Author: Gina Wilkins

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~ Dame Edith Sitwell

Autumn is my favorite season of the year — the crisp air, the colorful leaves, the football games and welcome relief from the blazing hot summers. I enjoy the flowers of spring and the activities of summer, but I always look forward to the fall.

My second favorite time of year is probably winter. Granted, I live in a state where the winters are relatively short and mild, though we occasionally see snow and ice. I’ve never wielded a snow shovel, nor seen a blizzard or had to dig out my car just to go to work. But I do love the winters here in Arkansas. The holidays, of course, are my favorite part, but even when they end there are many things I enjoy about winter. I don’t mind the early darkness; that gives me an excuse to don comfy pjs and sit by the fire with a cup of hot tea and a good book or television show. Cold, gray winter days are the best time for escaping into my imagination, writing in favorite sweaters and warm, fuzzy socks, with headphones streaming my eclectic  iTunes library into my ears.

I’d so much rather be cool than too hot and I enjoy bundling into scarves and gloves (again, we don’t have to do it that often, so the novelty doesn’t wear off too quickly for me). Steamy, humid summer days make me want to stay indoors with air conditioning and iced tea, but I enjoy being outdoors on pretty winter days. Stripped bare of leaves, the trees don’t block the views of the rolling hillsides and glittering lakes in “the natural state,” as Arkansas bills itself. I love rounding a corner of a leisurely hiking trail to find a wide-open vista or a tucked-away waterfall swollen with recent rainfalls. Pretty winter days actually make it harder than nice summer days for me to work indoors.

Today is one of those days. It’s unseasonably warm this week — 57 degrees as I write this at almost 11 a.m. Washed clean by last night’s rumbly thunderstorms, the sky is a soft blue streaked with pale gray clouds left behind by the rain. The sun flirts through those clouds, here and then hidden. A breeze ruffles the branches of the azalea bushes and nandinas I can see through the patio door my chair faces, inviting me outside to play even though I have pages to write today to stay on target for my next deadline. My camera sits nearby, whispering promises of lovely photos if I’ll just forget those goals and carry it to a local park or walking path. Several noisy cardinal couples are having a party in the winter-scraggly flowerbeds surrounding the patio, the crimson feathers of the males and orange beaks of the females splashing color against the drabness.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 60s, followed by thunderstorms again on Saturday. So I’ll work today while resisting the temptations outside my window, and I might as well work Saturday — but maybe tomorrow I’ll reward myself for my diligence by taking my camera out to play for a few hours.

Whatever your weather today, I hope you find something to celebrate.

♥♥♥

Look for PRIVATE PARTNERS on sale in stores in February. You can find details on the Books Available Now page.

And don’t forget to enter the drawing for an autographed copy of VALENTINE BABY. The drawing will be held February 1. Click the Enter to Win! tab for more information.

January can be a difficult month. The holidays are over. Visiting family members have returned to their own homes and careers. The bills wait to be paid, which means no more fun shopping for a while! The sparkly decorations are back in the attic, the parties are over, and it’s back to the heart-healthy diet we started last year without the excuse of the holidays for cheating with all those yummy sweets.  College football — which I follow avidly every year — is over until fall. It’s been bitterly cold in Arkansas, as in other parts of the country, limiting our time outside. I love my work, but it’s hard to get back into the sometimes lonely, daily writing routines after the whirlwind of holiday activities. On top of all that, I have a nasty cold that makes me want to just curl under the covers and moan.

So …

It’s time for an attitude adjustment. Time to take stock of the good things in life. I truly enjoyed the holidays. It was so great to spend time with all three of our kids and the son-in-law who became a part of our family two and a half years ago. Cold weather is soup weather, and I love soup, so I’ve tried several very good — and diet friendly — recipes in the past couple of weeks. I’m thoroughly enjoying the medical student series I’ve been writing and I look forward to moving on in this story, letting the characters surprise me a few times along the way. I’ve read some very good books in the past couple of weeks, always a lovely way to escape my problems. And there’s the Super Bowl to look foward to, and new episodes of Lost and Burn Notice and White Collar and House and Castle to fill the cold, early-dark evenings.

Most of all, I’m grateful for my friends. My writer friends have been instant messaging this week, all bemoaning that we’ve forgotten how to write during the holidays! We all know it’s not true, but it feels good to have friends who completely identify with our complaints as well as our joys, isn’t it? That’s why we’re drawn to people who share our careers and our hobbies and our other life circumstances. When my children were younger, I bonded with other mothers I met through school and community activities, several of whom are still friends to this day as our nests empty. I have other friends with whom I share my love of books and movies and popular entertainment.

And my friends here. Thank you for your visits and your comments and your encouragement. May you find your own joys and diversions to fill the cold winter days (or warm winter days, for some of you!)

Don’t forget to sign up for the February 1 drawing for a Valentine-themed book, VALENTINE BABY.  Click the Enter to Win! tab for details.

