I Remember Paul Newman

Years ago, at an elegant home in the hills of Bel Air, I had the supreme honor of meeting Paul Newman at a fund raiser for one of his many charities. His movie, "Butch Cassidy" was playing in the theaters at the time, and so it was quite amazing to be able to meet him in person and shake his hand. As famous and popular as he was, Mr. Newman was far from snobbish (as some celebrities unfortunately tend to be). He was the ultimate class act, chatting with everyone, sparing time for each person who had come to attend the event, shaking hands, offering warm smiles. He was one of those men who rose above his celebrity status and looked you in the eye and let you believe, for just a moment, that you were the only person in the room with him, and that what you had to say was all he cared about.

My Favorite Day in the Year

As I write this blog entry, today is the first day of fall, and it is my favorite day in the year because it launches my favorite time of the year - the season of Jack O'Lanterns, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, culminating in New Year's Eve.  I also love the first day of fall because I welcome a change of season after a long, hot, and sunny summer (yes, we have seasons in Southern California, and some of our trees even drop their leaves!).  I always celebrate this day by displaying my beautiful pumpkin collection.  I have been adding to this collection for years so that my pumpkins come in all sizes and shapes, and are made of a wide variety of materials, from wicker to wool to ceramic - one is even crocheted out of yarn, and another has a furry teddy bear face.  (And let us not forget my needlepoint canvas of Garfield the cat popping out of a Halloween pumpkin.)

Thank You!

It was wonderful to greet old friends on Sunday, at my Barnes & Noble book signing for my latest book, Woman of a Thousand Secrets, and to make new friends as well. Thank you all for coming and making the afternoon a very delightful get-together. I was pleased to see so much interest in the Mayan culture, and so I am happy to share my research and my own special theories with others.

The Perfect Woman

A reader recently made the interesting observation that in my novel The Dreaming, the main characters of Pauline and Joanna seem to be the two opposite sides of a modern "super-woman" archetype, split into two people. If I put the characteristics of the two women together, this reader suggested, I would have a very unique "Utopian" figure. The reader then asked if this was my intention, and if so, how did I accomplish it? The reader also asked if I was aware of any symbolism in this?

An excellent observation and question, and one that gave me pause.

The Thousand Secrets

What are the thousand secrets? I will share the first one with you here. Several years ago I had the pleasure of attending the spring equinox celebrations at the famous Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichén Itza in Yucatan, Mexico. I wanted to see with my own eyes the "miracle" I had heard about for so long: the stunning phenomenon of a giant serpent materializing on the steps of the pyramid at exactly the hour of the equinox.