I continue to paint every day and constantly stretch the boundaries of my abilities. I belong to a group of four mentor/friends that travel together and show our art at different venues.  We have been to Waterworks Art Museum in Miles City, Montana,  are currently showing at the courthouse Art Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee and are looking forward to a venue in Japan!  Travel is always a plus to getting these shows.

In April, I published my second collection of poetry: Permanent Change of Station (Middle West Press). The poems revolve around the move that brought us from California to North Carolina. My daughter was two, and all of the changes of environment, coupled with all of the changes associated with coming into her toddlerhood, was quite traumatic for her.

The past year since my interview has been full of changes and excitement. We moved to North Carolina and it took me a while to find a studio to begin dancing again. I was fortunate to find the Carolina Performing Arts Studio that just opened near my house. I met the studio owner and ballet teacher, and immediately found my new home there.

Over the past year since my last guest blog, I've had so many wonderful things come about. I'm excited to share these as I look back on our military life journey of over twenty-six years. We've been “retired” from the Navy for eleven years now. Our current home we've been in for ten years – the longest we've been anywhere in our entire adult lives. I finally have that picket fence I always wanted...it ends up in so many paintings of mine, a continual theme of home and stability.

I’m sitting on my terrace, preparing to attend a fùtbol (of the World Cup type) match between rival attaché groups (Navy/Marine v.s. Army/Airforce). At the game, I will be sitting with Las Mafiosas, a group of women that represent about fifteen different countries.

I must confess, when I received Jessica’s invitation to write a guest post with an update of what I’ve been up to this year, my first thought was: “Well, crap. How do you stretch abject failure into 500 words? ”How’s my new book coming, you ask? Well…that depends on how you define “book.” If you call a 1/3-filled pink heart-covered notebook scribbled with an outline, scene ideas, random notes and tidbits of research a “book” - then it’s going fantastic!

I’ve been blessed in the last year to work with some incredible artists on interesting and challenging projects. It took a little bit to get going the first six months but then things just really picked up in a big way. Now I’m involved in something art related at least every month. Which is fabulous because I’m motivated to continue making work and working towards my goals.

Since I last graced MilSpoFan screens…I am back in Abu Dhabi, which has been a pretty terrific place to live for the last four and a half years. This past fall I cobbled together what I like to self-indulgently refer to as “The Confusion of Languages Middle East Book Tour,” making stops at book clubs, schools, embassies, here in Abu Dhabi as well as Dubai, Oman, and Bahrain.

Being a military spouse and a mother certainly have their challenges but we were thrown some extra curve balls. During my last interview, my husband was serving as an Air Force squadron commander in Japan.

This past year has been filled with testing of my health, figuring out a balance of work and family, working on our home and so much more. I wish I could say it's all been great. But some of the struggles have helped me grow significantly.

Then I was working on a show to be hung at the historic Waterworks Art Museum in Miles City, Montana. It was a wonderful experience and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the site and getting to know such warm and inviting people. This year I am working on a show for the Courthouse Art Museum in Clarksville, Tennessee.

I am a novelist and poet living in Virginia. My first poetry book, When the Men Go Off to War, was published in 2015 by the Naval Institute Press about my experiences as a Naval Aviator's wife. Last year I did an interview for MilspoFAN about the book, and now I'd like to share that I'm working on some new projects, including a new collection of poetry and a new novel (my first, Mrs. Houdini, was published by Atria Books in 2016 and came out in paperback a few months ago).

Book tours can be absolutely amazing.

But they can also be very, very scary.

You never know who will show. If anyone will show.