It's that Wonderful, Colorful Time of Year

...and I'm not talking fall foliage -- though that's always a sight for sore eyes, too. No, I'm referring to the painted skies over Albuquerque during this city's signature event: BALLOON FIESTA! Shutter bug that I am, I naturally do my level best (or, let's say, my upwardly shooting best!) to help win this Kodak-sponsored spectacle the distinction of World's Most Photographed Annual Event. Here's a tiny (and yet, gigantic) sample from my accumulated scads of balloon pix, doing double duty as a shout out to all my old pals in Tucson and the surrounding Sonoran Desert, where the majestic saguaros grow. Yeehaw!

Okay, I'll give you another hint

As I launch the CHANGING MOON journaling group tomorrow (Sat., 1/10, 5-7 p.m., at The UPS Store at Central & Yale SE in Albuquerque), the focus of my talk will be CREATION MYTH. Bring your journal, come listen to a lovely little creation myth of Caribbean origin, and be prepared to apply the creation-myth concept to yourself.

What are YOU creating in your life in this New Year?

I can't wait to meet you! Bring your friends, too, okay? 'Cuz I can't wait to meet them either.

Love Love Love
Sheila

Please come this Saturday!

You know what this Saturday is?

It's 2009's first Full Moon. And it's the official start of StudioFiftyForty's premier journaling series: CHANGING MOON.

I've been running all over the Duke City posting posters*. Have you seen any of them? Are you wondering, "What the heck is journaling, anyway?" Yes, well, sometimes the posters I design forget to mention the most helpful tidbit. In this case, for instance, I should'a thought to include the words "FIRST SESSION IS FREE." Because it is.

So -- hey! The rest you can learn when you come over on Saturday, right? Please join me and a small, wonderful group of others at CHANGING MOON's Official Launch, this Saturday, Jan. 10, from 5-7 p.m., at The UPS Store at Central & Yale, near UNM in Albuquerque.

Looking forward to seeing your smiling face,
Sheila

* Don't let me forget to thank Peggy Spencer, the right-good doctor and my beloved coauthor, who did offer to help with poster distribution. Bless her heart! Thanks, Peggy!)

You are cordially invited (and so are all your friends!)

CHANGING MOON

Hiya. Sheila here.
If you're like me, you embrace the notion of New Year's resolutions. Indeed, you embrace the resolutions themselves --- often the same ones, year after year --- until about February or so. Okay, maybe late-January.

But what if we could extend the "new-year-ness" of the year? What if a clean slate -- a clean start -- came along, oh, say, every month or so? Just in time (in other words) for you to rededicate yourself to the cause!

Well, my friends, that is the very gift the Moon gives us:
Every month a New Moon.
Every month a clean slate.

What's more, every lunar month gives us a Full Moon, the perfect occasion for checking progress and reflecting on our own coming-to-fullness.

This is the principle behind (and beneath and throughout) CHANGING MOON, the Journal-Writing Series I'm launching with a free "demo" session on Saturday, Dec. 27, from 5 to 8 p.m., at the UPS STORE near UNM (Central & Yale SE in ABQ). I hope you can come. AND that you'll help me spread the word.

Please forward this link to your writerly friends, your "journaling" friends, your friends who love New Year's resolutions! Anyone you can think of, who might be interested.

CHANGING MOON is the premier presentation of StudioFiftyForty.com, my new (well, newish) "sole proprietorship" and a natural outgrowth of 50 Ways to Leave Your 40s, the book I wrote with medical expert Peggy Spencer, M.D. Someday, I will grow StudioFiftyForty.com into the "the online gift shop for cool people of a certain age." Meanwhile, I'm bringing this baby out to meet the public in real space. Even if "journaling" ain't your bag, I hope you'll show up for the launch party on 12/27.

Thanks to the magically well-timed offer and boundless generosity of UPS Store Manager Mary Ann Mitchell-Carr and her family, IT'S TURNING INTO QUITE AN EVENT! Mary Ann's brother, Donald Mitchell, a professional caterer, will provide coffee, teas, cocoa, and sweet nibbles. Mary Ann has ordered in 50 chairs (fifty! as in Fifty Ways to Leave Your 40s!). I'm preparing a special little piece of "book art" to hand out as party favors.

