Happy New Year.

You know, I will admit that I've spent the last week desperately trying to shove each day back into the bag it's escaped from. And I know better. Really. Ever since I got off the short bus, I have understood that you cannot stop time from passing.

Somehow it's gotten to be January of 2009, which means that February 1 is just around the corner and that means my book is due! Panic. I have got to stop adding subplots and rewriting entire chunks of the ms at the 11th hour. It's in times like these that I wonder if I should ever have gotten off that short bus.

So a friend of mine called the other day and said, "Hello, Hermit Crab. How ya doin'?"

I hate to say it but she's pegged me exactly. Which brings me to my current New Year's Resolution: to try to live a normal life and stop disappearing off the face of the earth when I'm working on a book. (This is the point at which my husband sticks his head into the room and says, "But honey, you're NOT normal. Why are you going to try to live a normal life?" Thanks.)

I resolve to come out of my shell and try to at least stay on the porch, where I can see people! (You didn't know shells had porches, did you? Yup.)

And I'm also going to try to give up my addiction to stress.

After I'm good and relaxed, I will tackle such issues as world peace and the economy and the slow death of the midlist author . . .

In the meantime, Happy Birthday, Mary! Congrats on having seven books coming out this year, Traci! And Leanne, your new series set in Beverly Hills sounds great. Rhon, you can kill the smoking habit! Just pretend it's a victim in one of your books.

Hugs to all of you guys and to our readers! Karen