It's Michael Davis and Colleen Anderson, my friends from West Virginia! They stopped through on their way to Taos, by way of Jemez. Colleen and Michael love New Mexico (luckily for us) and visit often, albeit fleetingly.These are the good people who came up with the title "50 Ways to Leave Your 40s" (Michael's brainchild) and delivered it to my kitchen table on Oct. 13, 2000. Less than an hour earlier that evening, I'd scrawled "I must write a book!" on a stray piece of paper, then, a moment later, "What shall it be about?" Whereupon Colleen arrived for the first of her now customary autumn stays at the Ghost Ranch. It's a writers' gathering; I'll have to get the URL and put it in here...Fall Writing Festival.
Anyway, there was Colleen at my door, all those 6½ years ago, and within a matter of minutes, she was regaling me with the story of a road trip a few months earlier, notably a gift she gave herself on the occasion of a certain "Big Oh" birthday.
...Which is how the book title came up in conversation. I myself was 40 at the time, and we thought for a minute we might write the book together. But in the end, Colleen and Michael --- these two lovelies flanking me in this photograph --- decided, "YOU should write it, Sheila!" And so, at long last, I am.
Speaking of... I'd better get back to it. I'm at exactly the two-thirds point in the manuscript, working on Way #33 today: "Break On Through to the Other Side." Gotta get my MOjo RIsing! Meanwhile, I have handed The Tome (i.e. the 3-ring binder containing the first 32 chapters) over to Colleen and Michael for their critical -- and I do mean critical -- reading. Stay tuned!
Wait! Before I go, I promised C & M that I'd add their links here on my blog. Give me a minute...Here we go: Colleen's and Michael's.
