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Sunday Snippet: The Deep Sigh Edition
Every morning, I meditate. I sit in the wing chair in the dark living room, and I use an app called Insight Timer to begin each day. I find that the meditations offered there help me get through the day. One of the things the teachers there talk about is our breath. How we breathe affects so much of how we feel. When Husband and I took a yoga class several years, we learned to focus on “the breath.” That was where I learned the in for four, hold for four, out for four, which I depend on when the world goes mad and I feel like screaming. The instructors…
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Sunday Snippet: The Focusing Elsewhere for a Minute Edition
This week, writing, finding my creative escape has been really hard as current events have overwhelmed me. But if I am the writer that I claim to be, that I want to be, shouldn’t I be able to write, no matter what? I always maintain that writing is essential to who I am and it is, but there are days, now and again, where I want the people in my head to just sit quietly for just a little bit, while I take a deep breath and recenter. So, I’ve been focused elsewhere the past couple of days–getting ready to close up the lake cottage. It’s November 10 and it’s…
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Sunday Snippet: The Snap Judgments Edition
I was thinking about snap judgments–how we all make them and how we all have them made about us. Here’s what got me started–social media trolls. Bear with me, I promise I’m going to make this connect. At least ten or twelve times a week (sometimes that many in a day!) I get friend requests on Facebook and even more on Instagram from trolls–either random bots or really bored and kinda sleazy guys looking for attention. No, I’m not going to be your friend because you “like my smile” or you think I’m “gorgeous” and you “can’t stop thinking about me.” Seriously? You don’t even know me, dude. Being blonde…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s Been a Week Edition
And so it has…been a week, I mean. Husband and I both got flattened by a dreadful flu virus–the week we were planning to go get our flu shots. Sigh. Obviously, that’s been put off for another week. We are both doing better by now, although I’m a couple of days ahead of dear Husband because I started showing symptoms on Sunday and he didn’t feel crummy until about Wednesday. I even moved into the guest room so I wouldn’t breathe on him while we slept, but unfortunately that tactic didn’t serve us. The doc verified it was a flu virus and not Covid when I took Husband in on…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s Officially Autumn Edition
I read an article a few years ago that talked about Autumn resolutions–how they’re much easier than New Year’s resolutions because they’re inner resolutions. A fall renewing of your spirit and determination. I like that idea—just a quiet resolve to do better. The worrying thing will need work this fall–the knot in my stomach is back, I think mostly because of politics. That whole situation terrifies the tar outta me, but outside of voting, what can I do? I need to do something, so I’ve volunteered to work the polls for the first time in at least 20 years. Otherwise, I’ll just live my life, love my family and friends,…
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Sunday Snippet: The Post-Retreat Musings Edition
I’m in a post-retreat haze. It happens every year after Liz and I get back from our semiannual (it means twice a year, I looked it up!) writing retreat. We do one in January in a little town in the hills of Southern Indiana and we do one in October, usually somewhere in Michigan. At every retreat, we write and talk and eat and drink wine and write and process and talk endlessly and write… Oh, and did I mention that there’s always great wine and chocolate and lots of good food? (I think I might have, but it bears repeating.) We don’t do restaurants quite as much as we…
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Sunday Snippet: The We’re on Retreat Edition
I think there’s a chance that this is the most-anticipated writing retreat Liz and I have ever had. Seriously. We both have been beyond ready for this getaway. Not sure why this one has been such a star in the distance for both of us. Maybe because it’s been a long time (January) since our last retreat or maybe because we’re both feeling our ages a little more this year and life somehow feels shorter. Or maybe we both needed a getaway. Whatever, we’re here and it’s already been nearly twenty-four hours of bliss. Oh, we both miss the husbands–so each retreat evening we spend some time on the phone…
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Sunday Snippet: The It’s Not Christmas Yet, But…Edition
It is only September, but for me, for River’s Edge, it’s almost Christmas! When I write a holiday-themed romance, it’s usually during the gray days of February or the cool rainy days in early April. That’s because for a book to be released during the holidays, it has be done and ready for production by May. So am I feeling the holidays at those times? Not so much. I’m just over the holidays at that point. But I sit down at my desk, close my eyes, and take myself back to River’s Edge in December. The shops are all decorated with twinkle lights and green and red garland. Carly has…
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Sunday Snippet: The Yard Sale and Memories Edition
So, sister PJ had a 2-day yard sale this weekend and I went to help out. It was a neighborhood event, rather ill-timed, I originally thought, because the main drag to her lakeside home was closed to through-traffic Saturday for a town-sponsored mini half-marathon. Folks coming on Friday had no problem getting to her neighborhood, but yesterday, they had to figure a workaround to get there. As it turned out, hardcore yard salers figured it out, and crowds were great both days. Gorgeous early fall weather helped our cause–we had sunshine and blue skies and a lovely September breeze. I confess I’m not much of a yard sale person. I’ve…
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Sunday Snippet: The Procrastinor’s Oh, Hell, What Day Is It Edition
I’ve been procrastinating…okay, no big news, right? I am a world-class procrastinator. I passed amateur status years ago and have gone into full-time professional procrastination. Nobody wastes time as well as I do. And honestly, it doesn’t even have to be time spent scrolling around the Web. I can put off doing anything that needs to be done with something as basic as folding laundry—oh, excuse me for a minute, I do have to get some stuff out of the dryer… brb… Fifteen minutes later…I’m back, clothes folded and put away, next load is in the washing machine, and while I was in there, I sorted the recycling, which I…