Totes & Noodles & Flannel
That wasn’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever done in bed–(insert your own off-color comment here).
Continue reading →Category Archives: RELATIONSHIPS
It’s a Brave New World–For Women:
I call it FemFic
I want a new category on Amazon that more accurately reflects the changes afoot in our ideation of a woman’s place in the world. In order to do this, I feel I have to branch out in my writing and create stories in genres that are typically male-dominated. Women need in a voice in those, too. Thus, I will be adding this new tag to all my books. I call it #FemFic. I hope all of you in the Twitterverse will use it, too–help get it going. IF it can gain traction, i will petition Amazon to include it in … Continue reading →
Rocking the Boat
Don’t say anything. Don’t make a comment. It will make you look bad. That’s the usual advice in the publishing industry when someone posts a caustic review of your book, under the assumption that this is about some type of insecurity on the part of a writer. This is not insecurity. It is frustration, and in this case, it’s also outrage. In fact, historically, authors are expected to keep their mouth shut about these things, but I am a proponent of the adage Silence equals Death. This advice to stay mum strikes me as the same mentality that got that Orange Nightmare in the Oval … Continue reading →
Is it Goodreads or Badreaders?
I’ve always believed that every ill in our society falls under one or more of three categories: Greed, Ignorance or Zealotry. I was faced with an example of one or more of these while updating my author page on Goodreads. I came across a negative review, quite by accident, of one of my earlier books. Against my better judgment, I read it, and was horrified. The reviewer, obviously, did not like my book, and that’s fine, in and of itself, but this reviewer made statements that were patently false. She claimed the character in my book was “helping a pedophile.” … Continue reading →
Projects, Pitfalls, Promise
Shame on me. I haven’t posted a blog in a long time. SO much going on with us lately. Dealing with sudden health issues happening all at once, burned out, exhausted, feeling ill all the time, I was certainly not inspired to write. So I decided to take a 6-month sabbatical. It turned into 8 months when I found out in the middle of it I needed major surgery. So, I had to face my #2 biggest fear, (surgery) and I’ve been recovering from a full abdominal hysterectomy, and after almost 8 weeks, I’m still having some issues, which I … Continue reading →
In the Context of Spiders:
responses matter
I was still working on the book, as I have been all day and evening, and Melissa came in for hugs, and then i sat back down in my chair, discussing what she’d probably have to do with this book while I’m recuperating after surgery. Lots of edits on the horizon, and such. About that time, I felt something crawling on my side, up under my shirt. I’d been slapping bugs off me all day today. Since I can rarely see past the swell of my bodacious tah-tahs, I lifted my shirt and Melissa laid eyes on the thing, and shouted with … Continue reading →
Random Act of Kindness
Shopping yesterday and i noticed this elderly woman having trouble getting her hatch open. “I think she needs help,” I said. I had nowhere to park so Melissa jumped out and helped her, loaded her groceries and wished her a great day. The lady said , “Oh honey, it’s a good day now.” I teared up a little. I love my wife. Wish there were more people in this world like her. I wish we treated our elders with more respect and compassion.
Continue reading →What
There’s a meme that is one of my favorites. “90% of being married is just shouting “what” from other rooms.” First time I saw it, I was laughing, and I said to my wife, Melissa, “Did you see this? Melissa yelled, “What?” from the other room. NO LIE.
Continue reading →Operation Homostead & Dooflingywhatsit
While I’m battling The Change of Life, we are also dealing with A Change of Life. Major changes on the horizon, all of which we have chosen for ourselves, which of course, makes it easier to weather. Our decision to make homesteading our goal, had to begin with all the preliminaries. Where? When? How? We know we want to settle in central Wisconsin, mostly because Melissa is from that area, and around Chicago, and her family is all there. She needs to be close to her grandmother, who is well into her 90’s and has had some health scares. But Melissa has … Continue reading →
That Whooshing Sound
Message in a bottle… After almost two years of struggle with the vicissitudes of Indie writing and publishing, I have, I believe, come up with a solution to all that has been vexing me, and keeping me from reaching the goals I have been working so hard to achieve, and all that has annihilated the joy to be found in the journey. With the new lease on life I got after my return from New Zealand, I have been focused mostly on getting my health back, but also in increasing and maintaining the momentum in my career, which I didn’t … Continue reading →
A Toxic Person
This is precisely the thing I am living right now. I needed this reminder to hold my head high, knowing that what any toxic person might say or do to impugn me, I can choose courage and integrity, that I have the truth on my side, and that thinking, discerning people will understand that. #TruthWins
Continue reading →The Trump Hypothesis
How did this happen? How did a man like Donald Trump find himself in the running for the highest office in the land? The inevitability of this quagmire is predicated on the nature of the man himself. Initially, I believe he just enjoyed the attention he was getting. No surprise for a megalomaniac and narcissist. His usual bloviating in the realm of politics just happened to strike a nerve with the appropriately marginalized hate-mongers, and the situation grew exponentially like a virus. The more his ego was stroked, the more he got drawn into the vortex of the political process. … Continue reading →
ADRIFT (poem)
Tossed, blown off course by the storm, My skin pink from previous sunlight, I stand on the deck and imagine she is there waiting for me to reach shore If I can just glimpse her in the distance like a soothing port of call I know I’ll find my way. But when the sail lies flaccid and I am adrift in the water, I think I can hear the gurgling below, Seeping in, Weighing me down. My vessel riding low in the lapping waves. And bailing water, I ache for the succor of her embrace, The softness of her lips … Continue reading →
Toward the Light:
Where my writing is going
I was reworking the cover for In Absentia (Rain Falls series #2), which I released fairly quickly after Rain Falls, and it sort of fell through the cracks like an orphan. Someone mentioned that I had a bunch of new reviews on it. I didn’t know. Last I looked, I only had 2 on that book… Anyway, I was pleased to see that they were all really good: 4 and 5 stars, which is always a joy, and profoundly validating. But more than that, the readers/reviewers were saying things that reflected what I had talked about with this series. I … Continue reading →
Muse Recovery & Descriptive Prose
{dusting off the blog}. It’s been a while since my last entry. I was busy with moving back from New Zealand to Denver area, to prepare a life for me and my Sweetie, and we have of course been missing each other desperately, and spending lots of time online Skyping and Typing. And I had to get settled for a while, so I can work out the other plans on the horizon. I am currently residing in an extended stay suite and will probably be here for a while, so i have been trying to climb back on the writing-horse … Continue reading →