State of Fair

Happy Monday Travellers!

I've been in such good spirits for the last week that I am almost as airborne as Nelly.  Almost.  Every time I close my eyes to see her, Nelly is a bit farther up off the ground with a tremendous smile.  And she's bouncing, I think that's the right word, yeah bouncing.  Her head keeps making the starry ceiling of my vision bulge upwards when she bounces.

I gotta say that it's all pretty cool, since Nelly is generally very reserved.  It's cute to see her so animated and I am pleased that she is pleased.

But, other than all the smiling bounces, no real tangible progress has been made towards my goal of being a successful author.  I haven't sold a book in weeks and no important publishers have pulled me out of the chorus to proclaim, "Kid, I'm gonna make you a star."  Not yet, but tangibles are the last link in the chain, all those intangibles are sizzling around me, so much so that I almost smell smoke.

I'm being unusually patient, which is weird because I don't play the patience game very well -- unless it comes to cooking of course, but that is a different blog.  Whatever is coming is coming, when it is coming is anyone's guess and I have plenty to do in the meantime.

One of those things is to say clearly and for the record that, despite the many bad things my poor eyes have witnessed over the course of this blog challenge, I am exceedingly grateful for the UBC.  Through the challenge I have learned so much about improving and promoting my blog in a very short amount of time, it's been a crash course in blog dynamics.

There are fabulous (other) blogs out there too, with distinct voices and melodic prose that are worth reading. One of my favorites belongs to Caro Ness, I have described her blog as a buffet filled with tasty treats like dragons and Roald Dahl.  Purple Panda is another big fave of mine, Janet has an exuberance about embracing life that matches my own and a connection to those intangibles that seems very familiar to me.

There are no Springsteen bloggists in the challenge, that I've seen anyway, and I have checked out most of them in the last few weeks.  What a humorless bunch of stiffs, they all seem to specialize in set lists, as if fifteen blogs about all the songs Bruce played in Wichita last night was important news in need of dissemination.  I love my Bruce and have seen enough of his shows to say with certainty that levity, humor and whimsy WILL NOT KILL BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.  It's no small wonder that the younger set keeps mocking my loyalty to the Boss, with all those sheep bleating about him regularly.

My last bit of business today is to acknowledge my sister Bonnie Domeny for all of her help in making this blog more beauteous and functional.  She made the new starry sky banner for me among many, many other things and is always gracious when I reach out.  Bonnie is an artist in her own right, a master of thread with a great web site for embroidery folk full of patterns and education, so please take a look if you are a crafty soul.

Okay Travellers, I have work today.  This is the day I enter the Amazon Breakthrough Novel award and I have to make sure my pitch is perfect.  If I don't get this done, Nelly is very likely to smack me on the head with that book she is holding.