A wonderful Bay Area writer named Heather Haven who is a maven of mystery stories, is doing a series of fun interviews with authors this month. She ran my answers earlier this week and I am delighted to share my Q & A with you on her website HERE. 

Are any of you Russian history or ballet buffs? 

It would be really fun for me to hear your own answers to these questions. 

Give it a whirl and toss us a few tidbits about yourself.

Otherwise, my heartfelt thanks again to Heather for inviting me to participate on her blog. It's always a delight to interact with such a talented writer as Heather.

Take it away, "This and That!"
(This is a better LINK to Finding Clarity!)

...is what I wish for all of you this new year. Other than that, I really can't think of anything pithy to say. I simply have no great pith at the moment (to bastardize a line from Take The Money and Run).

Other than the fact that our modem has been booga-booga for days, and I have not been able to update my site, our holiday was fine. How was yours?

I got what I really wanted, which was time with the people I love. Also too...(wink)...there were nice gifts to open, lots of food to share with friends, and pretty lights to ponder through squinting eyes.

We've taken out our tinder box of a tree and tossed it on the curb. The decorations are down. But so are the Raiders at the moment, so "down" is a relative word. Last night, my husband made a lobster soup and we hunkered down to watch the final episodes of the HBO series, ROME, which we last left off about two years ago, while our son went to a sleep-over. Thankfully, our local video store could dust off a copy of for us to figure out how it ended (not the civilization, but rather the TV show.) Loved Pullo the best, the big lug.

A friend and I did lunch the day before and saw the Week With Marilyn movie. I loved, loved, loved it. Can't say enough about Michelle Williams in this - she held her own against some of my favorite British actors. In fact, anyone who is anyone in a Who Done It was in it:  Cadfael, Wallander, M, Japp, Foyle, Ariadne Oliver.  Seems the only one they left out was Poirot himself.

My notebook with the next mystery sketched in it growls at me from a closed drawer. The modem winks at me menacingly, but papers are filed away, my office floor is vacuumed and school starts up this week.

That's all folks. Not much of an update, but there you have it. A friend's treatment for terminal cancer is no longer working and I wonder what it must be like to be living those final days with one's family, while those around us return clothes or try to figure out how to work the new gadget...in my case, iTunes. I wish him great peace and love.

What more can I say than I wish all of you good cheer, great health, safety, prosperity and love this new year.