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Sunday Snippet: The Validation Edition, II
You know who I envy? Writers who have complete faith in their work and themselves. The ones who write a book and always know immediately that it’s great stuff and is going to sell like hotcakes. Or the ones who may know their work needs help, but believe so strongly in their own stories that they push on, striving to make them better. They never doubt their abilities or spend days wondering what they’re doing trying to write a novel, for Pete’s sake. They don’t wonder if they’re fooling everyone, including themselves, with this whole author thing. Sometimes, I can be that writer. When a scene works perfectly, when I’ve…
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Sunday Snippet: The Annnd… We’re Off! Edition
And so we are. Today, Liz and I are headed down to the hills of Southern Indiana for a writing retreat–our annual winter event. This is our third January retreat. We stay in a beautiful and comfortable inn in the center of the cute little town of Nashville. The Artist’s Colony Inn is the perfect place for a winter retreat with large cozy rooms and a fab restaurant, plus breakfast is included with our room. Our first Nashville retreat was in 2022 and we happened upon the Artist’s Colony after our original hotel turned out to be … well, not really prepared for our visit. Anyway, we scooted into town,…
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Sunday Snippet: The Eeek, I Need a Break Edition and a Question
I’ve been working and writing pretty much nonstop for… well, for the last five years for sure and probably longer and I need a break. That’s not a whine…well, okay, maybe a little bit of a whine, but the fact is, I need to get away. Thankfully, I am getting away in about about a week! YAY! Liz and I are going on retreat for four days and I can’t wait. Retreat doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing. As a matter of fact our retreats are all about writing, but it does mean I’ll set my editing gigs aside for four days and focus entirely on the current WIP. Plus I…
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Sunday Snippet: The Heart Update Edition, Rev. 3
It really is Heart Update number three, I went back in and counted. I’m overjoyed to tell you that we’ve got nothing but good news this time. I had an echocardiogram in August and although I’d read the results on MyChart (a blessing and a curse, if there ever was one!), it was good to see Doc B and hear her reaction to what I’d seen there. She was all smiles when she came into the exam room, not with balloons and confetti, but perhaps the verbal equivalent. “Wow, great news, huh?” Yup, indeed! The echo showed that my ejection fraction had risen from 37 to 50! (Up is how…
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Sunday Snippet: The And We’re Off… Edition
…like a herd of turtles. Yup, we are! Liz and I are headed for a writing retreat this morning, so this is a necessarily quick post. We booked a VRBO in, of all places, Bardstown, Kentucky. No idea why we chose that place except that we’d never been there and it looked charming, so we thought, why not? The plan is to write, write, write–I need to get words in on the second book in my Walkers of River’s Edge series. Joey and Kara’s story is percolating away in my head, it just needs to come out the ends of my fingers! Liz is working on a women’s fiction story,…
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Sunday Snippet: The September Resolution (And Birthday!) Edition
Our winner is Joanna Mallozzi Owen! I’ve contacted you on Facebook, Joanna, so watch for a private message from me. I read an article a few years ago that talked about September 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? Just live my life, love my family and friends, and try…
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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.…
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Wednesday Snippet: The Travelogue #3 Edition
So, here’s the thing, mes amies. I haven’t had a moment to write for the past 36 hours or so. So much great stuff planned by the Tule Publishing team and spending time with other authors and eating… Oh mes amies, the food! We’ve been luxuriating in delicious meals and snacks and wine, oh my! Yesterday started with breakfast–for Carol and me, it was at a darling little place called Ellie’s Table at the Egan House, a few blocks from the inn. We had quiche and Carol also had a chocolate croissant the size of a football, while I added a slice of cinnamon crumb coffee cake that tasted exactly…
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Monday Snippet: The Travelogue #2 Edition
Wow, has it ever been a crazy busy last 36 hours! Carol and I got to San Juan Capistrano around 1:30 on Sunday, and walked from the train station to the hotel, lugging our bags. It was only a few blocks, so it was fine. We were pretty glad we were able to check in, though, because we were both ready for rest, lunch, and a few moments to chill. Turns out, we skipped lunch and went down the road to buy me pajamas. Yes, in all my uber-efficient packing, I spaced putting jammies in my suitcase. I know, I know, a real DUH moment. We found a Marshalls and…
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Sunday Snippet: The Travelogue Edition
Okay, the start of a travelogue. As you’re waking up and reading this, I’m on a plane with Son headed to Hawaii. Seriously. He’s going for a work thing, I’m tagging along because when your 40-something kid invites you to go along with him to Hawaii for a week, you get the okay from your cardiologist and then you say, “you betcha!” (I actually did that the other way around, but our secret, okay?) Darling Husband (who is no traveler by choice) will stay home and hold down the fort, and DIL and Grandboy have work and school, plus they’ve already been to Hawaii, so this was a perfect opportunity…