Single-minded

Fiorella spends most of her time typing away on her laptop.  She is a member of four different writing groups--Romance Writers of America, San Gabriel Writers' League, Endor, and Far North.  All the friends with whom she lunches are either writers or beta readers.  When she meets new people, she tells them about her soon-to-be-published book.

Is there a pattern here?

Overload

Why is Fiorella always so busy, with a continuing list of commitments and responsibilities?  Why aren't other people trapped in this web of constant activity?  What is their secret--elves, fairies, magic wands?  Where are Fiorella's little helpers?

Well, so much for the gritching.  Got to get back to work, which means finishing my laundry and sending out a chapter of one of my unsold masterpieces for critiquing.  But maybe those two are one and the same.

Thankfulness

Daughter and Austin Son&Wife, complete with food and fireworks, came over to spend the evening of Fourth of July with us.  It was a classic family scene--Norman Rockwell to the core.  Fio went maudlin.  This is the sort of family get-together she has always dreamed of, but has only recently begun to happen.

God is good.

Murietta

Fiorella is ashamed of the way Murietta treated the refugees from South America. It's unkind and un-Christian--and so many of the hopeful immigrants are children who have made this terrible journey unaccompanied. Fio understands that the United States cannot continue to absorb great floods of people, but it can certainly afford to treat them humanely while they are here.

And shame on the countries from which these people have fled. Their leaders revile us at the same time their people flock across our borders. Instead, these countries should emulate us. We are't perfect--witness Murietta--but we try.

IT'S REAL!

Happy times are here again!  Fiorella is working with Friend Cheryl on her website, and Editor Michele has sent Fio copies of her tentative covers.  Both the website and the covers will have Fio's name in BIG LETTERS across the top, which gives Fio's ever-flagging ego a tremendous boost.

IT'S REAL!  IT'S REAL!  IT'S REAL!

Marching On

Fiorella is a well-meaning soul, but she's said and done some of the dumbest things imaginable, and at random times, voices of the past echo in her brain, assaulting her, accusing her, deriding her.  But there's nothing Fio can do to heal the past so she forges on, resigned to the fact that she's going to say dumb things and do dumb things in the future too. That's Fio.  Forgive her.

Why, Why, Why?

Fiorella is very upset about the callous murder of those three schoolboys coming home from religious school in Israel.  It was a heartless, deliberate provocation, and Fio's first reaction is DRONE PALESTINE TO CINDERS--which very well may happen because one of the boys was an American citizen.

But why, why, why?  Why this obsession with death and destruction?  Why not live in peace with Israel?  Why not live by the law instead of the sword?  And don't tell Fiorella it's because of Islam. That's just a excuse, like when Christians killed Muslims in Bosnia, and when Catholics and Protestants had at it in Ireland.

Why does anyone anywhere want to behave like this?