• Sunday Snippet: Another Deep Breath Edition

    How did it get to be April 14 already? I mean, seriously, wasn’t it just Valentine’s Day and the ground was covered with a light blanket of snow and my gardens were still sleeping? Now everything is popping up, flowers are blooming, bushes and trees are leafing out. These are my gorgeous tulips that my sweet neighbor, Mary, gave me for my birthday in September. As you can see, my office garden is starting to wake up. Husband has already mowed twice, and y’all know he’s happiest on his mower. We’ve had torrential rain this week, so the lawn is lush and green and as soon as it dries out…

  • Sunday Snippet: The I Love Autumn Edition

    Autumn is my favorite time of the year, even though I’m often restless and sad in the fall. It’s an ending in so many ways, and yet there is that feeling of joyful beginning that comes with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season. We’re closing up the cottage this weekend, packing perishable items that can’t stay over the winter, storing linens, and winterizing. The saddest thing is leaving our lake friends. It’s odd, but in the summer, the lake often feels like our real life, and when we come home, it seems as if we are just marking time until we can go back there. I’m not sure…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Moments of Blessing Edition

    Thanksgiving week is a time for gratitude. To look back on the year and count my blessings because oh, how I am blessed. This past year has been such a busy one. Between writing and book releases and editing gigs and promotion, I’ve barely had time to simply breathe. But even amidst all that scurrying and time spent at my computer, writing and working, I’ve had moments. Too many to list them all here and too many people in my life to mention them all here, although they are always in my heart, but here a few moments from this year. Moments with Husband: Dancing in a vineyard in Oregon…

  • Sunday Snippet: The What the Heck Happened to Summer? Edition

    Seriously… how is it already August 6? I mean, wasn’t it just May and Husband and I were looking forward to our 50th anniversary trip to Oregon and I was busy making plans with my writer pal Carol Light for our trip to San Juan Capistrano and the Tule Author Retreat and checking with my sibs for a visit to my brother’s in Woodland Hills? I’m sure that was just a week ago… Yikes! Oregon is a fond, wistful memory now. The Tule Author Retreat remains ingrained in my heart and mind as a wondrous time with fellow authors and editors and the Tule team, as well as a fun…

  • Sunday Snippet: The I’m Really Tired and I Got Nothin’ Edition

    I’m not going to whine, even though I feel like I could. Isn’t it funny, though, how you can’t seem to catch up on sleep? Why, do you suppose? I mean, it makes sense to me that if you miss some sleeping time, then sleeping more later should fix it. But things don’t seem to work out like that. Right now, I feel like I could sleep for a week, but I can’t do that, so here I am. On the upside, I’m at the lake, I’ve gotten to swim several times this week with friend Moe and Grandboy and Son, and we had time with our kids up here.…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Sure, Why Not a Real Snippet Edition

    It’s been a week, mes amies. One full of writing and family time and lake time and Liz time… a week where I wrote THE END on Jack and Maddie’s story and sent it off to my editor with my heart alternately in my throat and my socks, wondering what she will think of their story. Funnily enough, I wrote nearly the last four chapters at her house with her sitting across from me, writing herself. Don’t think that wasn’t a cool, but weird experience. Crit partners and betas have said good things about it… get ready for the title because I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here yet… Make…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Whine, Then Find the Sunshine Edition

    It’s been a tough week. My shoulder hurts, really aches, from spending so much time in front of my computer, working on editing gigs and writing Jack and Maddie’s story. Son is dealing with a lot of stuff that I wish so much I could take off his plate, but I can’t. I can only listen. (Even when they’re in their forties, your mom instincts kick in.) We’re doing work on the lake cottage, making choices about where we want to spend refurbishing dollars this year, except that those dollars now have to be shared with medicine expenses because I hit the damn doughnut hole with my heart meds this…

  • Sunday Snippet: Another I Got Nothin’ Edition

    Seriously…I got nothin’. Right off, I’m late with this–usually I have it up at 6:30; it’s now 7:15. I lingered in bed this morning because it is a dang chilly morning here at the lake, we worked hard yesterday, and the kids came for supper and Euchre and we stayed up late-ish. We did have a great time after supper. Son went around the table for a couple of hours and had each of us pick a song we wanted to hear. He cued every one up on his Apple music app and played them through our Bluetooth speaker, so we listened to a mad variety of music from the…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Back Home Again Edition

    We’re back in the city after just over a week at the lake. It was very nice there–swimming, a couple of boat rides, time with lake pals… all in all, the lake was lovely. Our city neighbors came up for a day while we were there and we really enjoyed visiting in a different venue. The lake was turning over, so we didn’t get to swim, but we took a long boat ride and enjoyed the sun and the lovely early September breezes. Lunch was hot dogs on the grill, chips, veggies, and some delish brownies that neighbor Mary brought. Yum! We sat on the deck under the trees and…

  • Sunday Snippet: The Gone Fishin’ Edition

    Yup… I really had nothing for today. My brain is exhausted and empty from finishing up the second book in the Weaver Sisters trilogy for Tule Publishing. I’ll be sending it off to my editor tomorrow and I’ll be on pins and needles until I hear from her. I’m never sure if I’ve hit the mark or not–sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but with the help of my editor, the awesome and brilliant Sinclair Sawney, it will turn into what it should be. So, this morning, when I was lying awake in bed, wondering what I was going to write about in the Sunday Snippet, Son texted, “Anybody awake?”…