I know it has been awhile, but I am back.  The holidays were a little overwhelming for me, but I made it.  All the gifts were wrapped and the cookies baked and delivered.  My husband and I have just returned from a short stay in Palm Springs in the sunshine and warm weather.  Now that Hanukkah and Christmas are behind us, my thoughts turn back to reading and writing.  I am reading this amazing book by Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety.   He is a writer who writes about writing so beautifully, he is inspiring me. The setting is Madison Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin, in 1937.  The main character, Larry Morgan, is a first year professor at the university, newly married with a baby on the way.  He and his wife live in a basement apartment, and he writes in the furnace room, early in the morning and late at night.  He is a struggling writer, who has just signed  his first book deal with a publisher.  His main goal in life is to make a contribution.  I am in the middle of the book, so I am on the brink of finding out how this all works out for him.  Now I will see how this all works out for me.