First, I apologize to everyone who makes a living in the cosmetic industry since I contribute very little to their financial stability. I was not always this way of course. For those who are of an age and grew up in the Deep South, one would no more consider leaving the house without make-up than one who go out with their hair in curlers. (Not sure how many other regions that applied to). There were certain religious groups that prohibited cosmetics, cutting hair, etc.,.but of all the restrictions in being raised Southern Baptist, those were not among them. As an aside, I worked when I was in college, mostly at the local Rexall drugstore behind the fountain. The senior sales lady (lovely woman) told me and the younger sales lady that if we never did anything else, to be sure and start using moisturizer. With my budget, that was Noxzema for a long time, but I was faithful in application.

I have mentioned before when I entered the Army, it was as the Women’s Army Corps was being phased out. As WACs, 90%-plus served in administrative positions (Nurses were in the Army Nurse Corps) and make-up was expected – understated of course – only pale pink and beige nail polish. Once we were transferred into the mainstream Army though, and in my case being in the field of maintenance, make-up on the job became sort of a hassle, especially when we had Physical Fitness Training (PT) early three mornings a week. Make-up is not practical for warm-up exercises, then a run. So, three days a week would mean carrying the stuff with me, applying it after showering and then depending on what I was doing, I was outside or in an office with no air conditioning most of the day. Not to mention also wearing camouflage. Applying only moisturizer and lip balm was a lot easier. By the time I went back into more administrative jobs (switched back and forth for many years), it had just become a habit not to bother with it.

Yes, I do keep a few basics on hand for when I have to have a new head shot done, but that isn’t often. Now, in all fairness, every time I have a candid photo put on Facebook, I do see how “stark” I look compared to those who are more inclined to make the effort. Then again, I think about how much time I save and decide it’s a better choice for me.

I did an interview last month for the first time in a while. It’s a niche magazine someone referred me to. (http://voyagemia.com/interview/meet-charlie-charlotte-hudson-charlie-hudson-writes-homestead/?fbclid=IwAR1wsIV1PChdlwrK9DzTU61B5f8KBczTM6zlfwnnGAlrCzXxtO89jR9YQTI)

Yes, I know it’s a long link, but I didn’t do a  shortcut. Anyway, they had a couple of interesting questions about did good luck play a part in my careers and did I encounter bad luck? As I said to them, I think everyone has a mix of both. (I won’t go into the tragedy part most of us face at some point or the other). As I have posted before, the path I wound up on in the Army was certainly not one I expected. Had I not been the first female officer assigned to my unit in Germany, I would not have been placed in the position that I was; a position that then led to other “female firsts”. For a time, I thought I wasn’t performing to the level I should have been and come to find out, I was beating everyone’s expectations. To be clear that was, “Yes, she makes a lot of mistakes, but never the same one twice.” It wasn’t that I had been put into the higher level position in order to “try” me; it was they simply weren’t sure what to do with me. The lessons I learned there provided a stronger foundation for what I would go on to do later. On the “bad luck” side, in my very next assignment, I was once again placed in a difficult position and three of my four senior officers were quite frankly enough to cause me to want to resign as soon as my service obligation was over. My direct boss was fortunately the exception. Within about four months though, the other three left in the normal way these things happen and all three that came in were the opposite side of the coin. While one was a bit of a screamer, I was used to that. They were all the kind of officers one could look up to and learn from.

This is one of those weeks when I won’t say scheduling got away from me, but not everything was on the calendar at the time we set up an artist reception for tonight. That will of course be followed by dinner with friends. Yes, the afternoon meeting for tomorrow was also on the schedule. What wasn’t was the short event last evening and the dinner, then Celtic Group performance at the theatre tomorrow night and attending the City Eco Fair Saturday afternoon. Granted, the performance and the Eco Fair were on someone’s calendar; I just didn’t realize we would be adding them to ours.

Both things will be enjoyable; having them all run so close together is not my preference though. The first week of March and the first week of April will be similar. Sigh! This is what happens when one is involved with multiple groups. Everyone has their own events and if one wishes to have individuals from Group X support one we are involved with, it is only reasonable for that group to expect us to then support their event. A high degree of mathematical ability is not required to figure how quickly it adds up. Throw in the events to cover for the newspaper and the count increases. At least for me this week it was only one. Hubby just got tagged though to do an extra photo shoot tomorrow which of course now means we have to juggle transportation to keep from winding up with having two cars at the theatre. It’s manageable, although inconvenient. There is also the matter of me wearing my theatre clothes to the meeting tomorrow afternoon as I won’t be coming home in between events and I don’t wish to carry a change of clothes. Ah well, at this point there is certainly no way we find ourselves running the risk of getting bored.

After a much longer lapse than I intended, the final book in the series has gone live. I don’t have the first chapter posted to my website yet, but will take care of that later this week. Since this does close out the series, I included some chapters/scenes to help resolve different situations with some of the recurring characters. The two main plot lines are a mix of pure fiction for the one introduced in Chapter 3 and the second one is much later in Chapter 19. That’s the one that has a kernel of family history (mine) very much wrapped in fiction. I’ll be happy to explain that later if anyone wants to know the “true story” after reading it. There is a slight pang with saying good-bye to Helen, her friends, and family and I do hope everyone enjoys the way in which I chose to end things.

I used a different publisher this time (still self-published) so I should have my copies by the end of the week. As you can see, they did an excellent job with the cover and they were quite professional to work with. The only drawback is more of a requirement than before for me (which means my husband) to actually upload the final files. There was only one issue which we will (that means me) use as a “lesson learned” in case I go with them for the next Chris Green novel. The advantage was I am able to keep the paperback retail at $12 on Amazon; something I couldn’t initially do when I published Shades of Deception through the publisher I used for that. There are multiple considerations for selecting a publisher and I really wished the one I used for my previous four novels had still been available. But, it’s a tough business and there are frequent changes in the industry.

Oh, don’t try to read the text on the back; I couldn’t crop it for this image.