Plenty of Surprises

When I wrote my second award-winning novel – Plenty, I never guessed that I would move to three states during the course of thirteen months.  Somewhere along the road from a ranch in Texas to the California central coast to Nevada, my perspective changed.  In 2016, searching for and finding my laptop in the kitchen sink best summarizes the year.

Perhaps, living for months with only the contents of my purse and a small suitcase, stocked with four shirts, four pants and important documents, made me realize that finding joy amongst the disorganized chaos – easier than I would’ve imagined. A favorite blue shirt and pair of cushy strappy rainbow colored high-heels that I wore two months ago – still exist somewhere in Texas, California or Nevada.  My birth certificate and passport will be at my fingertips once again. I’ll find the car titles and fragile family crystal collectibles somewhere, undamaged, within the fencing of sixty boxes that surrounds me like the can’t be breeched fortress walls.  And it’s all ok.

Perhaps, living with a Danube blue ocean view isn’t all that I hoped it would be.  Perhaps, living with July heat in Nevada – easier than I would imagine. As someone once said, “Home is where the heart is.” Having downsized from a 45 acre working horse ranch to a suitcase, I have to add –“ Home is where the heart is which is anywhere with a healthy happy family.” Despite the upheaval and a hard landing in Vegas, as long as my family and furry friends thrive, I can… relax and easily find comfort and joy.

Oh and along the way, I gathered a lot of material for my third book. But returning to Plenty. Plenty reflects my love for riveting suspense and what-the-hell twists and turns. Like Beautiful Evil Winter, Plenty has emerged an award winner, and so did I despite the bureaucratic headaches, the mistakes made – a horrible unethical stable, near San Luis Obispo Airport, the lack of air conditioning, the inability to enjoy a backyard with my dogs, having to share a much smaller bed with a snoring husband for a year, a strong sense of displacement from my home state, friends and neighbors.

In ways I hadn't envisioned, Plenty serves as a reminder that even with the thundering chilling avalanche of change that gratitude for the simple moments can lead to a mind-bending adventure and a unyielding galvanized sense of poise and peace. Never would’ve guessed, only hoped that I would pen two award-winning novels, learn to be more meditative, more reflective and more calm as a result of layers of migraine-inducing experiences.  Here’s wishing you calm and vision in the wake of life’s stormy challenges. Oh, and that laptop – someone stashed it in the linen closet under a stack of sheets.