SYNCHRONICITY (12/07)

One day I was cruising the internet, to see if anyone else was blogging about the hill country. I found one interesting site called Lifescapes. The woman was chatting about her husband's pecan trees, and some tracks spotted by the pond, then really caught my attention when she mentioned being a writer. I thought, hmmm, maybe I can pick up some tips, and kept on reading. When she mentioned something about her recent book "Spanish Dagger", I almost fell out of my chair, for there on the shelf directly in front of me, was that very same book, by one of my favorite authors, Susan Wittig Albert.

I have been reading her China Bayles mysteries for years, about an ex-criminal lawyer from Houston who becomes disenchanted with her life, chucks it all to move to the hill country and open an herb shop, and happens to solve a lot of murder cases in her spare time. I couldn't resist sending Susan a short email, explaining how I had happened upon her blog, and telling her how much I enjoyed her books. I also mentioned that we had bought a house in the hill country ourselves, and hoped to retire there some day. I hadn't really expected a reply - after all, the woman is a nationally known author juggling three different book series and a magazine column. She doesn't have a lot of spare time. Nonetheless, within fifteen minutes I had a note telling me that "China" says "Yes, the hill country is a great place to live!", and that they both hope we will be able to make our move there soon.

Later, after I had made my decision to leave the nursery and concentrate on writing, I came across her email. It reminded me that she was once an administrator at Texas State University. I decided to send her one more note, asking for suggestions on classes that might improve my writing skills. I had barely hit the send button before I had an answer. In addition to class recommendations, she suggested that I might want to join the Story Circle Network, and attend the conference being held in Austin soon. I went online to check it out, and discovered that SCN is an organization she launched ten years ago, made up of women who want to explore their lives and souls by exploring their personal stories, and this was to be their fourth National Women's Memoir Conference. When I checked out the list of topics being offered - Blogs and Life-writing, Accessing Your Inner Muse, Turning Food Memories into Stories, Demystifying Word Processing Programs, Getting Published, and many, many more - I knew I had to be there.