It’s a beautiful Florida morning and since I got to wake up at a Holiday Inn Express, I’m having a hot cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee. (A Holiday Inn Express does for cinnamon rolls what Krispy Kreme does for doughnuts.) ‘Nuff said. For those of us who travel a lot, you’ll know it’s the little things in hotel experiences we crave. I have friends who prefer hotels based on things like “does it have a gym,” (gosh, do hotels actually have gyms? Go figure!) If it has a pool, the close proximity to restaurants, you know … stuff like that. I go for the cinnamon rolls – sigh.

I’m nearing the end of a three week writing retreat here in sunny Florida. My WIP (work in progress) is coming along well. I’m at almost 60,000 words. This book will be approximately 90,000 words. I’ve been working at a friend’s home in Orlando, but yesterday I drove to the Clearwater/Tampa area to check in to this hotel. Today I am taping a TV show over at Channel 22. For those of you in the viewing audience, I’ll be on the HOMEKEEPERS program on the CTN Network with host Arthelene Rippy. I have no idea when the air date will be, but I’ll keep you posted.

I checked in early yesterday and gave my friend Angela Hunt a call to firm up the time we would meet later in the day for dinner. Lo and behold I connected with Angie at a time when she needed to play hooky and we spent not only dinner together, but lunch and the better part of the afternoon as well. The photo above was taken in Angie's house - don't we look - uh - literary.

Neither of us got any writing work accomplished, but God in His infinite wisdom knew exactly what we needed. He brought two friends together to hang out and talk about the stuff of life. Angie has posted a photo of me and her pony on her Blog today. A bit of an eclectic woman, she keeps her pony in the house and his name is Charley Gansky. They all think he’s a dog, but where I come from any animal that weighs 180 pounds must be a calf or a pony.

Well, I’d best hit the road for now. But first… a special thank you to our last Guest Blogger, Heather Gemmen. If you missed any of her postings, make sure to scroll down to the archives, you won’t be sorry. Heather’s gift of powerful pithy postings was a blessing to many of us!

Not sure how much I’ll be able to blog the coming week, but I’ll do my best. I return to Minnesota the first of May. Our next Guest Blogger who starts a week of postings on Sunday, May 7th will be author/speaker Michelle Medlock Adams.

And that’s what’s on my mind today,