The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Who’s driving you crazy?

Are boomers busy, busy, busy because they’re filled with anxiety and don’t know how to enjoy down time?

That’s what Jennifer Nicholson Graham contends in her article “American Idle: Never Before Has an Entire Generation Had So Much Time in Which to Do So Little,” which appeared in The Boston Globe

When I read the article, it didn’t ring true for me. There’s so much to do these days: run the household, work, cook, clean, help with the grandchildren, take care of the yard, blog, visit friends, buy clothes, exercise, file articles, pay bills, wash the car, take care of my health, do the laundry, help relatives, help friends, participate in community activities, go to church, be an informed voter, and many other tasks.

Life is busy, busy, busy because we have so many things that need to be done.

To me, it doesn’t seem that boomers run from one task to the other because they feel uneasy with nothing to do.

I decided not to blog about Graham’s article, because, although it was cleverly written, I didn’t think she didn’t come to a conclusion that offered a big truth.

But her article came to mind when I listened to a National Public Radio program in which Stephen Bezruchka, M.D., discussed his book “Is America Driving You Crazy?”  Bezruchka teaches at the University of Washington and works as an emergency room physician in Seattle, Wash.

Mental illness rate high in U.S.

America has the highest rate of mental illness in the world, he said in his talk. The number of Americans suffering from mental illness has nearly doubled since 1987. That's when Prozac, the first of the "wonder drugs," was introduced.

Mental disorders are reported in more than 25 percent of returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan. More than one in four college students are now on anti-depressants. The number of children taking drugs for behavior disorders and depression increased six fold between 1993 and 2002.

Depression and anxiety increasing despite new drugs for treatment

Even with all the new drugs available for treatment, depression and anxiety disorders continue to rise.

Bezruchka believes our drug-based system of care is fueling this epidemic. The drugs used to treat depression and mental illness cause problems when used long term.

Public policy changes needed

He would like to see public policies changed on how mental illness is treated and how children are cared for.

In the first two years of life, children form attachments to the two main figures in their lives. In Sweden, both parents are given a year of mandatory maternity leave with full pay. They have an option for a second year at 80 percent pay. Then government-sponsored day care is available operated by teachers who must have a master’s degree.

In America, neo-economic theory, where money trickles down from the rich to the working people, makes it difficult for people to make ends meet, causing stress in their lives.

Before America’s total reliance on drugs to treat mental illness, the people with mental illnesses received treatment in therapeutic communities.

Bezruchka would like to see America develop a therapeutic society where people have real, stable, face-to-face encounters. People need community, respect, friendship, and support. This is less likely to happen when a big gap between occurs the rich and poor.

He urges people to work together to being about changes that will improve America’s support systems and mental health.

I think Bezruchka has done some good thinking about why Americans live stressful lives.

Click on the link above to hear his talk.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

To get good government, get active in a political campaign at the local, state, or national level

Americans these days are complaining loudly about politicians.
 
Citizens are saying things such as: “Politicians are all corrupt.” “I don’t trust them.” “Politicians will do anything to win.” “They don’t listen to people’s concerns.” “Politicians aren’t doing anything to help the public.” “Corporations own the politicians.”
 
But, there’re a lot of good elected officials working to improve how the government carries out its work.
 
To help government run better, pick out a candidate for a local, state, or national office and work for him or her.
 
In the past, very few Americans have been politically active. Now, the number of citizens participating is increasing due to use of the Internet.
 
Nearly half of all Americans have used the Internet, email, or cell phone text messaging to get news about a campaign, share their views, and mobilize others, according to a recent survey of 2,251 American adults by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
 
The number of Americans going online daily at the end of the primary season to get political news or information has more than doubled since a comparable point in the 2004 race – from 8 percent of all adults in spring 2004 to 17 percent of all adults in spring 2008.

The survey found that:

• Younger voters are among the most active and intense Internet users.

• 6 percent of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2 percent who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.  

• A significant number of voters are using the Internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. This includes video of candidate debates, speeches, and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Are you Felix Unger, June Cleaver, Roseanne Barr, Fred Sanford, or Oscar Madison? Take this clutter test and find out

What’s your clutter quotient?

The authors of “Put Your House on a Diet: Declutter Your Home and Reclaim Your Life,” by Ed Morrow, Sheree Bykofsky, and Rita Rosenkranz, offer this quiz.

