Autumn = New Beginnings

As most of you know, I’m part Cherokee and Choctaw. Traditionally, we see the world and life in a circular form, a wheel or spiral. For the Cherokee, autumn is the time of endings that create new beginnings. We celebrate our New Year in the fall, and I’ve always lived my life like that—with autumn as the time new cycles begin and new things of importance are started in the most abstract and concrete ways.  If you think of cleaning up the garden for winter while you’re dividing and replanting your perennials for new plants, it makes a lot of sense. And we’ve been doing something similar with this blog. 

It’s my privilege to kick off a new version of The Stiletto Gang this month. We’ve had some big changes around here. Those of you who follow us regularly will know that we recently began a Facebook page for the blog, https://www.facebook.com/stilettogang.  We’ll be doing some fun things there as folks launch books—and we’ve got lots of book launches ahead. We’ll have giveaways and other fun things going on over there.

At the same time, here at the blog, we’ve undergone some major changes. Two of our regular longtime blog mates, Joelle Charboneau and Maggie Barbieri, are leaving because, well, mostly because they’ve become so successful that time has become really limited for them. We all wish them the best and will miss them greatly, as I’m sure you will. But don’t worry. They’ll come back occasionally to visit with us.

In the process of revamping the schedule and bringing in new blood, some of us have cut our blog appearances to create more time or switched days to make blogging more manageable—and we’ve brought on five new members of the blog. That’s the exciting news! Lots of new voices to join with the rest of us here. Our new members, in the order that you’ll meet them, are Lynn Cahoon, Sally Berneathy, Kay Kendall, Sparkle Abbey (really, co-authors Anita Carter and Mary Lee Woods), and Debra Goldstein. Check out their bios and books in the sidebar, and I think you’ll be thrilled, too.

We regulars are so pleased to welcome such a talented and diverse group of authors to join us, and we’re anticipating lots of fascinating new posts from them. In the process, I think those of us who’ve been here a while are getting energized, as well, like those perennials that grow so much faster after division.

So, the wheel of the year is turning for us, and we say an affectionate goodbye to Joelle and Maggie, grateful for all the wonderful times we’ve had together, while we sing out an enthusiastic greeting to Lynn, Sally, Kay, Anita, Mary Lee, and Debra. Oh, are we going to have some fun together!

NOTE: Blogger and I are still at war over comments and replies. Blogger won’t let me comment here or at my own blog (though I can on other Blogger blogs), so I will respond to comments here over on Facebook. *sigh* Hope to get this fixed soon.