Ever since my fourteen year old granddaughter was four our family has used the term “Lordy Chicken” to express exasperation. Well now my girls and I have a term that seems to fit a lot of different situations. Shitshow. (Please don’t be offended!) Anyway, this past weekend is what I’m calling a Lordy Chicken Shitshow, with a built in blessing.

My publisher, SYP Publishing, had four authors ready to attend the Decatur, Georgia Book Festival and take it by storm! One had a family emergency, which left three of us, but very doable. And then Dorian raised her ugly head and our author friend from Jacksonville, Florida saw the writing on the wall. And then there were two.

Things were going well on Saturday morning. The booth was set-up, I’d sent out some pictures and our resident pirate, Author Sam Staley was in full pirate garb. We were engaging with potential customers, selling books and having fun when I realized my cell phone was missing. And not just misplaced, but truly missing.

The next half and hour or so was spent getting my service turned off , contacting my family, and being downright mad! I’d only had that phone a few months and it was a new expensive model! But I didn’t yell and I didn’t cry, even though both felt appropriate.

So where does the blessing come in? When a lovely woman named Melisa came by the booth asking for me by name. Her Aunt Rose is a member of a Book Club In Indiana where I had recently spoken, and told Melisa I was her favorite author and she should come meet me if she could. Not only that but she asked if she could get a picture of me with her kids to send back to Aunt Rose. It was definitely the lemonade I needed after the lemons I’d dealt with earlier.

Today I was finally able to post some pictures to Facebook and Twitter, but nothing to Instagram until my new phone arrives, and that should be any minute! To be honest, my unplanned unplugging wasn’t the end of the world that I thought it would be. Since I didn’t have a screen to continuously looking at I turned my attention towards smiling faces, and that’s something we all need to do more of. I hate that someone felt the need to take my phone, but I’m not going to harbor ill will. I can forgive and forget, but will definitely be more cautious in the future.

Next week’s post is titled The Psychology of Writing by Ken Johnson. If you are a writer, or an aspiring writer, you won’t want to miss it.

Until we read again…📚

Blessings,

Dana L. ❤️

With my new friend Melisa and her kids!

The books I purchased from our wonderful group of SYP Authors! Be watching for book reviews!!