Click on the headline so that only this post is selected. Print out the quiz, record a score for each section, add your scores, and compare your clutteriness to television icons.

Illustration by Ed Morrow

Your general housekeeping principles

__There is a place for everything, everything is in its place, and everything is dusted. (4 points)
__There is a place for most things, and most things are in their place. Most are dusted. (3 points)
__There is a place for most things but hardly anything is in its place, and many more things are in something else’s place. All places and all things are dusty. (2 points)
__There isn’t a place for anything, but you’ve never noticed because everything is hidden under an inch of dust. (1 point)

Your toothpaste habits

__You always put the cap back on the toothpaste and put the tube back in the medicine cabinet.  You never squeeze from the middle. (4 points)
__You put the cap back and leave the tube on the bathroom counter. You sometimes squeeze from the middle but immediately regret it and contritely squeeze the tube back into shape. (3 points)
__You often squeeze from the middle, forget the cap, and leave the tube on your bedroom dresser. Toothpaste gets on your socks. You wear them anyway. (2 points)
__You always squeeze from the middle, lost the cap a month ago, and left the tube on the kitchen counter beside the toaster, where the toaster’s heat melted it, gluing the tube to the counter. Rather than pry it up, you now brush your teeth in the kitchen. (1 point)

Your laundry

__Your hamper is clean and nearly empty. Thanks to a sachet of dried apples and spices hanging inside it, it smells like Mom’s warm apple pie. (4 points)
__Your hamper is nearly clean and nearly full and smells of apple pie-scented disinfectant spray. (3 points)
__Your hamper is full and smells like spoiled apple pie. (2 points)
__Your hamper is full and you’ve pile more dirty laundry on top of it. The thing smells like Johnny Appleseed’s feet after a 20-mile stretch of his frontier wanderings. (1 point)

Your refrigerator
__There is plenty of room in your refrigerator, its shelves are clean, and nothing in it is spoiled. You have a fresh box of baking soda on each shelf. (4 points)
__Your refrigerator is full, and a few items need to be tossed out. You have leftovers from last night. There’s one box of backing soda. (3 points)
__Your refrigerator is full, the shelves are crusty, and there are items inside that are spoiled. You have three-day-old leftovers. The baking soda has turned green. (2 points)
__Your refrigerator is crammed full, things are cemented to the shelves by sticky goo, and there is a pool of brown glop at the bottom. Many items are soft with decay or blue-green with mold. There are leftovers from meals you can’t remember. (1 point)

Your work space

__There are no loose papers on your desk. Your pens are functioning, the pencils are sharpened, and they all are neatly collected in a china penholder. (4 points)
__There are a few papers scattered on your desk. Some of your pens are dry, and one or two pencils are dull. Your penholder is a souvenir mug. (3 points)
__There is a mix of papers, books, and junk mail on your desk. Your penholder is an old, chipped coffee mug. It contains many pens and pencils, but only one pen works and only one pencil has a point. (2 points)
__You can’t see your desktop for the papers, books, and candy wrappers piled on top of it. There are broken pens, a fistful of pointless (and, hence, pointless to possess) pencils, and a spatula in the unwashed beer mug that serves as your penholder. A torn sneaker rests on top of your computer. (1 point)

Your acquiring habits

__You buy things only when necessary, and then only after waiting a day or two to be sure you need them. (4 points)
__You buy things when they’re needed but also pick up items when they’re on sale or you have a coupon. (3 points)
__You buy things on impulse and save things because they may be useful someday. If you have a coupon, you buy two. (2 points)
__You see something shiny. You buy it. Then you buy another for a spare, in case the first shiny thing gets dull. You cram both into your home, where you have hundreds of other once-shiny things, all of which are now dull, but you promise yourself to polish them one day. You buy polish. (1 point)

Your disposal habits

__You dispose of possessions as soon as you no longer need them. You also generously dispose of other people’s possessions when you think they no longer need them. You get lots of healthful aerobic exercise running away from these people when they learn you’ve disposed of their possessions. (4 points)
__You dispose of unneeded possessions regularly, keeping your home tidy. (3 points)
__You dispose of possessions when they fall from the piles in which you’ve stacked them, and they hit you on the head. (2 points)
__You dispose of things when they’re pulled from your cold, dead fingers. (1 point)

Your results

28-24: Felix Unger
23-20: June Cleaver
19-16: Roseanne Barr
15-12: Fred Sanford
11-7: Oscar Madison

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Is your household too fat and bursting at the seams with clutter? These clutter tips help put your house on a diet

When I attended the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference recently, I met Rita Rosenkranz, one of the authors of the book “Put Your House on a Diet: Declutter Your Home and Reclaim Your Life.” The co-authors of the book are Ed Morrow and Sheree Bykofsky.

