Everyone is busy this time of year, including me, so let's make it easy on ourselves.  Just send your snail-mail address to the contest e-mail address, and you're in for a drawing to win a free copy of my December book and a few other little goodies.

On Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 20-21, I'll be making an appearance on Vicki Batman's blog.  It's a Q&A interview-type event, with participation from readers encouraged.  Here's the address:  http://vickibatman.blogspot.com.  Mark it on your calendar so you can come heckle me!  These events are so much more fun if lots of people participate.

But where's Kara, in the bigger scheme of things?  That is a good question.  You might find me up on a ladder as I'm renovating my house (mostly painting).  Yes, I've been renovating for ten ... no, eleven years now.  But this time I'm serious, because we're going to sell our house in Texas and move to Southern California.  My husband's family lives there, and we both love the area.

So, next time I do a newsletter, I might be in Long Beach.  Or not.  We don't have a set deadline for accomplishing the move, except that I don't want to spend another hot summer in Texas!

In November I participated in National Novel Writing Month.  I wrote 50,000 words, completing a new romantic suspense book about a sniper.  While that very rough draft rests, I'm working on a young-adult paranormal book.

Since my last newsletter, we've become a nation of gloom and doom.  I don't want to minimize these hard economic times, and my heart goes out to those who are now jobless or suffering in other ways.  But do we have to dwell on it?  It seems everyone I talk to wants to give me a detailed laundry list of how they've had to cut back or do without, and especially how much worse it's going to get.

I'm a firm believer in the Law of Attraction.  What you focus on becomes your reality.  I'm trying to focus on the positives.  For example, many restaurants in my neighborhood have started hosting "Game Nights" as an alternative to more expensive entertainment.  People gather to play old-fashioned board games like Yahtzee and Monopoly.  It's cheap, and a great way for friends and families to reconnect with one another.  Such simple pleasure.

My friend Carol's holiday newsletter made me smile, because she is a master at making lemonade from lemons.  Last year she fell out of her attic and was seriously injured.  For almost a whole year she couldn't work or do any of her daily activities.  Her husband lost his job because of the time off he took while she was in the hospital.  But she turned the whole event into an amusing anecdote, focusing on the positives (she's now feeling fine, and her husband is pursuing his dream of running his own furniture refinishing business).  Life hasn't always been easy for Carol, but she is relentlessly cheerful no matter what happens and I love her for that.  She's an inspiration to me.

Look for the silver lining in every situation, and be grateful for every blessing, large and small, in your life.  Also, smile!  You'll feel better.

Thanks for reading!  I love to hear from my readers, and I answer each and every e-mail I receive.   You can click here to e-mail me.

All my best,

Kara Lennox Home Page