It's been gloomy all day here in Memphis -- warm, for the most part, but terribly windy, dark, and rainy. The prognosticators are still calling for rapidly-dropping temperatures and copious snowfall, but the radar maps suggest that the whole winter storm thing is going to pass us by, for the umpteenth time. That's not a complaint, really. We've been very lucky to have avoided all of the weather-related trauma that the rest of the country has experienced. But it makes me a little nervous. There's a pattern forming here.
The weather man predicts gloom and doom.
We all get ready -- stocking up on ingredients for French Toast parties (that's milk and bread!)
Nothing happens.
Next time the warnings com it's harder to get all excited. And complacency is dangerous.
Anyway, I've been hunkered down all day, picking away at bits of research but unable to concentrate much on writing while scanning the horizon for the snow clouds. I've been badly in need of an "Atta-Girl!" to push me back into full-frenzied writing mode.

And then one arrived. The Winter 2014 issue of
Dispatches, the online magazine of the Military Writers Society of America, popped up in my inbox. And there I discovered not one, but two "Atta-Girls" for my book
The Road to Frogmore. First came an announcement that
Frogmore had been chosen as Book of the Month for last November. And then a second commendation included it on the Author of the Year's recommended reading list for Winter 2014.
So thank you, all, for your kind reviews and complimentary remarks. It's lovely to be reassured that serious books can earn serious attention. Now -- back to work!