I'm back; it's 5/30/2026. Hello, it's been a while. I have missed talking to the air (not to say that I don't talk to myself quite a bit).  I wanted to take some time off the blog to finish some novels, and as I wait for the queries to agents to be answered with hot offers from publishers, I thought I would update you on what is floating my boat.

 I have a big birthday coming up this December. Instead of feeling the sands of time sift through my fingers, I decided to make this one really count. I am taking a hint from Stanley Tucci and finding my roots in Italy. Some may think my methods are rather daunting.  You see, I have been to the town my grandparents are from in the Marche region on the Adriatic Sea. But this time I am preparing.  I looked up surnames in the white pages and sent 16 letters out to see if anyone with the same last name in the town of San Benedetto del Tronto might know whether we are distant relatives or if there are any still around. So far, I have had responses from several, and connections have been made. I was invited to their Facebook group and when my daughters and I arrive there in September, I hope to meet some of these people, whether we are related or not.

 A funny thing happens when you close out a decade.  The first few years of your life are small milestone birthdays. For instance, at ten you can ride a bike; twenty is carefree and fun; thirty, the tide changes to questions like "where is my life going," and as they build, the responsibilities stack up. But then you reach the decade when you retire. There are more years behind you than in front. Your mortality is tapping you on the shoulder, and you ask yourself: "Who am I really?"

I have chosen to peel away the layers that have protected me for so long. Thick and leathery, they are like armor keeping the essence of me in one piece. Over time, you may become a wife, a partner, a mother, a sister. Events and choices can bring some people closer or shut the door on connections entirely. We gravitate to what makes us feel good at a time in our life, only to learn, in retrospect, we might have chosen the wrong fork in the road.

 Okay, that doesn't mean your choices didn't teach you things. 

So, you FORKED it. 

You lived the life as if unfurled, and hopefully you still hung on to the person you were born to me.

 I am going all the way back to my beginnings in San Benedetto and identifying with the simple lives of my grandparents. I want to spend this time with the people who have cheered me on through life's ups and downs. My sister and brother-in-law, and my daughters. It will be gratifying to feel the heartbeat of ancestry and what has brought us into this moment. For in the end, we are who we are.  We go out the way we came in.

 I am making the moves, taking the risks, and saying, "Fork it."  And for whatever's left, I am going down swinging. 

Thanks for listening.