My other family

On our many trips on the Crystal Symphony, each time we would return from a shore excursion tour, at a different port, the crewman at the bottom of the gangplank would check our passenger ID card and say enthusiastically, "Welcome home!" Made you feel so good. They always referred to the passengers as the Crystal family, and the service was always impeccable without ever verging on the obsequious. What nice memories.

The notice of my move from Canada to Tucson

But it is timre for me to move on to my next "adventure" and to put another pin in the world map on the wall. In September I hope to be established in my new home in Tucson, Arizona, and to be near my family. I will of course continue to make jewelry (how could I NOT? and will develop and expand my Online business. Leaving my beloved Kelowna will be the most difficult move of all the places I have lived in around the world. I hope that, through emails, Facebook, Skype, Twitter, etc., we will all be able to keep in touch and be as close as the nearest computer. I wish my successor in Studio 2O3 the happiness and fulfillment I found there, and I thank all the staff and my fellow artists at the Rotary Centre for the Art for the help and friendship they gave me over these last four years. With all the best wishes for the future, Janice Written in October of 2009.

New concept

Well, I just finished the revision of the last chapter of my Memoir, and am ready for Alejandra to put all the finishing touches and Photo Numbers on them so I feel like celebrating. Strangely, I also feel a little deflated, which I can't understand. I thought I'd be jumping with joy. Maybe I'll get my confidence back when I see how excited Alej. will be that I completed the Writing. There's still a lot of work for her to do to get the book ready to turn over to the Formatter. The book has an estimated 482 pages, which is way too long, so I don't know what the Formatter will do to get it ready for Print. One thing I'm really happy about was the decision to add extra chapters onto the Blog instead of the Memoir; I'm just as happy to write other "stories" on the blog, for friends to read them. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Love, Janice

New Idea

/while trying to get closer to the Printing phase of my book and being chastised for still trying to add more subjects to the list of Headings, by Ann and Alejandra, I have come up with the idea of writing them out on my Blog. That way, I keep the book reasonable in size and people who are still interested, will see them on the Blog. So, soon you will be reading about the Health Care System in Canada there, instead of a chapter in the book. So, you can put away your whips, Ann and Alej.! Janice

Getting closer!

I've been working every free hour with Alejandra and we have gotten each chapter of my Memoir to get them in the right order. We have also photographed each photo hich refers to the chapter and numbered them so the Formatter can insert the photo with the sharpest photo possible. It's a lot of hard work and very time-consuming. We recently had a meeting with Wheatmark consultants, trying to get them to give a partial refund for the $1,5OOI paid Mark and wasn't satisfied with the work he did. Alejandra was able to do the technology faster and better. My friend Ann, next door, says I mght as well stay with Wheatmark rather than starting all over again with a new publisher. But I'm encouraged that we're getting closer to having each chapter in the right sequence. Ann and Alej. keep encouraging me that we ARE going to have a Book. Eventually. Alez was able to find out how many words and pages I had so far: not bad. Manuscripts all over the house... Talk to you soon. Janice

Long time, no see

Hi, dear Friends, I can't believe I've let so much time go by without giving you some Updates. But I have and it's mea culpa. In my last msg to you, I was rejoicing that I had found the company called Wheatmark which was recommended to me for the publishing of my book of memoirs and I was so happy. Well, today I have had Ann, my dear neighbor next door send me a copy of the letter we wrote to the consultant at Wheatmark, complaining that they had charged me $1500 to put all my chapters in the correct order, but they had not done anything. And, oh, the frustration that I have endured because of everything that went wrong. This year, my birthday celebration was for my 97th year, so I'm quickly gaining on you, Grandpa! Forgetting about all the health difficulties, the Pacemaker installation, the move to a private house and how I manage all the details, the completion of the writing for the book, the details of all the work it involved which only the good work from Alejandra, my caregiver, kept me going. I'm not going to get mired in all the problems; they are just a waste of time. So let's get on with it, and bring you up to date. Alejandra was the one who cut, copied and pasted all the chapters and photos and organized them under the chapter Headings. I am almost finished with them. I am almost ready to turn the contents over to the Formatter, who will stage the paragraphs and titles of chapters. I still have to reduce the cartoon design for the cover, and re-position the Title and the Author's name. When I get all the persnickety details figured out and the manuscript is finally at the Printers, I hall relax and take up making jewelry again. And begin teaching classes in the beautiful setting of the Garage-Studio. A huge weight off my shoulders. So I promise to keep you better informed as I plow ahead. My determination is stronger than ever. Love, Janice

Oh, Happy Day!

Friday, August 4, 2023 will stand out as the day I made a "snall step" (for me) and a "giant leap" (for publishing). A load has been lifted from my shoulders. My computer tech guy admitted he could not move the chapters of my book around, but suggested a publihing compawny here in Tucson which is dedicated to helping Writers above and beyond what other printers try to do. The company is called Wheatmark Publishing and they have been in operation for 20 years. They had a survey for the Writer to answer what the book was all about and what you wanted to accomplish with it.The day after I emailed the survey, I received a phone call from one of the Consultants making an appointment for Friday. He arrived at 11 a.m. and didn't leave until 5 p.m. And we talked about printing the entire time! He discovered that my Microsoft Word had expired way back in 2015 and all my writing went into different lists instead of Word, so they were "trapped". He helped me order a new Word, and set evverything up. I had put all my indes cards in sections with heading of where each chapter should go, took my box of index cards home with him and is going to move each chapter under the SUBJECT it belongs to and then I get to revise them -- again. Mark (the consultant) says I have way too many pages and have to do major surgery. But I have already re-written the Back cver and will re-draw the front cover in cartoon style, Mark is going to bring me the re-organized list of chapters next Wednesday. and will help me all along the process. In June I had to have a Pacemaker implanted, but it's healing nicely and the numbers are now in the correct range. I'm still weak but am enthusiastic again and "rarin' to go". TTYS, Love, Janice