A Weekend Get Away

My husband and I celebrate 22 years of marriage on the 3rd of December. We've made reservations to stay in a cabin during this coming weekend--and these photos are what the cabins look like, inside and out. Nestled in the beautiful, very mature White Pines State Park, outside of Oregon, Illinois, it is a nice break away from what we are so used to around us--dormant fields, and the park next to us which we've had for 16 years. You just need a change of scenery. And White Pines Inn was perfect. It was one of the places where Dennis and I had gone on a date, and learned that we enjoyed the outdoors. We had stayed once about 17 years ago, but had never gone to the dinner/theater, and had been wanting to revisit and add the dinner/theater. We'll be enjoying the comedy "Scrooge" which has audience participation.

The cabins, as you can see, are real log cabins, built in 1929 by the C.C.C.'s. They used to have actual working fireplaces. When we visited the first time, they had closed them off. But now they have either a gas or electric fireplace. A romantic get away, for sure. Nothing like having someplace warm and cozy to enjoy on a cold December night. We have been looking forward to it since we made the reservations back in October--finding they had only 3 cabins left (I think they have 20)

Also, on the 3rd, I've been told my book, Vampire Ascending, is to have a first print copy. I'm to get this copy, I suppose, and another is to be sent to a reviewer. So, all that going on this coming weekend, I've got a lot of celebrating to do.

It's been a while since I've had a book out. Oddly enough, the first one came out in November of 2008. I had a book signing in December. With all that is going on, my work schedule and so forth (not quite knowing when my book will be available to be ordered by a bookstore), I'm thinking about all the rushing around during this time, worrying about this stuff, I think I'm going to hang back and have a book signing in January instead. I know that people get gift certificates for the bookstores for Christmas gifts, so I'm going to do it this way. That way, while I'm down (no work) for 3 weeks, I can get my interviews done, and arrangements for the book signing as well, and I won't drive myself nuts trying to organize it all before Christmas--which falls on Saturday, and thus so does New Years Eve.

So, I'm not going to be around this weekend. I'm not going to have to cook, wash dishes, and we might take a few hikes into the woods, clean out our lungs and refresh our minds with the peacefulness surrounding us.