Ed Morrow agreed to do an e-mail interview about the book. My questions and his answers follow:

Rita: How did you and your co-authors get the idea to write a clutter book called ‘Put Your House on a Diet?’

Ed: Rita Rosenkranz was moving and wasn’t sure she wanted to keep everything she’d acquired over the years. While having lunch with Sheree, they joked about how Rita should put her household on a diet. Both women are successful literary agents, and they realized that there was a book in the concept of ‘clutter dieting.’ They approached me with their idea. Sitting in my office, surrounded by books stacked to the ceiling, I was intrigued.

Rita: Your book is filled with helpful tips for reducing clutter. What techniques are especially helpful to baby boomers?

Ed: Like many of your readers, I had parents who grew up during the Great Depression. They wanted to pass on what they had learned about thrift. Mom said, ‘Clean your plate; there are kids in (insert name of an impoverished nation) who would love to have that (liver, Brussels sprouts, or some other unpleasant food).’ I would offer to stick a stamp on my leftovers and mail them overseas, but Mom never relented. Depression-influenced parents insisted their kids ‘waste not, want not.’

Boomers learned to feel guilty if they threw out something that was ‘still good.’ While thrift is virtuous, it can fill your home with clutter if you confuse discarding excess possessions with being wasteful.

You can avoid guilt by donating possessions that aren’t used up. Unlike the food that I, with youthful callousness, offered to mail to the needy, your extra raincoat or spare china can be given to someone in need.

Rita: You say in ‘Put Your House on a Diet’ that a house with too much stuff is physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining. Why is that?

Ed: Clutter can blight your life by simply getting in the way. Cooking, for example, can be difficult and frustrating when you can’t find an implement you need because it’s lost in a drawer it shares with old pizza coupons. A well-ordered home lets you work efficiently which is calming to the mind and soothing to the soul.

Rita: What is the best way for people to decide what to keep when they begin decluttering? I've seen an organizer on television whip a family into shape by giving them 20 minutes to clean up each room. That seems harsh. What do you recommend?

Ed: ‘Tough love’ approaches encourage hard choices. You don’t, however, have to use a timer; you can use your imagination. One of the decluttering gambits we suggest in ‘Put Your Home on a Diet’ is that you imagine you’re moving to an outpost in the Yukon. All your stuff will have to go by dog sled. Do you really want some poor huskies sweating themselves silly hauling your Elvis plate collection across the frozen wastes? Think of the imploring eyes of the puppies as you choose what to keep.

Any device that encourages you to declutter is useful, but we need to develop good habits to provide lasting results.

Rita: What are the three best storage items people can buy to help them be organized?

Ed: Good shelves invite you to store your stuff well. Plastic shelves, available for about $50 at your hardware store, are sturdy, simple to assemble, and don’t rust.  Rickety steel shelves or haphazardly banged together wooden shelves may be dangerous when piled high with clutter.

Good boxes are also important. Clear plastic storage boxes allow you to see what they contain but are expensive. An ordinary cardboard box, labeled well, can be nearly as useful.

Another useful storage item, which you create rather than buy, is a ‘treasure map.’ This is a drawing of your storage area describing what is stored where. It can be extremely useful in finding items when they are needed.

Rita: What else do boomers need to know for their home “diet’ to be successful?

Ed: We need to understand that decluttering is an ongoing activity, a bit like the war on crime. The police may bust up a racket or jail the head of a crime family but other rackets and other mob bosses replace them. You can tidy up your sock drawer or clean out a closet but clutter returns. Don’t confuse this recurrence with failure. Like the police, we will never eradicate our foe but we can keep clutter in check. Just don’t quit trying.

