Hello, beautiful people! I’m back. How was your December? Mine was fabulous. I’ve been doing a lot of traveling… and I also received two intriguing packages:
(1) My Czech and Slovak Gracelings, published by Ediposs. The Czech cover is on the right. I would tell you what Výjimečná means, except that I don’t know! The Slovak title is Výnimočná. If there are any Czech or Slovak speakers out there who’d like to educate me, please feel free to leave a comment! [ETA 6:42pm: both titles are the feminine form of “someone who is phenomenal or exceptional,” more or less. Thank you to Marek from Slovakia for the translations!]
(2) A super surprise from my Book Blogger Holiday Swap Swapee, Heather from Tales of a Capricious Reader!
Heather was thoughtful and did her research. Courtesy of my somewhat awkward MacBook camera, here’s my loot (starting at the top and going clockwise): pens; hot chocolate; a beautiful little hand-made journal with a Paris theme (perhaps Heather knew psychically that I have events in Paris this spring?); hair ties for my ever-present pigtails; POST-IT NOTES!; an adorable little change purse with an “I ♥ books” theme (this has already gotten a compliment from the check-out person at Trader Joe’s, whose first word was “book” — we had a whole conversation about it ^_^); and, as if that weren’t enough, Impossible by Nancy Werlin and Nothing but Ghosts by Beth Kephart!
Thank you, Heather :o)
So, I want to wish everyone a peaceful and thoughtful New Year. This is one of the few holidays I always feel like I can get behind, because I love that it’s a time for contemplation and resolutions — in my case, resolutions that will bring more peace to my life, such as: I will think very carefully about my priorities before I accept invitations to do appearances, and I will forgive myself when I have to say no — because, after all, my priority this year is finishing Bitterblue, not to mention my personal life. (Um. I mean that living my personal life is one of my priorities — not finishing it!)
What about you? Do you have a resolution you care to share? Preferably not the kind that is self-denying or self-punishing, as resolutions can sometimes be? ^_^
Happy new decade, everyone.