OH! & WE'LL HAVE DOOR PRIZES!!!

Tell your friends, will you, will you? And plan to come! Saturday, Dec. 27, at the UPS Store near UNM (at Central & Yale SE, in ABQQ). Try to be there by dark!

Hope to see you then!
Love, Love, Love (that ever-lovin' "Way #47")
Sheila

P.S. Stay tuned for details -- dates, rates & offerings.

Tune in, Ft. Collins!

Sheila's on the radio again
namely,
"Memos from Life"
with host Barbara Bue
Monday, Oct. 27th, from 6 to 7 p.m.
on KRFC 88.9 FM or online at krfcfm.org.
Tune in if you get the chance.

Happy Birthday, Deborah Cleere!

Oh-eight, oh-eight, oh-eight. I heard the Chinese chose this particular date -- or lobbied hard for the Olympics in '08 so's they could choose this date -- because 8 is the most auspicious of digits in their culture. Well, I've watched this one coming with a smile on my face, because ever since I found out that my friend Deborah Partridge was born on 08-08-58, I've been able to figure that 08-08-08 would mark her 50th.

Happy Birthday, Deb! You survivor you!

When I saw 08-08-08 coming, I knew I must---MUST!---break my silence and blog. I do enjoy the number-patterned dates --- and that's about as far as my love of numbers goes. Me and math? Nahhh...

But listen! There's a smack beautiful storm right on top of me as I type. Here in the desert this time of year, a gardener can see storms pouring rain all around, but nary a drop comes her way. So I really must go pull a big plastic garbage can under the downspout.

I'll be back. And soon!

Love Love Gush!
Sheila

Our SouthWest Writers Gig coming up

excerpt from The SouthWest Sage, the Voice of SouthWest Writers

How a Couple of ‘Accidental Coauthors’ Let the Muses In
Tuesday, August 19, 7 to 9 p.m.

Establishing a plan for the article or book you’re writing is
never a bad idea, of course, but—have you noticed?
Sometimes the project has ideas of its own. Authors Sheila
Key and Peggy Spencer, MD, will discuss the wild,
wonderful (and, at times, worrisome) magic that intruded
early and often during the writing of their book, 50 Ways to
Leave Your 40s: Living It Up in Life’s Second Half, and how
these divine interventions resulted in a better book. Listen!
If these two women—a couple of opposites who didn’t even
meet until halfway through “50/40’s” development—could
manage to go with the flow, then so can you. Sheila and
Peggy will share ideas for knocking holes in that writer’s box
of yours, so your muses can breathe!

Peggy Spencer has a B.A. from the University of California
Santa Cruz and an MD from the University of Arizona. She
completed a residency at UNM, is board certified in Family
Medicine, and works as staff physician at the UNM Student
Health Center and adjunct faculty at the School of
Medicine. Winner of the SWW 2006 Best Essay award, she
writes a column for the Daily Lobo answering health
questions, and contributes articles to UNM Parent Matters
and UNM Today.

Sheila Key is an award-winning writer and graphic designer
who has freelanced for publications ranging from corporate
business journals to New Age magazines. She worked in
radio for ten years in Minnesota, Wisconsin and elsewhere,
arriving in Albuquerque in 1994 when her husband became
general manager of KUNM FM. Notably, it was the SWW
2003 writing contest that convinced Sheila to developing
the book proposal. She won SWW awards that year and the
next, and by then the proposal was ready. Thanks SWW!

Another Radio Interview for Sheila!

Sheila is interviewed by Women's Watch host Carolyn Firestone on WBZ out of Boston.

Click here to listen.

Give me an "A!" Give me another "A!" Give me an "R!" Give me a "P!"

On the way back from Crested Butte, I stopped for the night in Gunnison, Colorado. Little motel on the edge of town, one of the few not filled up by the softball tournament that had packed the area for the weekend.

The plump young woman behind the desk said, "Two queen beds, $59."

I nodded, "Okay."

"Got any discounts or anything?"

