HAPPY NEW YEAR
Heading into the end of 2016, I say good riddance. It has not been my favorite year with my unwanted guest, Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, who just doesn’t seem to want to leave. My wish upon a jillion candles is to go to bed tonight and wake up in 2017 with no more neuropathy.
Along with a regime of meds that help calm the very angry nerves in my head, it has helped the last few months of this year to have things I can do to distract myself from the pain. So I am making a list of things I can look forward to in 2017.
- Playing on stage again at the Main Street Theatre in Sulphur Springs and working with an amazing young director, Triston Pullen. We are doing String of Pearls, a drama in the style of theatre I really enjoy. It is written by Michele Lowe for a cast of four women to play 27 characters. Our production will have more players, but we all will fill multiple roles. I am really looking forward to challenging myself to assume different personas in the same show.
The story revolves around a strand of pearls that have been given, lost, stolen and nearly lost over a span of 35 years. Beth, the central character, wants her granddaughter, Amy, to have the pearls for her upcoming wedding, but the pearls cannot be found. I get to play the Beth of today, but other actors will play her in other time periods as the story explores how the pearls were first given and all the ways they touched the lives of mothers, sisters, and friends through the years.
In addition to working with Triston, I was intrigued by the story, even before 
I knew the premise, because the first short story I ever had published in Lady’s Circle magazine was called A String of Pearls. The story-line is nothing like that of the play, but the coincidence of two stories that center on pearls made me smile. The short story has been reissued as Making it Home and is available for only .99 cents for most electronic readers.
- Finishing the history book I’ve been working on with the Winnsboro Historian, Bill Jones.
We wrote the Images of America: Winnsboro book that was released by Arcadia Publishing in 2013, and at the time I wanted to compile his newspaper columns into a book. Bill has written for local publications since the mid 90s, so there is a wealth of material to sift through and organize. The good news is that we are well into the book, and I should finish by the end of this month.
The bad news is – at least for my stress level – is that I have to have my editing workshop for S&H Publishing done by the end of this month, too. I thought since the online workshop was not scheduled until June, I could start working on it after sending the history book to the editor mid-January. However, I just received a message from the editor that the material needs to start getting to them sooner. So…. I am going to be one busy lady until the end of this month, and I may not be blogging very much.
What are your goals for 2017? Will you ring in the New Year with friends and family? I am celebrating with one of my sons, and we will salute with some really good Kentucky bourbon whiskey.
My wish for you for the New Year is health and happiness.