Watch for my newest title, PRIVATE PARTNERS, Silhouette Special Edition, available in stores in February, 2010. I hope you’ll find a few hours of entertainment in Anne and Liam’s love story. Click the Books Available Now tab for a synopsis and more details.

Thank you again for stopping by, and please come back soon.

Our oldest daughter returned to her post-doctoral position in the Pacific Northwest yesterday, officially ending the holidays in the Wilkins household (our other daughter and her husband went back to New England a few days earlier for her to resume her medical residency and him to start graduate school studies). Our son will return to college in the next week or so, and empty nest syndrome will once again set in here. Poor Izzie misses the kids almost as much as my husband and I do! She’s pictured above sitting among bits of discarded ribbon on Christmas day (she managed to get the one on her back all by herself, as if she wanted to be dressed in Christmas finery, too!). See the makeup brush in the photo? That’s her favorite toy. She stole one of my makeup brushes soon after moving in with us almost eleven years ago and the brush is rarely out of her sight. This is actually her second brush — the first one finally disintegrated, but she seemed happy enough with the substitute. Silly cat.

It was an interesting holiday season. Much of central Arkansas was flooded on Christmas Eve, making it an adventure and a challenge for us to pick up our daughter and her husband at the airport that afternoon and then make it to my mother-in-law’s house and candlelight service that evening. We swapped gifts, ate many good meals, played lots of games — Settlers of Catan was the new game this season, one my daughter and her hubby discovered during the past year. I really enjoyed it — as well as the Yahtzee, Uno, Phase 10 and Apples to Apples we also played (I get stomped a lot! but I enjoy playing, anyway). We watched football and saw two movies — Sherlock Holmes (fun) and Avatar (3D Imax — cool!). We spent a cold day in Hot Springs National Park, strolling down historic Bath House Row, warming our fingers in the steamy hot springs, and admiring the wooded trails of Christmas lights displays through a 210-acre botanical garden, Garvan Gardens. We toasted in the New Year and ate our customary, lucky New Year’s Day meal of pork and black-eyed peas. We even had a little snow this week — less than a half inch that melted by noon, but was still enough to close down the local schools, Arkansas being woefully unequipped for snowy roads.

I hated seeing the holidays end and having my girls return to their separate coasts, but I enjoyed every moment of having them here and will treasure the memories, as always.

And now it’s back to my real life. And goodness, I’m so far behind! I’ve posted details of the new contest on the Enter to Win! page. Don’t forget to submit your name for the drawing. I’m now working on the fourth book in the Doctors in Training series for Silhouette Special Edition. Book 2, PRIVATE PARTNERS, will be available in February, so keep an eye out for it! If you missed book one, DIAGNOSIS: DADDY, don’t worry — the books stand alone. You can still order that first book from eHarlequin.com or I have a few extras (check details on my backlist page). I’m having a great time with this series! I hope you’re enjoying them, too.

So, it’s back to catching up for me now. I want to wish you all a very happy, healthy and creative 2010!

The winner of the January 1 drawing is Carol Sutcliffe of New Hampshire! Congratulations, Carol. The next drawing will be held on February 1. I’ll be giving away a copy of VALENTINE BABY, a Silhouette Special Edition with a Valentine’s theme in honor of that day. I’ll post details soon. In the meantime, to enter, just send an email with your name and address to gina.w@live.com.

My husband, son and I spent 8 hours yesterday volunteering at the Salvation Army Angel Tree distribution in central Arkansas. This was our first time to participate in that, and it was such a rewarding and eye-opening experience for all of us! We see the bell-ringers outside the stores and the little angel cards dangling from Christmas trees at the mall and other places, and we’ve contributed to both in the past, but it was the first time we’ve seen behind-the-scenes of the Angel Tree program.

Dozens of volunteers collected the gifts purchased for the children, and other gifts were donated by local retailers and community members. The volunteers separated everything by family and then by child. Everything was numbered and checked and rechecked for accuracy. Volunteers distributed the gifts to the parents, who were allowed to “shop” from tables of toys and gifts for the children who were not selected from Angel Trees. Everyone left with at least a few gifts for each of their children 15 and under. If I heard correctly, over 1300 families were served this year in central Arkansas (I don’t have exact numbers, but I saw gifts for many, many children).

In tough economic times, charitable giving drops — understandably. But many of the organizations are also desperately in need of another type of assistance — your time. Charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army need help year-round, not just at Christmas. If you can only give a few hours to assist the Salvation Army or a local food kitchen or homeless shelter or animal shelter or any other charity that appeals to you, I urge you to do so. The few hours my husband, son and I spent yesterday were more rewarding to us and put us into the spirit of the season much more than any of the many hours of shopping we’ve done during the past weeks!

For all my visitors here who celebrate Christmas, I wish you peace and joy in this special holiday. And to all my family and friends, nearby and far-away, those I know personally and those I meet only through my books and this blog, I wish you a  happy and healthy 2010!

Don’t forget to enter the drawing for the January 1 prize. Click the Enter to Win! tab above for details. I’ll post again on January 1 to announce the winner. Until then, take care.