Fall - A time of the year to love.

Football, cool nights, comfortable days, apple cider,
and preparations for the holidays - that's what fall
means to me. Now I can make my Christmas lists and
work on my Christmas Web page, because October has
arrived.

For years, as a teacher, October meant getting down
to business. Classes were settled, assignments had
started to come in, and time to mark grade cards was
fast approaching.

Now, retired and loving it, October means enjoying the
slower pace of life, getting to enjoy the turning
season, even looking forward to daylight savings going
back to standard time and getting that extra hour of sleep.

It also means a time to look around the house and
decide what needs freshing with a new coat of paint before
the holidays. And, of course, there are those receipes
I want to try before time to bake for Christmas.

It's a time to look at the writing goals for the
year and complete those projects earmarked for '05.
That means finishing the Gothic, and beginning rewrites.

Now there is an unpleasant word - rewrites! I remember
so well how many times I retyped those first pages of my
very first book. I know chapters one and two had at least
a hundred rewrites apiece. Sometimes it was only a couple
of words, and sometimes, as I learned more and more about
the craft, it meant whole pages. If I could pass on
one word of advice to a novice writer it would have to be
"don't think of your words as craved in stone. If you really
like them, chances are, you'll have to throw them away."

One word I will never throw away is 'fall'. I love this time
of year, perhaps best of all. Or, maybe I love it so much
because I'm in the 'fall' of my life. Great thoughts to
ponder at the beginning of October.

Allison
'Simon's Brides' available May of '06
from Wings-Press, Inc.