2007

I swear, the holidays seem to come faster every year. I’m still coming down from a couple weeks on the road, reflecting on a wonderful year, with much to be thankful for. During dinner tonight, I asked Jerry what he wanted me to include in this year’s letter. His response: “Just say, ‘A normal year—Jane gallivanted and Jerry stayed home and was very happy.’”

And yes, I did gallivant a bit—a slower schedule this year, but a fun one, indeed. A highlight included a Danube cruise with my mom in May, starting with three days in Budapest, with stops in Slovakia, Austria and Germany, with four additional days in Prague (one of my favorite cities). We had a blast, although keeping up with Mom was harder than I’d have expected! Wow. I posted four pages of photos online starting here. Great trip!

I ended last year’s letter with the one major glitch in my life, trying to untangle some legal hassles in getting the rights back to a book I had done. As it turned out, I never did get the rights back, but in the true spirit of a window opening when a door slams shut, I ended up revising the book I had written and brought it out with a new, and better, title. The book has been in print for the past three weeks and was released to a great response. It’s called The Win-Win Classroom and I’m currently working on a facilitator’s guide to go with it. I hope to send in the first draft this week.

I just got a contract to do another book for this publisher (Corwin Press) for beginning teachers, which is kind of where my writing career got started. It’ll be called Becoming a Win-Win Teacher and although I asked for a year to complete it, they’re wanting a finished manuscript by the end of February. (In keeping with this franchise, there’s also talk of a win-win book for parents, so stay tuned.)

And if that weren’t enough, I’m going to self-publish a new version of Daily Riches, which went out of print this year. I’m bringing it out under the original title we had proposed, Magic, Miracles and Synchronicity with a new (beautiful) cover, though the contents will be the same.

On the geek front, the following: An iPhone (purchased on the day it came out and yes, it is every bit as amazing as the ads say!), a new MacBook laptop with the new operating system (Leopard rocks!), and, finally, a shopping cart on my Web site (so people can order my books and tapes and stuff online), which I just wrapped up two weeks ago.

I put some photos up of some stuff I’ve been working on in polymer clay and precious metal clay during the past few months. They’re not publicly linked yet, but if you’re interested, you can start here until I construct the “Father Sky Studios” section of the site.

No geek cruise this past year, but next November, oh boy! Ten days in the eastern Mediterranean, leaving out of Genoa with stops in Naples, Sicily, Alexandria, Cyprus, Turkey, Santorini and back to Genoa after another stop in Greece. And if that weren’t cool enough, Jerry decided he wanted to come along! It’s too early to book the overseas flights, but we’re planning on an extra week or so in Italy.

Two friends from my book group are also signed up for the cruise. (Of the four of us, I’m the only one signed up for the “geek” classes. If anybody is interested in checking out this trip, click here. For just the itinerary, which is amazing, click here.) The three of us have been taking Italian lessons since the beginning of September with plans to continue at least up to this trip. We’re taking this class quite seriously and actually study together and listen to tapes and do exercises in the book in between our classes, and have made surprising progress in a very short time. I think the fact that we’ve all studied languages before gives us a bit of an edge as well.

Jerry has been busy with the business and the house—painting several of the rooms this year very bright, bold colors, and organizing some of the clutter. He’s doing well. We’ve had more time together than in years past and have really been enjoying each other’s company.

I’ve had a number of new and wonderful people come into my life—or reappear, some after several decades. I’ve had a chance to visit many friends when I’ve been on the road as well, some I’ve barely seen since college, some going back to grade school. I delight in these connections and am grateful to be in touch with you all. Please stay in touch—as always, email is probably the best, and phone is also a good bet: 505-323-9044.

So blessings to you and yours for a fantastic 2008. I hope our paths cross, if not in person, then in cyberspace one day soon.

Love, Janie & Jerry (& Shadow)