"No." I never have discounts. If I ever manage to clip coupons, I always leave them wherever I'm not. "Oh, wait! I'm a member of AARP! Does that count?"

"Sure does," she smiled.

I was psyched! My first discount as an Elder American! Woo hoo!

I felt like I had made a rite of passage. Small, but significant.

You see, for years I heard my friends complain, "I got an invitation to join AARP! Man, do I feel old!"

As each of them passed the fifty year mark, we'd razz them. "Did you get your AARP card yet?" Ha ha ha.

So, when it came my turn to see the big 5-0 on the horizon, I decided to get pro-active. I joined them before they could recruit me. I had my membership before my 50th birthday. Embrace the change! Be proud of your age! Bounce right out of your 40s and into AARP!

I signed my name with a flourish and strutted down to my room.

Peg does event in Crested Butte, Colorado

Here are some pics from the reading and signing event at Blue Moon Books in Crested Butte last Saturday. It was a nice, intimate gathering. This is the sandwich board out front. Can you make out where it says "Tonight Only!" I love that. As if authors normally do nightly appearances for a month or something. Anyway, it made me feel special.





Here's David, the owner and proprieter of Blue Moon Books. See how he cleared off the back wall to display our book? Nice, eh? He also hopped on his town bike (everyone rides everywhere in "CB" as the locals call Crested Butte) and rode up to the liquor store to come back with wine and a 6 pack of............drum roll please...........Blue Moon Beer! He was very hospitable. Thank you David!



And here we all are - the intimate gathering of which I spoke. Five guests made it a close and casual event. That's me in the middle in purple. Some of the others are locals, some were visiting from other parts of the state. I talked a bit and read a bit and we had some nice conversation about aging and other life topics.



Thanks again to Blue Moon Books! I highly recommend this cozy shop if you're ever in the area.

More Rocky Mtn photos

There is still plenty of snow on the ground, but water is pouring off the mountains everywhere you look. Spring is just beginning here. These little sprouts become plants with huge leaves that staff runners use for costumes in the 4th of July parade in town.

Back in the Colorado Rockies

Last year and the year before, Sheila and I came up to this idyllic spot in the Colorado Rockies for writing retreats. This year, book finished, I'm here solo, in my usual role as camp doc. I drove up from Albuquerque today, arriving about an hour before sunset. Now I'm seated in the familiar cabin, starting to shiver in the night that is expected to reach 29 degrees F by morning, listening to the roaring of the river, engorged by Spring melt. I'll have better pictures to post later this week, once I have daylight. For now, here are just a few from my drive up here.

Peg leaves her 40s!

Last Sunday, the 1st of June, 2008, I officially left my own 40s behind.

Happy My Birthday to you!

I have to admit, in spite of coauthoring a whole book on the subject, I had some trepidation about reaching this particular milestone myself. I mean, we wrote a lot about how wonderful this time of life can be, how celebration-worthy, how joyous. And I do believe all that. I also got a little short of breath when contemplating my own passage. And I wondered: I can talk the talk, but can I walk the walk?

I'm happy to report that so far it has been just fine. I woke up that morning wondering what 50 would feel like, and was pleased to discover that, of course, it felt just like forty-nine and 364/365ths. I felt no different from the day before. *forehead smacker* Of course I didn't! We change in increments, after all, and 50 is just a number. I left my 40s the way I live my life: fairly quietly and one day at a time.

The day of my birthday I played in a soccer tournament for women over 30, and I am very proud to tell you that we won second place! Not half bad for a half century, eh? The team insisted I take the trophy home for my birthday, so now I have a daily reminder of how I started out Leaving My 40s like Way #8: Play Ball!"

Later that day (after a delicious nap a la Way #7: Pause) my wonderful husband and kids took me to dinner at my favorite gourmet pizza and salad place, then we came home, ate chocolate (an absolute necessity on any of my birthdays) and watched a feel-good movie (August Rush) together. No big deal. No fireworks. The day wound down and imperceptibly slipped into June 2.

We are planning to have a big party later in the summer, but even if we didn't, I'd be happy. I'm healthy; I have a great family; I love my work. What more could I want at any age?

