I Work For Love Letters

December has been a month of love letters. There is nothing better than a love letter (unless you accidentally intercept one meant for someone else). I’ve received them from readers of my debut novel Queen Of The Godforsaken, from my daughters and also (accidentally) intercepted one sent from one of my dogs (Pablo) to the other (Fernando).

Love Letters Between Dogs

This morning I took Pablo for a walk in the darkest forest I’ve ever stumbled into. It was about 6 AM and raining. The moon was lost behind opaque, low clouds. I trudged into the forest with Pablo on lead. In any other context, a midnight-black walk through a forest might frighten me a little but the forest is my back yard and walking through it in the dark is routine.

Suddenly Pablo decided to roll on the ground, covering his body in some forest scent. This is a rarity, Pablo almost never finds a scent in the forest so intriguing that he drops and rolls mid-walk. The naive mom that I am thought, how darling, Pablo’s taking the scent home to tell his brother Fernando about what he found in the forest.

That “love” letter between dog brothers has cost me dearly. Unbeknownst to me (It was completely dark out I could not see a thing on the trail), Pablo had rolled in some forest creature’s poo–lots of it.

My guess is it was bobcat or lynx–it had a distinct cat poo quality to it. I know cat poo (I once rolled in some in the snow and got it all over my face and mouth as a child). All I can say is its tar black and the stench was enough to make Pip go running for the toilet heaving. I know this because Pablo leaped on Pip’s bed on his return home and rubbed the crap all over her bedding/pillows. In fact, Pablo left a vile trail of this letter all over the house and that is what I had to attend to this morning. It was so smushed into his $300 collar that I spent 20 minutes with an old toothbrush scrubbing it from all the creases.

That dog love letter was way more work than I ever imagined. Never intercept a love letter between dogs.

Readers’ Love letters

I’m thrilled to receive notes from readers who have enjoyed my new novel Queen Of The Godforsaken. When readers tell me how they laughed out loud, cried and could relate to the characters, it is the best feedback ever. That’s why I write, to tell a story I believe is worth telling and to have other believe it’s worth reading is fantastic! Thank you to all who have given me feed back

Love Letters From My Daughters

Love letters from my daughters do not come cheap. I work for those babies. Last night is an example of the work I am expected to engage in–usually after 7 PM when we’ve just tidied up after supper and my head is fuzzy with exhaustion.

Pippi has me on a brain training regime:“Isn’t this great Mom? I’m helping your brain grow!” she says as she thrusts my evening homework in front of me. My evening daily homework this week is that I create (on the spot) a word search challenge, a word unscramble challenge and draw 2 pictures that are similar but have at least 10 (hard to find) differences. The challenges have a new theme each night. Last night it was vegetables & fruits (me), musical instruments (Pippi). While I’m creating her challenges, she creates the same for me (with a different theme). Once we’ve each created our puzzles to solve, we exchange sheets and get down to work solving the puzzles created for us. So, not only must I create these puzzles, once I’m done I must quickly solve the puzzles that Pippi’s created for me.

Last night I felt especially tired and I found it difficult to even help Pippi unscramble a few of the words she was having difficulty with on the sheet that I’d created!

Word Search/unscramble I created for Pip

Find ten differences–I created for Pip (I messed up the theme on this one! I went with a dog when it was supposed to be fruit and vegetables). Pip forgave me as I was so sleepy last night!

Word search/unscramble Pip created for me on a musical instruments theme.

Spot 10 differences picture created by Pippi for me.

Tonight Pippi has informed me that my theme is flowers…

My daughters keep my mind, heart and body busy is the best way.

I am forever honoured and humbled to receive love letters from my youngest daughter, Pippi. I’ll find her notes scrawled on scrap pieces of paper or in my daily planner and left at various spots in the house: my work desk or on my bedside table. I treasure these notes and they give me the strength I need to go forth (with grace and my diamond heart) and take on the world.

Below are two recent notes that Pippi has left for me: