2 Lies and I Truth:

1.  It’s bright and sunny in NYC today

2.  I’m watching Kathie Lee and Hoda

3.  I’m working on a brilliant new story so don’t bother me

Truth and confession: I’m watching Kathie Lee and Hoda. My defense is the 2 lies. When I planned this trip to NYC, I fully expected spring to have sprung, instead it’s grey, cold, and …. Anyway, and it’s really not my fault that I’m watching morning TV. I’d never turn it on myself…honest. It’s Lexi’s fault. She left the TV on when she went to work and I am now hooked into morning shows. Morning TV is not really the time suck some say it is, either. It’s informative. So far I’ve watched Prince William and his grannie, the Queen, tour his Sea Rescue Station; learned there are only 28 days to the Royal Wedding and that William is not planning to wear a ring; watched 3 “spring” recipes being prepared—poached sea bass, tomato basil pasta and strawberry shortcake (which woke my tummy and sent me looking for food, which led to my finding the new jar of organic peanut butter, which I stirred during the next 30 minutes of programing-thus making productive use of my TV time) ; and watched a teen boy invite girl to the prom by whooing her with this sure-fire entreatment: “Um, yeah, Brit-Crystal-Tiff, get down here.”

As is so often the case, in the midst of all the fun and foolishness, I heard something that just might make the difference. Hoda and Kathie Lee dubbed this: Try-day Friday.

Try Day Friday. It has a nice ring to it. It got my pea brain humming. Got me searching for the remote control. Got me to put down the spoon and pick up my laptop.

Why not set Friday aside as a day to Try? Try something new. Try something scary. Try—without worrying about being silly or stupid or foolish or wrong. And what better day to try something than April 1st, 2011, the officially designated day of foolishness.

Call me an April Fool, but…I’m designating this my first official Try-Day!

Join me…If you dare…

My new picture book, YOUR MOMMY WAS JUST LIKE YOU, illustrated by David Walker is here! The companion to last year’s YOUR DADDY WAS JUST LIKE YOU. This one’s for you Lexi!

published by GP Putnam Sons-in bookstores and from on-line sellers, now!

Whenever someone learns I’m a writer living in Indonesia, they inevitably remark about the fabulous stories I must be writing about my adventures, or how inspiration it must be. To which I usually respond, “Someday,” which in Bahasa Indonesia would be the catch all word for “not yet, belum.

For me fiction is reflective. Fiction comes with time: from the past, memories, from what remains. Non-fiction is immediate. Although good non-fiction, too, takes time, time to reflect, draw conclusions and get a distance away so as to see larger pictures.

When I was not writing because life interrupted, my friend Dick called it “filling my writer’s well.” Hearing that always made me feel better, and more importantly, gave me hope that the writing would come.

Presently, I’m filling my writer’s well in South Africa….

Never in a zillion “what ifs” did I ever imagine I’d be writing that—In South Africa—let alone living it! And because I’m loving filling my well and don’t want to stop for a moment. I’m going to pull a Joe Friday and “stick to the facts, Ma’am.”

Fact: Curtis and I flew from Jakarta to Johannesburg Thursday, arrived Friday afternoon.

Fact: We are here visiting our friends Shona and Charles Mason, South Africans living in Jakarta. Good friends, who enticed us to come for holiday.

Fact: Charles, his 2 cousins, and a group of 8 others have been, for the past 14 days cycling through South Africa on a charity ride—when they finish they will have cycled 1700 km and raised thousands for charities. Each day they ride to a designated spot—most days well over 100 km— and present a check to a local charity. The amount they raise is matched by ENGEN Petrol Company. Today is the last day of that challenging (to say the least) ride. Charles has been blogging his ride. Check it out: Charles Big Ride SA Ride:

Fact: The main reason we are in South Africa at this particular time is that we have signed up to Ride THE ARGUS, a 109 km bike ride along the wild, spectacular coastline of the Cape of South Africa.

Fact: 35,000-40,000 people will ride THE ARGUS, the largest individually timed race/ride in the world!

Fact: I have not even been on the seat of a bike in at least five, (5) years.

Fact: It is very very windy today and I have heard stories of what the wind does….blows bikes off the road…blows bikers into each other.

Fact: The delivered our rented bikes and helmets today and I am very very nervous.