Rita: Thanks, Ed. My readers and I appreciate your clutter tips.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

My neighborhood arterial to be torn up for one year

When I returned home from my vacation in May, a friend and neighbor picked me up at the airport.

“I’d take you around, but you’d miss the excitement,” she said, when we were approaching our neighborhood

What my friend called excitement was the arterial that connects our neighborhood to everything is being torn up to install new sewers. And, before the City of Tumwater puts it back together, it also will install new sidewalks.

The project will take an entire year.

I’m better off then my friend. She lives on a dead-end street. If the construction crews dig an 8-foot-by-8 foot-by-8 foot hole at the end of her street, she can’t get out.

Right now, I have two ways I can go around. That may not always be the case. As they move up the street, the construction crews don’t seem to finish anything. They just keep tearing up more streets and sidewalks.

The day I took the photos, I was headed to my friend’s house to deliver something. That was my excuse, anyway.

The construction boss saw me and asked me if I was from The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune. I said no, but thought of the irony of the question. I had written a senior consumer column for The Tribune for 18 years.

He yelled at me and told me he didn’t want me walking in his construction site. I told him I lived in the neighborhood. Then I stopped taking photos and got myself out of there as fast as I could.

I called the city manager when I got home. I told him that although I was wrong to be walking in the construction site, the crew boss didn’t need to yell at me.

I also suggested that they have workers or city employees escort school kids through the site. A high school and middle school are located nearby. I saw a teen with a backpack picking his way through the construction site as I was scurrying home.

The city manager said they couldn’t afford to pay people to do that, but they would string up yellow warning tape around the huge holes. I noticed the taping is being done.

I’ve kept away from the site by driving around it.

On two occasions when I was in a hurry, however, I tried to drive through the mess. Most evenings, the crews leave a path so people can get to their homes.

On both occasions, I got through most of the construction only to find that the spot at the beginning was completely blocked off. I had to go around and was late anyway.

The only thing I got for my efforts was a dirty, messy car. The crews are watering down the construction site to keep the dirt from blowing.

When my car battery died Thursday, my neighbor drove me to the dentist. I took the bus home. Of course, the bus couldn’t drop me near my home due to the construction. Although I could walk on people’s lawns for more than half of the way, there I was walking through the dirt and mud with my good shoes. I didn’t think about the need to be walking through the construction site until I was in the dentist chair getting my new crown.

I’ll probably write about this again. A year is a long time to deal with a major detour.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Dr. Oz: Now I’m stressed about how my stress level is causing me to age

As a guest blogger for Boomer411, I wrote a post yesterday on Tuesday’s program on The Oprah Winfrey Show, “Dr. Oz on Aging: How to Turn Back Time.”

It was a great show. Information I already know such as the importance of a stress reduction, a good diet, and exercise was emphasized.
 
New information on aging was offered such as a description of telomeres. They’re like shoelaces at the tip of the chromosomes, Oz said. When the caps of telomeres begin to wear off, due to stress and other factors, the telomeres become frayed and cells can’t be replaced.
 
The telomeres in people who are old and frail have worn off, he said, adding all organs can be replaced if telomeres aren’t damaged.
 
While I only exercise moderately, I eat a good diet with many fruits and vegetables, which are often organic. I don’t drink or smoke. I take supplements. I have a good job, friends, and an active social life.
 
The program generally encouraged me, although I now worry about my stress level because Oz said stress is the No. 1 ager.
 
I ordered Oz’s book, “You: Staying Young: The Owner’s Manual for Extending Your Warranty (You),” written with co-author Michael F. Roizen, which offers information on how to make changes that will give you vitality as you age. I wanted to see what else I could learn to age well.
 
One hundred of Winfrey’s audience members were preselected to take an aging test. They filled out a quiz at home and had a physical exam, which included push-ups and sit-ups.
 
The results weren’t good. The 100 people were ranked as follows:

• 1 – outstanding 

• 0 – aging well

• 18 – average 

• 81 – not aging well

The woman with the outstanding score said she runs, lifts weights, swims, cooks most of what she eats, and has a happy home life. The woman with the lowest score said she smokes, drinks, eats poorly, and doesn’t exercise. Her score was 64.

Oz told the woman who scored low not to worry; she could make improvements.
 
The brain begins to shift and think about the world differently in 14 days, he said.

