Idylls are the Thing

It's not that I haven't been taking photos, but I couldn't resist posting another shot by a guest photographer: my husband, John Sandel. I wish I were tall enough to photograph such a view; luckily, John is.

While you're here today, please vote for your favorite photo from this week's entries in the Camelot Where You Are photo contest. The poll is at the upper left of the blog and will be available until midnight Sunday night. It should work; I believe I've got the time zone thing figured out.

I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying the contest. I've received so many great entries that we're going to skip Zen Monday this coming week and do Camelot for five days straight.

In case you're wondering why: it's because I've written a novel and it's being published this fall. Camelot & Vine is about an actress who, on the day before her 40th birthday, loses everything she never cared about, flees Hollywood for England, falls through a gap in time and accidentally saves King Arthur's life. A lot more happens after that. Think 6th century Britain, chain mail, love triangles and Saxon invaders.

Each weekly winner receives a free copy of Camelot & Vine upon publication, about which I will have more details soon. Publication day, whatever day it turns out to be, will be the final day for entries. 

Send in your pic now! It's easy to enter and anyone can do it. Entry details are here. And be sure to vote for your favorite! Thanks.

Imaginary Horses

It's the middle of August and southern California might be the only place in the country where the weather's beautiful. We used to be the ones with the insufferably hot summers, but the last two years our summer days have been almost--almost cool. Folks are loving it. Me--you know me, I wear a sweater.

Sundays on our block are a good time for the kids to get out and play and for the adults to hang out and talk about whatever, you know, the usual stuff: how to solve the world's problems, who has the nastiest grill, whether or not we should get matching block t-shirts with our names on the back.

I used to wonder why adults did that. Talk, talk, talk was all they ever did. Boring! How could they just stand around and jabber? Why didn't they ride imaginary horses like the rest of us?