2010–I’ve Looked at Life from Both Sides Now

There are always at least two ways to look at everything.  Here’s the same beach this morning at sunrise.  Moon at one end and sun rising at the other.  I just had to turn my head to see them both.  I’m hoping to remember this lesson.  I just need to look the other way when I think…

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Happiness Thoughts at the End of the Year

New Year’s resolutions.  I love them.  A clean slate, fresh start, brand new page to write a brand new history.  Every new year is a chance to reconsider life and make necessary changes.  There’s only one problem.  While we’re thinking about all the changes we need to make, and preparing for a new opportunity to…

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Wishing you a Happiness Holiday

I can picture this display in Wanda’s yard on Happiness Key, can’t you?  So from Wanda, Tracy, Janya, Alice, Olivia and Emilie, a warm (hearted) and generous (in spirit) holiday to everyone.    Until the new year, stay safe and happy, and stay away from even the friendliest alligators.  I’ll see you then. Emilie  

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And a Bald Eagle In a Dead Tree

One of the things I love most about Sanibel Island is the diversity of wildlife.  The birds amaze me.  This morning a Great Egret performed a majestic stroll through our yard.  On the beach varieties of sandpipers, gulls, pelicans, ibis and snowy egrets entertain us each morning and evening.  Used to cardinals and sparrows in…

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All I Want for Christmas Is My Swine Flu Shot

Dear Santa–and I mean the real deal, not somebody like me, a Santa wannabe who punches a time clock and takes off his beard to scratch his chin when nobody’s looking, Here’s the thing, Santa.  Christmas is confusing.  Part religious holiday, part commercial extravaganza, with ancient pagan customs like Christmas trees and mistletoe thrown in to complicate…

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Sing We Now of Christmas–Booklover Christmas Carols, Part One

I have a silly side.  Aggie Sloan-Wilcox, my mystery series sleuth evolved from that part of me.  Undoubtedly, that’s why I love writing the Ministry is Murder novels so much.  Solving mysteries AND being just a little bit silly?  What a way to spend my afternoons. I discovered my silly Christmas carol side several years…

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The Wise Man Star–A Holiday Reading

I’m sometimes asked about the many romances I wrote before I began writing longer women’s fiction and mysteries.  I’m still proud of them.  I often stretched genre limits and always wrote about things that mattered to me.  Recently I received my very own Christmas present, news that German film producers plan to make twenty of…

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These Our Hymns of Grateful Praise

Historical facts are always in dispute.  Not having been at the Thanksgiving celebration at Plymouth Plantation so many years ago, I can’t tell you what was said, how politically correct were the attitudes, whether the Native Americans spoke excellent English, as some claim, or excellent Algonkian.  I’m not even sure what was consumed, although wild…

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Comfort and Joy–And Not Just At The Holidays

I’m enjoying my Facebook experience.  Many of you have found my Emilie Richards page and signed on as “fans,” a word Facebook coined but one that always makes me feel like a wannabe rock star.  I prefer “readers.”  It’s easy to interact on the page, and I like finding out more about you and what…

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