Bookworks

Our last stop on our Southwest Book Tour. Back home in Albuquerque! We were graciously hosted by Bookworks on Rio Grande.






















On the white board in the foyer. Love that "no angst allowed"!






The in-store display.


















Here we are doing our thing. What IS that green thing Sheila has? Google "Hoberman Sphere" or read our book!














There's Sheila leading the group in one of our "Cool Moves."
















Sheila reading. Note the table with our books behind her.
Here's Peg reading one of her "Doc in the Box" selections:















Here we are signing our books. We sold 22 books at the event itself! Thank you so much to Bookworks and to all our friends, old and new, who came to the event!

New World Library staff

Here they are, the faces of the dream team at New World Library! Of special import to us: Kristen (front row, left end), Georgia (front row, 2nd from left), Kim (front row, second from right) and Munro (back row, right end). We LOVE you people!!!!!!!

By the way, this picture came from an article from the Novato Advance about New World Library, which mentions our book! Check it out.

Arizona Trip Pics - Tucson

Antigone Books is a charming store on South 4th Avenue. Independently run, chock full of great titles, and very hospitable to us!

We were excited to see our book in the window, along with a poster about our event. We shared the event with Ellen McMahon, a local author whose essay "Through The Looking Glass" appears in a collection of midlife transition stories titled The Oldest We've Ever Been.

Here's Sheila inside Antigone with yet another display of our book!




Two of Peg's professors from medical school days delighted us by coming! Larry Moher on the left, Ron Pust on the right. Thanks so much!

Sheila signing!





We went out for beer and tapas afterwards with some dear old friends of Peg's. From left: Fred Edson, Sheila, Elissa Fazio-Rhicard, Margie Puerta. Thanks for coming to cheer us on!






Maurice Grossman, an Arizona ceramics celebrity, graced us with his sparkling presence.





Elissa, Peg, and Eric Fazio-Rhicard. Love you guys!

Arizona Book Tour pics- Phoenix

Here we are, waiting patiently for our turn with Pat McMmahon at KAZT.



And there he is, the man himself! We had a lot of fun with this interview. He does a news and events show that lots of Phoenicians watch --thank you Pat!













This is Sheila outside Channel 3, where we went for our next TV interview.








Here we are being silly posers with the cardboard cutouts of station staff. The pink lady between us is our lovely host, Lisa, of the show Your Life From A to Z. She interviewed us in between the Quincinera fashion show and the Sushi chef!




And then it was on to our evening event, a "Meet the Authors" soiree at the Duck and Decanter. I was so busy schmoozing and signing that I didn't take pictures! Sheila, do you have any from the event itself?

The lovely and talented Karen Mettler, one of our hosts at "The Duck."

Radio Interview On Live The Day

Click here to listen to a radio interview of Sheila and Peg on Live the Day Radio!

Off to Arizona!

Peg and I will be at DUCK & DECANTER, at 1651 E. Camelback Road in Phoenix tomorrow night, (Thursday, May 1) beginning at 6 p.m., and at ANTIGONE BOOKS, at 411 N. 4th Avenue in Tucson on Friday, May 2, beginning at 7 p.m. Hope you can join us.

Meanwhile, we'll be racing between Phoenix TV stations tomorrow morning, as our fabulous publicist, Kim Corbin, has lined up interviews for us at both KAZT-TV (we'll be "live" on "The Pat McMahon Show" around 8:45 a.m.) and Channel 3 (we'll be taping a segment for "Your Life A to Z"). DOES ANYONE HAPPEN TO KNOW the call letters for Channel 3? Or, for that matter, the channel number for KAZT? I should be googling 'em both, I know, but I've gotta go pack a bag before today's flight, and in order to do that, I definitely need to decide what to wear!

Okay, so off I go. Then off WE go. And THEN (hopefully) off YOU'll go, to attend one event or another. And if not you, then hopefully, every last friend of yours in the greater Phoenix and Tucson areas! Did you email them about going? No? Well, as I SO like to say, "tick-tock, y'all!"

Love Love Love
Sheila