Since FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES came out in April of 2007, life has flown. At that time, I decided to take a break since I had published 10 books in 11 years, starting with my first Lilly Bennett mystery, BAD MANNERS, in 1996. I needed to take a look at the world outside my office. Or, as my dearest-darling husband, Peter, said, "You need to get a life!" In July 2008, I was asked by the Denver Center Theatre Company to adapt the Lilly Bennett mystery, TRAMP, to a play—a completely unknown art form to me which I am thoroughly enjoying learning, but it's a big change and an even bigger challenge. But I know that to keep life interesting you just have to put on your lipstick, hold your breath and jump off the high board. As my friend, Joyce Meyer, says, "Once you're in over your head, what difference does it make how deep the water is!" Which goes hand-in-hand with my personal motto: Never Face the Facts! By that I don't mean we should all walk around wearing rose colored glasses and not facing reality but once you've prepared for the worst as best you can, skip to the fun stuff. Never face the facts about your abilities or inabilities. By the time I hit thirty-two and still wasn't married, most of my friends and family encouraged me to take another look at the tons of frogs—thousands probably—I'd kissed over the years and compromise. Really, it won't be that bad, they said—you can overlook a few things about him. So what if he's carrying around a few dozen extra pounds when you look at the size of his bank account? Marry him now, weigh him later! But I kept waiting for my prince—and if he never showed up, that would be okay, too. But he did! Peter and I celebrate our 30th anniversary this year. If I'd faced the facts about my marriage prospects, who knows where I'd be today. Not happy, I know that. If I had faced the facts about my literary abilities in terms of formal education, I never would have written a word. Most of my literary training began and ended with my 7th and 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Ruth Gorham. I was an extremely poor student in high school and scarcely graduated. I never attended college. When I was starting my first book, a friend said, "What do you think you're going to do? Just sit down and write a book? You don't know anything about writing a book." Well, okay, I didn't let the facts get in the way and it's ten books later. And now the Denver Center for the Performing Arts—the second largest performing arts center in the country—has asked me to write a play, which I'll get to in a minute. But first I do want to talk about the facts—and believe me, I'm not making any political statements or meaning to be depressing and there is a happy ending! Also, I'm not an historian—this is history seen through my particular view. When America was attacked on September 11, 2001, we were all in shock—the world had gone mad. Now, we feel the same way—our country's in some pretty deep water. It's useful, and comforting, to look back a few decades: 1930s—The Great Depression—Nothing like this had ever happened before and many of the people who experienced it are still with us. 1940s—Pearl Harbor + World War II + A-Bomb—America had never been attacked before, and when the war ended with the dropping of the Atomic Bomb, the world changed completely forever. In my opinion, the use of nuclear weapons probably changed the world more profoundly than anything in history. 1950s—Nuclear threat. The Cold War. We grew up hiding under our desks because we were pretty sure that Russia was going to drop an A-bomb on downtown Denver at any second. In fact, when the nuclear tests were going on in Nevada and Utah, my brothers and I went outside and looked at the nuclear cloud pass overhead—maybe even while Daddy was spraying the weeds with DDT! America had never lived with a lingering feeling of inevitable doom before. 1960s—Social fabric disintegrated—Viet Nam + Hippies + LSD—To me, the most shameful period in our country's history. 1970s—Watergate opened our eyes to the fact that our elected officials could not be trusted. PLUS, we found out that J. Edgar Hoover was going home from work every night and putting on an evening gown! 1980s and 1990s—Recession 2000s—9/11 2008/9—World markets collapse. The point is—to one extent or another, it's always like this. The picture is always changing in earth-shattering, unprecedented ways. Many of us have experienced many of these changes and we're still here. The question is, what are we going to do about it? Maybe this will help: For years, CNN was my homepage. I changed it to Gourmet Magazine—and if you subscribe to the magazine, Ruth Reichl emails you a wonderful note almost everyday. I've decided to cook my way out of this mess and since all of these troubles began, I've learned several fabulous new things, including: the Barefoot Contessa's Spring Green Risotto with leeks, fennel, peas and asparagus; Roasted Lamb Chops with Marmalade Glaze; Cheese Grits, and Helen Corbitt's incredible banana bread with dates and walnuts. The economy and my soufflés are operating in direct inverse proportion to each other—the lower it goes, the higher they go! Soufflés take focus and concentration—you can't make a soufflé and think about anything else. Just like you can't write and book or a play and do anything else. So, I live in fantasy land as much as possible. The play is taking me back into Lilly Bennett's world and I'm getting ready to start a new Kick book. It's creative chaos around here. TRAMP, The Play—as they say in the theatre and movie businesses—is "in development." The work has moved into being a piece of its own, no longer dependent on being defined by the book, which is really exciting. I'm not sure what, if anything, will come of this endeavor. But I'm enormously grateful for the experience and honored to be working with a team of America's leading theatre professionals who are at the top of their game. A publishing house in Texas would like to reprint all four of the Kick Keswick books. I'm almost overwhelmed with the action and possibilities—not to mention my day job responsibilities at The Kellogg Organization, Inc., our national and international fundraising counseling firm, where I am Executive Vice President. But, in our family, problems, disappointments, challenges, responsibilities, opportunities, possibilities and successes are all the same thing. So I'm in deep. The fact is, whether we know it or not—if we're really living—we're all in over our heads all the time so let's just keep swimming as best we can and never face the facts about how deep the water might be. I can't do anything to change your life, but maybe some of these suggestions will change your day. God Bless You.