Let it Snow

NOT!

Here in the Midwest we've been dumped on by the weather gods. With so many storms and so much snow and ice, communities are literally running out of salt for the roads. Lots of crashes, lots of inattentive drivers. Will the idiots on their cell phones please pull over!

I find it ironic that after growing up in Vencie, California, I'm a better driver in the snow than many of the folks who grew up in the Midwest. I didn't experience snow until I was in college. I didn't even own a coat until my first ski trip to Big Bear Mountain. My attitude towards snow was you visited it, skied on it and then after a hot drink in the lodge left it behind. You didn't live in it!

Then came the army experience. After two tours in Korea (a climate similar to the upper Midwest) and living in New York while teaching at West Point where I met my husband, Todd, I settled in one of the last places I ever expected to live - the Chicago area. I guess love will do that kind of thing to a person.

So as I trudge through the snow to work and back home each day I can't help but think how nice it would be to have the kind of income from writing that would allow me to stay in on days like these and do what I'm itching to do all day - write! While shoveling endless piles of snow and scrapping ice off the driveway, the sound of snow blowers humming up and down the street, I couldn't help but fantasize about a log cabin (well-insulated) with a gently roaring fire in the background while my muse and I plotted the day and night away.

Since I write primarily romantic suspense, my fantasy includes a strong, rugged hero who knows how to save the day without overpowering the heroine. My hero is always a lot like Todd. And there he was tonight - heroic. But instead of being on a mighty steed, he charged up the driveway blowing a white stream of powdered precipitation from a fire-engine red snow blower. He truly was operating the biggest snow blower on the block and he never looked more appealing!

So while I take another step through my life in the frigid Midwest, I will continue to fantasize about being successful enough with my writing efforts to wake up each day and not leave home unless I want to. As the reality of wet, heavy snow invades my life I plot and write in my head. Perhaps the villian of my next book will be a weatherman.