My desk?!
My desk is cool. Besides my computer and printer, my desk sports a Chicago snow-globe, a wee jade Buddha, a California souvenir redwood pen holder, Newman's Own Organic Ginger Mints (they're AWESOME), two pictures of my son, a Burt's Bees Ultra Conditioning Lip Balm, a timer, a cool 4-inch in diameter round rock, a big chunk of Quartz crystal, assorted Post-It-Pads, some Bob Dylan and Classical CDs, eyeglass cleaner, some L'Occitane Hand Lotion, a losing Hoosier Lottery Scratch-Off ticket and a metal back scratcher. And sometimes our cat turns around in a circle and plops down on everything.

I have been writing for as long as I remember. Some stories I started twenty years ago are still waiting for an ending! I decided to publish on Smashwords because my husband and I download A LOT from the site and we love it. I starting being disciplined with my writing after I retired from being a bookseller for thirty years.I thought, "No time like the present."

The blank page is the writer's world. It belongs to me. I can create, destroy and reinvent entire societies. I'm responsible and that's why I love it.

So many! Rainer Maria Rilke. William Butler Yeats. I love Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From The Sea--I read it every year. I love Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Eudora Welty. Harper Lee. Gloria Steinem. Shirley MacLaine. J.K. Rowling. Barbara Cooney. Bob Dylan. I count him as an author--go to his website and read his lyrics--pure poetry. Donald Hall. Susan Wittig Albert--love her China Bayles herbal mysteries. Mark Twain. Dorothy Parker. I enjoy David Baldacci. Erin Hart is good. She writes mysteries set in Ireland. Albert Brooks. I love Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. So many!

I read! I garden. Most of my yard has been turned into a Wildlife Habitat and a Monarch Waystation. We need to save the bees--grow stuff they love. I love feeding the birds that visit my yard. I grow herbs: thyme, pineapple sage, lavender, three or four different basils, parsleys (for cooking and for the butterflies), rosemary, cilantro, sage (I hate the flavor, but my husband likes it.) I grow tomatoes and peppers. But my heart belongs to flowers: Coneflowers (in the winter I see goldfinches atop them pecking out the seeds,) red hot pokers, columbine, nigella, daffodils, daylilies, Black-eyed Susans, cosmos, zinnias, butterfly bushes, sunflowers, oh, and weeds. I grow a lot of weeds, which is okay because insects and other lovelies adore weeds.

Letters to a Young Poet--Rainer Maria Rilke. A Polish friend turned me onto Rilke and there is so much wisdom in that book.
Gift From the Sea--Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The first time I read it, it just resonated with me. I read it often.
Miss Rumphius--Barbara Cooney. It's a children's book and it's just lovely.
Harry Potter series--J.K. Rowling. From the first scene on number 4 Privet Drive, I was hooked. Love, love, love. I'm in awe of Rowling.
My fifth favorite book is the one I'll read next!

I'll let you know when something pans out! (insert a "LOL" here)

I don't have fans now, but when I get some, it'll be terrific and I'll be appreciative!

I'm working on a book about three sisters. I go to bed each night and they're in my head. I say to them, "Well, what do you want to say?" They haven't answered me yet. Dang it!

Mysteries--what the industry describes as "cozy mysteries"
Irish History
Romances--but only if they're set in 1) a bookstore, 2) Ireland, 3) a garden 4) an island (I know, I'm picky)
Magazines--The Smithsonian magazine is wonderful!
Biographies-- just finished autobiographies of Dick Van Dyke, Alan Arkin, Peter Falk and Kelley Carlin (George's daughter)
Travel Brochures