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Day One: Monthly Letter February 1, 2000
See that snow and ice out there? I take full responsibility. I've been complaining for at least a year now about the lack of wintry weather here in my corner of the world. "Where's the snow?" I grumbled. "Whatever happened to winter?" Well, Mother Nature must have been listening because she slammed us with three winter storms in a row over the last two weeks and we're still digging out from under. I'll admit I am one of those odd souls who loves cold, snowy weather. I come alive when the temperature plummets. My imagination kicks into high gear when the winds are howling outside and ice hangs heavy from the branches of our maple trees. Our fireplace has really been getting a workout. We've dined by firelight every night since Christmas - and loved every second of it. I grew up in Queens (a borough of New York City, for those of you who don't remember All in the Family) and my idea of a great fireplace was the one they displayed on WPIX-Channel 11 every Christmas Eve for apartment-dwelling city folk like me to enjoy. Believe me, it was no substitute for the real thing! I'm knee-deep in the sorting and filing process I told you about a few days ago in the January letter. I'm afraid I don't seem to possess the necessary strength of character needed to weed through an almost-twenty year accumulation of notes, papers, letters, contracts, clippings and assorted ephemera. I'm easily distracted. Oh, look! There's a photo of Sunny and George at the conference! And what's that? A letter from Beverly . . . I haven't heard from her in ages . . . I wonder if I can dig up her phone number and call her and . . . See how it goes? For every step forward, I move eight steps backward into clutter and disarray. I laugh when they write about the paperless office. They certainly haven't seen mine lately. A word about that red-and-white lamp in the photograph. I bought that at a yard sale during the summer of 1979. We were living on Long Island at the time and my best friend and I loved to stop at every garage and yard sale in Suffolk County and search for bargains. We had no money but we did have loads of patience and sometimes we hit the jackpot. Truth to tell, nobody but me would consider that plastic-and-paper lamp a jackpot but it was the best $1 I ever spent. That polka dot shade turns all rosy and cheerful when I turn on the light and I like to think it's brought me some luck along the way as well. I sold my first article to Newsday a few weeks after that lamp came into my possession and I'm happy to say I've been selling ever since. It's the lamp. I just know it. (And you thought ball players were superstitious!) Do you have any writerly superstitions you'd like to share? A magic pen or a special t-shirt or lucky coffee mug? I'd love to hear about them. You can write to me at barbara@barbarabretton.com. If you'd like to be reminded of updates to this site, please join my notify list at BarbaraBrettonUpdate-subscribe@onelist.com. I promise I won't inundate you with email. The plan is to send a note at the beginning of the month to let you know what's new, what's fun, and what contest is running. I hope you're doing something terrific for Valentine's Day. Have a wonderful month!
Cheers,
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Greetings from central New Jersey.
