Sunshine, Swans and Springtime!

Well it's finally here - the sound of the woodpecker that returns to my little corner of the Cape has replaced my alarm clock once again. It must be Spring.

The knocking of beak against bark begins as a distant tapping in late March, as the bird debugs my neighbors' trees. But by mid April, this beautiful creature has flown into my garden and announces itself with a jack-hammering on my chimney cap so loud that it makes the bedroom wall vibrate. A startling wake-up call that always makes me smile, once I've recovered from the hammering of my heart within my chest.

With spring come swans on the Herring River, sunrise peeping though my kitchen windows as I put the kettle on for tea, and those earthy smells of life pushing through the soil as we all greet another season of growth.

After many weeks of thinking up themes, gathering stories, editing and formatting pages, the Spring issue of CapeWomenOnline.com has been launched!

This is our 5th issue since I took on the Publisher's role and I am delighted with the growth of our little venture. We just added embedded video clips to some of the article pages, which add a whole new dimension to our storytelling, and we've joined the ranks of the Twitter and Facebook generation.

The T&F links are perplexing to me as I have to conquer my fear of yet another form of electronic communication. I barely get back here to update this blog - god knows how I'm going to add Tweeting and Facebook chat to my super busy world, but I am willing to give it a try.

I remember the very first time I went on the world wide web, as we used to call it back then.  I was standing in the back office of a restaurant I used to work at, watching an image of the earth circle in the center of a black computer screen. I had no idea what to expect other than the totally unfamiliar and fantastic.

When the Netscape browser opened up to reveal a website page I was completely flummoxed and struggled to connect the images on the screen to my physical reality. What the hell was this internet thingy, anyway? And why should I care?

I laugh at my ignorance now because I go online as much as anyone. Even when I'm not near a computer I can check my email on my cell phone, or look up the menu for the pizza place that just moved into town. It's a wonderful, curious, addicting phenomenon that has weaved its way into the lives of everyone I know. I can't imagine life without it.

This is why I knew I had to continue working with CapeWomenOnline magazine. Although I couldn't see where this might take me a year ago, I've learned so much from the interactions I've had with our writers, artists, editor and web princess (yes, she really does live in a princess palace) and the countless people who have just wanted to talk to me about the content we've published. It has widened my horizons on all levels and I feel so blessed to be a part of its continued growth.

I have to admit that I've been so busy with the magazine that my poor old novel has been shoved to the back of my mind for several months now. I miss talking to my characters and have so many details I want to add to the rewrite. Since January I have collected a slew of yellow sticky notes, scribblings on the backs of anything I could write on, thoughts added to the 'Notebook' in my cell phone and long rambling narrative downloaded into the parts of my brain that wake up when it's novel-writing time.

With the new issue online and already receiving rave reviews, I hope to carve out some time to dust off those manila files and get back to work on my rewrite. I still have the summer as my 2nd draft goal, because I need a deadline, so I will have to resist the urge to spend long hours in the garden weeding, planting and pruning, and settle for just sitting on my garden swing with my lap top on my knees instead.

Check out the new issue of CapeWomenOnline.com and let me know how you like it.

Happy Spring!