Happy New Year!

Well, it's time to get cracking! I love a new year. Time to write a new novel. Wipe the slate clean and work again.

Ooh, there is a movie about Beatrix Potter coming out called Miss Potter. Jazzed about this one.

I don’t know what to write you, so I shall tell you the story about four little rabbits, whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter ... - from Miss Potter's illustrated letter to Noel Moore (son of one of her former governesses), sent when he was ill with scarlet fever. This kind thought led to the publication of The Tale of Peter Rabbit some seven years later.

Lloyd Alexander says that Janet Lee Carey's new book Dragon's Keep is awesome. This is book #1 on my 2007 reading list. Here is a helpful thought from Lloyd.

All that writers can do is keep trying to say what is deepest in their hearts. Lloyd Alexander.

This here is shocking. Laura Ingalls Wilder led to my life of excessive library fines. I could not bring myself to return On the Shores of Silver Lake to my junior high library and paid for it instead. I continue to pay exeedingly high library fines (I'm at $21.50 right now with KCLS).

Here's a great quote from Laura about living: "It is best to be honest and truthful, to make the most of what we have, to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong."

Good advice.

I can't think about writing with out being thankful that Madeleine L'Engle took time to write books.

You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. Madeleine L'Engle

I'm not really a Woody fan, but I have tried to be one. I do like the following quotes.

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. Woody Allen

Eighty percent of success is showing up.
Woody Allen

Here are quotes from two grand masters that pretty much made me feel the universe was a way bigger place than I thought it could be.

Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer. Ray Bradbury

There is a special sadness in achievement, in the knowledge that a long-desired goal has been attained at last, and that life must now be shaped toward new ends. Arthur C. Clarke

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed. You're gonna have to serve somebody," I've loved Bob Dylan songs my whole life. I remember holding my little transistor radio to my heart when one of his songs came on the radio. I must have been four years old.

What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. Bob Dylan

Thanks Bob.