the cuts) and have an assembly meeting tonight and another one Thursday. There are a bunch of thank you notes still to write, and my dog Pearl is flying down to Juneau later this week for her final X-Ray, and she’d doing great too- so that’s a relief.
What I wanted to say before I forget (and excuse me if I’m a tad rusty, and scattered, and less than brilliant, but it has been a while…) is thank you, thank you, thank you– for your patience while I worked like a crazy woman, for missing me, for reading what I write, and sharing my books with friends.
