Home again home again, jiggety jig


I’m back. I’m alive, and my children are too.

And yesterday, I had a great signing at Barnes and Noble up in Round Rock (here are a few photos Melissa, who baked muffins — muffins! — and brought them to the signing, sent me). Lots of people showed up, we sold out of Murder on the Rocks in the first twenty minutes, and had only one book left when it was all said and done.

The first is with Frank Campbell, who’s the incredibly friendly and wonderful Community Relations Manager — then there’s one of Melissa, the muffins, a Cozy Chicks bag, and me, and the gorgeous teenager in the third is Grace (M’s daughter). Next time, I promise to try to have action shots, incidentally.

I have a few other photos, too, including one of a delightful little girl named Shelby Jo, but my camera is acting up, so I’ll just be thankful that Melissa was on the ball.

At any rate, we did survive San Diego, even though I bashed my head on a helicopter the last day and it still hurts. We got in late Friday night, which could be why I look a bit peaked in the photos. I got up Saturday morning to write, which didn’t help — but I added back in some of those words I’d cut, so I’m a very happy writer now. (As predicted, no writing got done last week.)

Here in Austin, it’s bright green and balmy, and spring is in full glory; the bluebonnets are an indigo carpet, with splashes of orange Indian Paintbrush tossed in here and there, the wisteria is perfuming everything, and the spiderwort (weird name, pretty plant) is everywhere. I love Austin in the spring — in fact, as much as I enjoyed San Diego, coming home was almost the best part. I love it here, I do. Except maybe in August. And July. And September, come to think of it…

Anyway, as I traipsed around the lake today, I was thinking about how Natalie Goldberg once wrote that different cities are her ‘angels’. I think Austin is definitely mine. My spiritual center seems to be the trail around Town Lake — if I’m feeling at all out of kilter, a three-mile-walk will put things back on course. Oh, and the cliff swallows are back — they leave every October, then come back in March to build their little mud-jug nests under the MoPac bridge. And a Carolina Wren family is nesting in a tin bucket on a shelf outside our sliding glass door; when I peeked into it last night to see if there were any eggs, a rather rumpled looking mommy bird darted out. I don’t know who was more startled!

I’m off now, for a party to celebrate my hubby’s accomplishments (he was just offered partnership at the architecture firm he works at and recently finished the grueling AIA certification gauntlet), and plan to drink many margaritas.

How’s everyone out there?

How’s the writing going? (Or not going, as the case may be?)

And also, out of sheer curiosity, what cities are your angels? And why?

Ta for now… it’s good to be back!

11 Responses

  1. Becky says:

    Glad to hear that your trip to Disney and San Diego went well!

    The city that is my angel isn’t really a city. It’s a little town (almost small enough to qualify for “village” status) in Ohio called Yellow Springs and it is the home of Antioch University, a liberal arts college, and home to Glenn Helen Nature Preserve. Every time I am there, I have to go hiking through the preserve to pay homage to, and get a quick drink from, the natural spring that gives the town it’s name. It’s really a beautiful place and extremely soothing to jangled nerves.
    As far as the writing goes, it’s coming along slowly, but it is progressing.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Hi Karen,

    Glad to hear your trip was good. Awesome news about your booksigning. It’s been hectic here, over the weekend I went down to NYC to visit my parents and yesterday I spent the day running errands and cleaning. So, no writing. But I did do some shopping in the city for some more baking supplies – Easter is coming up very soon and I’m putting together baskets of goodies for my neighbors and one real big one for the gals in my office.

    Tonight I’m going to write. I even blocked it out in my calendar.

    TTYL,
    Debra S.

  3. Hi Karen, The book signing was so much fun on Saturday. I wish you had more books because I would love to know how many more you could have sold. It was so much fun seeing all those readers buying up your books. It was kind of like watching the donuts disappear off the Crispy Creme conveyer belt…As for the city that is my angel, I would have to say Brunswick, Maine which is on the coast. My aunt and uncle owned the general store for many years…it was called “Doug and Mel’s”. It was in an old victorian house, and they lived on the top floor and the store was on the bottom. Even as a child, I knew how special that was. And as a teenager, I always wanted to go visit them (no obnoxious argument from me) it was heaven on earth. Melissa

  4. tammara says:

    Karen,
    I’ve been reading your blog here and there for a while – I can’t remember how I stumbled on it, but I’m glad I did. I lived in Austin for a few years, when my kids were all small (gave birth to the youngest there, in fact). My husband accepted a job which brought us north (to DFW) several years ago, and I had to leave the best place I’ve ever lived (the perfect description in your post made it all come flooding back). Waaaa! I miss it miss it miss it.

  5. tammara says:

    This comment has been removed by the author.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Hi Karen,
    Congratulations on selling out all your books this weekend. And how nice that your hubby has something to celebrate as well at his job. I guess 2007 will go down as a great year for you all!
    Judy W.

  7. Becky,

    Yellow Springs sounds just wonderful; I’d love to visit it someday.

    And it sounds like your writing is going just fine. Progress is good…:)

    Take care, and keep me posted!

  8. Debra,

    I wish I was one of your neighbors!

    Sounds like you had a fun weekend; and don’t worry about the writing. It will come…

    Karen

  9. Melissa,

    So glad you could come… and I need your muffin recipe for sure!

    I’ve never been to Brunswick, but it sounds like your childhood visits there were idyllic. (Kind of like my trips to my grandparents’ house in Newfoundland: charmed summers.)

    Thanks again for coming to the signing… I’ll see you soon in Georgetown!

  10. Tammara,

    You just have to come visit! I did my time in Plano… I totally understand. (Concrete hike and bike trails and strip malls — not my thing.)

    Thanks for stopping by. I hope to meet you sometime when I’m in the DFW area!

    Karen

  11. Judy,

    Thanks for the congrats. Overall, 2007 is shaping up pretty well… hope it continues that way!

Leave a Reply

Join Karen's Readers' Circle and download your free copy of The Gray Whale Inn Kitchen!

Join Karen's Readers' Circle to receive a FREE copy of the Gray Whale Inn Kitchen e-book (priced at $2.99 on Amazon)... as well as new book alerts, recipes, bonus stories, behind-the-scenes tidbits and deleted scenes! 

Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.