Not All Who Wander Are Lost

I like to scrapbook. It's one of the things I like to do in my copious amounts of free time. Every time I finish an album I like to write a review of the year. It used to be several years in one book, but since I had a child it's more likely to be only one year in a book. Good thing she's a photogenic little devil! I'm getting closer to finishing up another album. How do I summarize this year? I've got a strange perspective on the year. There's the normal January to December year, but that's not what I first think of when I think of a year. I'm a teacher, so I frequently confuse people because I also think of years as running from August to June! That'll confuse you. However, this year . . . I thought the hard part was getting published. It took me years not only to finish the book and to get published. I can wallpaper my office with the rejection letters I've gotten not only for RIBBONS, but also for a couple of other projects I've had.

I was cleaning the kitchen for the third time this evening when I wondered how much of my life have I spent in a kitchen? Cooking, cleaning, organizing, baking, remodeling . . .you name it! My mom and grandma started teaching me how to cook when I was little. Beyond that, though, so many of my memories are around the kitchen table. It was so much more than food, though admittedly, being from an Italian/Bohemian family there was a lot of food as well! Grandma and Grandpa would come over a lot and they would sit at the kitchen table, the tiny TV on the counter giving the latest news or tuned to "Jeopardy" or "Opry" as Gramps called Oprah. Rain or shine, any season, there they'd be smoke curling up in the air and dust motes dancing in the sunlight. My brother bouncing a quarter off Gram's beehive and Grandpa and his crazy jokes, calling me "Princess." Then there was the summer kitchen in my great grandmother's basement--three generations aroun

By the time I'd reached high school I'd ripped through most of my dad's fantasy collection. I'd read Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom series, tried his Shanarra series until I was bored to tears by Flick walking down the road. From there I moved into Feist's Riftwar and Aspirin's Myth books. I laughed with Craig Shaw Gardener's Wuntvor and delved into The Crystal Cave . After the Belgariad and the Mallorean I was looking for something else to read. By that time too I had met a few people in high school who had read the same books! Clare and Michelle and I would chatter about our books. Clare showed me the wonders of Earthsea and Michelle introduced me to Herald Vanyel. About twenty or so books later I'm not sure if I should thank her or smack her for the addictions. Clare then mentioned a writer I had never heard of before Anne McCaffrey. She was a science fiction writer. I didn't like science fiction. I liked to read fantasy and whoever he