In three months, people can start to affect their life expectancy. In three years, nearly any negative past behavior can be reversed, Oz said. “Remember you can’t get rid of your bad habits. You’ve got to replace them with good ones.”
 
I decided to take the test. My score, 69, wasn’t good. In addition to exercising more, I’ll need to take a close look at Oz’s book to see what improvements I can make.
 
Then I took another test called What’s Your Real Age offered at the end of Oz’s aging test. 

I did better on that one. It said I’m 9.4 years younger than my calendar age. I guess I received credit on that test for eating fruits and vegetables and not taking any prescription drugs.
 
I’ll keep you posted on whether I decide to undertake Oz’s 14-day plan and, if so, what habits I was able to change.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

How to remove dandelions naturally

While I’ve been busy blogging this spring, dandelions have been busy growing in my yard.

What to do?

The Washington Toxics Coalition recommends removing them by hand to avoid exposure to harmful chemicals.

Dandelions are a common perennial weed that invades both lawns and gardens, according to the coalition’s publication “Weed Management for the Lawn and Garden.”

They’re established through wind-dispersed seed. A thick taproot stores food reserves.

When hand digging, make sure that the whole root of the dandelion is removed.

If you have a large lawn, the coalition suggests using a tool that allows you to pull the roots rapidly while you stand up.

If the root breaks while pulling, which happens frequently, the plant can resprout from the piece remaining in the soil.

To reduce the spread of dandelions, the flowers shouldn’t be allowed to go to seed, according to the coalition’s weed management guide. Mow frequently to keep the flowers from maturing.

In lawns, the removal of dandelion plants leaves small bare areas where new weed seed can germinate. Be sure to spread a little grass seed in those spots to prevent the dandelion from growing again.

That’s too much work you say? Studies show that children and pets that use lawns where pesticides are applied have higher rates of cancer.

When I read these studies about 10 years ago, I thought the use of pesticides in home lawns and gardens would be reduced. However, pesticides are still being sold in record amounts in attractive packages and bottles in home and garden stores, big box stores, drug stores, and supermarkets.

If you’re too busy to pull dandelions by hand, try hiring a neighborhood teenager.

One project I’d like to undertake is to create a Youth Corp to work on hand weed removal so that harmful pesticides don’t need to be used.

Last weekend, I helped a friend pull dandelions by hand to help get ready for a garden party. We’ll be at it again this weekend. See upper photo.

My dandelions aren’t as bad as hers. Hers are tough, with three to five dandelions in each cluster. The leaves on my dandelions are tender and easier to pull. See lower photo.

I’ve been concerned about pesticide exposure since I was a child. Growing up in Central Washington, I was sprayed with pesticide drift from airplanes when I was walking down the road. I also thinned apples as a teen in trees that were dripping with pesticides.

My dad, Minor H. Slingsby, died in 1990 at age 80 from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a lymphatic system cancer. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is linked to pesticide exposure. My dad was an apple farmer.

I learned about this link from a story on National Public Radio a few months after my dad had been diagnosed. A story reported increasing numbers of farm worker children, who were in the fields with their parents, were developing the disease.

In additional owning a small apple orchard in Central Washington, my dad was the field manager for a large apple farming operation. He was in charge of the spray crews. One of his jobs was to shake the residue out of the sacks of pesticides after the crews had finished with them. Then he burned the sacks.

If you’re currently using pesticides on your yard, you may want to find out more information about them.

The Pesticide Action Network North America has a Pesticide Info Database that you can use to find out about the health effects of pesticides and regulatory information.

The network's Web site also has other helpful information about pesticides.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

How to overcome fear

Bob Mayer, author of “Who Dares Wins: Special Operations Tactics for Success,” offered a workshop at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference last week.

Mayer, in addition to writing fiction and nonfiction books, provides teambuilding exercises for business and organizations based on techniques he learned as a member of Special Operations Forces.

While most of his presentation was geared to writers, he did talk about how fear keeps people from reaching their goals.

I bought his book at the autograph party to see what techniques he had to offer on overcoming fear.

Fear is the No. 1 enemy and the No. 1 cause of goal conflict, Mayer says.

Personal goals are often tied to fear. For example, employees may be so worried about being laid off that they have difficulty concentrating on their jobs.

