War and Peace

For the innocents, the casual casualties of war
For the militants, who kill and destroy on command
For their leaders, whose power is absolute
I pray God's grace and peace.

Gubernatorial Election Considerations

Fiorella is opposed to abortion, but she does not think it should be a political football. She resents both parties drawing the line, Republicans trying to round up votes by campaigning against abortion and Democrats trying to round up votes by calling it a women's issue.  Fio will vote the Democratic ticket because she wants Texas to have a strong TWO-party system, not because Wendy Davis won her over by being pro-abortion.

Shameless Hustling

Fiorella's romance novel comes out on Tuesday.  As you know, it's called WHAT THE HEART WANTS, and Fio's pen name is JEANELL BOLTON.  The reason she tells you this is that there are nine--count'em, NINE--other novels on Amazon with the same title.

Anyway, she hopes you'll give her book a try.  Like most of her stories, it involves a woman living in shadow.  The digital edition of WHAT THE HEART WANTS will be available for $2.99, and the trade paperback will cost $17.00.

Wish Fio well.

Escape Artist

Sonia bolted off leash again yesterday.  The weather was a little cooler so Fiorella took her out for an evening walk.  Ten paces down the driveway, Sonia spotted a deer and raced off after it,  Fio called her several times, but Sonia didn't come back till all hope of venison was gone. Then she sped down the drive, bypassed Fio, and stood on the front porch, waiting for the door to be opened.

At least she knows where she lives.

Cave Woman Problems

Fiorella has long cherished the notion that she has a heavy dose of Neanderthal in her, but right now she's feeling it more than ever.  Yes, the computer has triumphed over her yet again.  She's been trying for more than a week to send photos off to her publicist in New York, but, despite Austin Son's help and Friend Cheryl's help, it's just not a-happenin'.  Friend Cheryl thought a program called Mozilla Thunderbird would do the trick, but it didn't.  Or maybe Fiorella screwed up the works.

We Neanderthals are better suited to chisels and stone tablets.

The Life of Leisure

Fio's at it again.  She's hopping in the car at 10:30 today to drop by Beleza at 11:00 and drop off some of her promotional bookmarks, then meet with Friend Paula at Dan's at 11:30, then with Friend Cheryl at Starbucks at 12:45.  After that, she'll run by the post office.  Once home, she'll write, write, write till about midnight, then sleep till eight tomorrow morning and start all over again.

She forgot to say that she'll also work in lifting five-pound weights ten times in German, will do ten plies in Russian, slip in a bit of piano practice, and oil her fingernails.

Eating and breathing are optional.

Colors

When Fiorella was a child, she learned the name of every color in the forty-eight crayon box.  When she was older, she learned the name of every oil paint color.  That would seem to be enough, wouldn't it?  But it seems like whenever time she turns around, the names are changing and new color shades are invented.

Fiorella doesn't like meaningless change.  Well, she doesn't like change at all unless it's for the better, and she can see no benefit to changing the names of colors.  Bring back chartreuse!