March | 2011 | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Over the weekend, it was down the interstate and through the traffic, to grandmother’s house we went. Technically, it was the Junior Halls’ grandmother (and grandfather) and er, technically, none of the Junior Halls were on the trip. And fortuitously for me, the Beneficent Mr. Hall was doing the driving.

So, what we had was the perfect set-up for some catch-up reading. I brought along five issues of a writing newsletter that I hadn’t quite gotten around to reading. Yes, FIVE. And goodness me, I found all kinds of interesting stuff in those back issues. I sorta, kinda wish I’d read them sooner as some of the material was time-sensitive. But the point is, I got ‘er done.

Which brings me to my second point. When it comes to my fiction writing, I sometimes have tunnel vision. That work-in-progress manuscript calls my name and I simply get caught up in fixing holes (or creating holes), fleshing out characters (or killing them off), and adding layers (or subtracting fluff). The next thing you know, the Beneficent Mr. Hall is circling my desk, wondering aloud if anyone’s going to be fixing dinner anytime soon. Believe me, friends. A hungry Mr. Hall is not that beneficent.

So, March has nearly marched by and like those newsletters I let sit for months, I’m afraid I’ve let a few friends and their writing ups and downs sit for awhile. (Unless you’re on Facebook, and you put the link to your blog whenever you pen a new post. I tend to take a few fifteen minute FB breaks during the day to see what’s up and I’ll zip over to a blog post then. I don’t necessarily comment–I’m like the wind–swooshing in and out. But I was there, cheering you on. Or commiserating, whichever the case may be.)

I just wanted you to know that, also like those newsletters, I’ll be catching up soon. Baseball season’s coming, and it’s better for the health of everyone if I do something else (like reading my friends’ blog posts) while watching the games.

I know I usually toot (my horn) on Tuesdays, but on that day, I was fighting a moral dilemma (as you may recall with the Submission Goldmine) and that took the wind out of me.

Um, let’s just move on to something less pun-filled.

So here’s this month’s column from Modern Senior Living. It’s about giving up stuff for Lent, which now that I think about it, is another one of those moral dilemmas I must fight each year. Except that I have a “Lenten Loophole”.

You’ll need to zip over to page 14 to read “The Lenten Loophole.” And here’s a little horn-tooting for Erma Bombeck, too. If you know who Erma is, you’ll want to read my editor’s article on the Queen of writing humor columns. His article starts on page 6.

It’s hard to believe Erma’s been gone since 1996. Her one-liners are just as funny now as they were twenty or thirty years ago. And honestly, I needed a few, good laughs. Because even dead, she’s funnier than me.