What floor do you live on?

Having been a Christmas/Easter churchgoer for the past couple of years, I've gone back to church. Thanks to Jacob for getting me there. Even though it's all fun and games in the pre-school nursery, I want him to know that church is where you go on Sundy morning. He enjoys it, and I'm glad to be back. This Sunday, the minister quoted a theologian (sorry, can't give you the name) who suggested we think of ourselves as a house. Most of us live on the first floor, but there's the second floor and even the attic--levels we could aspire to if we wanted and tried, and then there's the basement, where we could sink to being less than we should be. The image stuck with me. I remembered someone in my class who didn't think she is living up to her full potential--actually I think she's on the second floor, and I hope to share this image with her. I guess most of us live on the first floor but hope that occasionally we make to the second.
I taught a new memoir group today for Human Resources at TCU today--nice bunch of women who seem enthusiastic and genuinely interested. Out of seven present, one wants to write professionally. The others write for their children and grandchildren, and one writes, I suspect, for herself--nothing wrong with that. I caught one woman staring into space and asked if she had a question. She said no, her mind had just slipped back to something that had happened at the office that day. That's the trouble with a lunch-hour class--it's hard for people to put their work out of their minds for one hour and then leap back into it.
I heard today of a politician, Federal legislature I believe, who went on a hunger strike several years ago and is going on one again to protest legislation which hurts the poor. He said, "We can't fix the economy on the backs of the poor. They didn't get us into this mess, and we should not punish them to get out of it." Hope the Texas legislature was listening: Friday HB1 comes up for a vote. It's a budget that closes schools, raises college tuition, leaves senior citizens homeless, cuts funding for those with disabilities, and elminates pre-K programs. There goes the remnants of LBJ's Head Start and the Great Society. I wonder if Texas is headed for the basement.
I know, I promised no politics, but I am also moved by my friend Representative Lon Burnam's plea to protest HB1 and urge legislators to vote against it. I don't think we want to live in a state that ignores people's basic needs.

KIndle publishing, self publishing, promotion, memoirs--my brain is in a whirl

Spent much of the day studying various hints on promoting your e-books, formatting them to publish--did some investigation and found that Kinko's will scan existing books without damaging the spine for $1.00/page. Wonder if I'd ever make that much back if I posted one, short (182) word-book on Kindle and Smashwords. Also, everytime I see a new small press mentioned, I check out the web page--so many are interested in sci-fi, horror, vampires, etc. Doesn't seem to be many that want cozy mysteries, but I have starred a couple to query. Waiting on that until after Fred re-reads the manuscript. Meanwhile my desk is still loaded with tips for promotion and that book on how to build your platform. I'm only half way through the book--think what wondrous things I might do if I ever finish it! All of this takes most of the day--well, there was the grocery this morning, lunch with a friend, class tonight, and of course my nap. Point though is that I'm not anywhere near going back to concentrate on the novel in progress. I figure when I get back to writing it, I need to give it my full attention. I started to say I'll be grateful for the holidays--but what am I going to be on holiday from?
Holidays, however, do mean more of a disruption--I planned to bake all weekend, stocking my freezer for the holidays. Forgot, however, a nice dinner invitation for Friday night, a trip to Central Market on Saturday, a stop at Origins for cosmetics, and a 1:00 p.m. book signing with the contributors to Grace & Gumption. If you're in the area of the University Village Barnes & Noble, come on by. Grace & Gumption: The Cookbook is a wonderful mix of social history and recipes--some tempting, some not so. But should you want to stew a squirrel, this book tells you how. Great gift for women in Fort Worth.
My memoir class met tonight, and as always I'm enthralled. They are so open and honest about their lives. One class member, a minister, read us a eulogy she delivered for a very young woman--I don't know how she got through it without crying, but she says she tries to think of things that make her angry. If someone died of cancer, she thinks how much she hates cancer--when she's angry, she doesn't cry. Another described a year-long experience living in London in terms of the language difficulties and had us all laughing. Still another described a couple of heartbreaking incidents from her childhood. At the end we all stand in a circle and say how we're feeling--in one word. I couldn't help it: I had a sentence. I was feeling happy for the good things we heard tonight, but sad that there is so much unhappiness in the world. One more class, and then we'll have a reunion with previous class members.