Personal Stuff
It's no secret that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that its focus is gratitude. In 2017, it falls on the 327th day of the year.

Because I am stubborn in my gratitude, I'm making a personal list of 327 things for which I'm grateful. Does that sound ridiculous? Impossible? I'm about halfway through, and it's not hard at all.

To those folks I'll see on Thursday, don't worry. I won't pull the list out out of my pocket to share around the table. Instead, I'll try to keep it in my heart and mind going forward.

If quizzed, I won't be able to remember each of the 327 items to recite aloud, but that's also not the point.

Life's challenges are easier to meet when I'm armed with gratitude, and with an outlook that's as positive as I can manage. A new challenge presented itself last week, and I'm preparing to deal with it long-term.

Besides gratitude and positivity, sunshine helps. It just does! And my daily walk, regardless of the weather, is as much about my emotional health as it is for my physical well-being.

Last week certainly didn't go as planned, and who knows what this one will bring. But as of this writing, it looks as if I'll have lots of time with friends and family during this nationwide official week of Thanksgiving. Both locals and those visiting from a distance.

Writing Stuff
I was honored to write a guest blog which was published last week. Click here to read "Serendipity Series Surprises" on Romancing the Genres.

I don't usually share this type of thing, but it's in most authors' minds right now. At an increasing rate, book sales are being sabotaged by those folks who pirate ebooks, and those who are scamming the system at vendor sites. Making a living as an author is more and more of a challenge. So that's the bad news.

The good news is that I'm stubbornly optimistic about possibilities. One of those is the sale of books to libraries. Many, if not all, libraries offer lending of ebooks. If you love my stories, please consider recommending them to your local librarian. (They are available through Overdrive and other distributors which serve libraries.) Once the library owns a copy of a book, patrons can check it out one at a time, just like a regular book, except when the loan period expires, the book "disappears" from your e-reader. It's so nifty! I often read ebooks from my library.

That's my quick update. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday week. If you're not, take a break and make a gratitude list. Try for five items, but don't be surprised if you keep on going.

Until next time, happy reading!
Magdalena