Mayer offers these steps to overcome fear:

• Acknowledge that fear is a reality. It will have less effect the more it is recognized.

• Prepare for fear. Train yourself to overcome it. One way to do this is to perform under pressure. If you’re an introvert, talk to someone you don’t know every day. You can also select an activity that’s positive, but is something that you normally don’t like to do.

• Face your fear and take action.

“The things that we fear to do are often the things that keep us from being successful,” Mayer says in his book. “The successful person has fear, but acts towards their desired goals in spite of it.”

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Boomer thriller writer tells of discrimination and the wonders of writing

On the back of thriller writer Gayle Lynds’ book, “Masquerade,” a quote from Cosmopolitan says, “You won’t sleep until you finish.”

It was true for me. I vowed I’d get to get to bed on time, but “Masquerade” is a page-turner. Although I put it down to carry out other activities, I kept coming back to it.

Lynds opened her keynote talk at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association recently by telling how she “lived in books” as a child.

Although she loved reading, she thought only gods and goddesses wrote books.

Lynds studied journalism at the University of Iowa. While there, she took some literature classes from Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut worked as an editor in a think tank for a time, which he described as exploding with so many ideas they seemed to bounce off the wall.

Marrying young, Lynds worked for a newspaper in Arizona and as a magazine editor in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Intrigued by Vonnegut’s think tank experiences, Lynds also took a job as an editor at a think tank. She obtained a security clearance and found the place was exciting, and fertile with secrecy, information, and sexual liaisons.

As Lynds was going through a divorce, she took the opportunity to decide what type of work would make her happy.

Lynds figured out all she really wanted to do was write fiction. She began writing short stories, which she said were bad. She put them in a box.

After buying a one-day ticket, Lynds attended a writers’ conference in Santa Barbara.

“I sat by two women,” she said. One had been working on the same book for five years. The other one hadn’t started on her book yet. Both called themselves writers.

“Maybe I’m a [book] writer, too,” Lynds thought.

At the conference, Lynds also met mystery writer Dennis Lynds, who she later married.

With two children to support, Lynds knew she needed to begin making money from writing fiction.

Dennis obtained contracts to write books about Nick Carter, America’s 007, but she was the one who wrote them. At that time, women weren’t taken seriously as spy novel writers.

During the 1980s, Lynds wrote pulp fiction and worked as a magazine writer.  “It was a good way to learn about voice [as a writer], character, and action,” she said.

“I learned to be very good at it,” Lynds said. “It felt like getting a master’s.”

By the 1990s, she thought that she was ready to write her own books. Lynds loved big ideas. The excitement of spy stories, especially thrillers, appealed to her.

She wrote “Masquerade,” a novel about brain washing a woman to kill an assassin. Lynds had heard rumors about a brainwashing program called MK-ULTRA, which was launched during the 1950s.

After every publishing house in New York had rejected her novel, Lynds began asking people what was wrong. She was told the first 150 pages weren’t needed, so she reduced them to 15. She also rewrote the ending. It took a full year.

After Lynds found a new agent, the head of Dutton Books said she loved the book. However, Dutton wouldn’t be buying it, Lynds was told, because “no woman could have written this book.”

But Doubleday published the book. The hardcover book was sold in 20 countries, and the paperback became a New York Times bestseller.

When “Masquerade” first came out, Publishers Weekly, a news Web site of book publishing, said Lynds was aping her male betters, the author told the conference audience.

Now Publisher’s Weekly lists “Masquerade” as one of the top 10 thrillers of all time.

Lynds advice to writers at the conference: “Don’t give up.”

Lynds’ latest book is “The Last Spymaster.” She has also written “Mosaic,” “Mesmerized,” and “The Coil.”

With Robert Ludlum, she co-created the best-selling Covert-One series and wrote three of the novels – "The Hades Factor," "The Paris Option," and "The Altman Code."

Lynds is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Operatives and the Military Writers Society of America as well as co-founder and co-president of International Thriller Writers Inc.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Writer’s Conference opens in Seattle

Today, I’ll be attending the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference in Seattle.

I’m looking forward to the keynote talk by thriller writer Gayle Lynds. She’s a boomer.

In upcoming posts on The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, I’ll let you know about interesting boomer writers and books I discover at the conference.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist