Holiday sprinting

 

This is a 15-minute sprint done from the prompt "A holiday surprise" posed by the Christian Indie Writers' Podcast. As per usual, I allowed the prompt to kick-start my brain, but veered away from actually incorporating it in my segment of story. Ah, well, I hope you might enjoy this anyway!

Sam inspected the ornaments on the Christmas tree, enjoying the hand-crafted items. She smiled at a piece of twisted glass hanging from an old bit of twine near the top of the tree, wondering at the story behind it. No one would hang something so old and worn on their tree without it having a story behind it.

David stepped into the room carefully balancing two filled mugs topped with piles of whipped cream. He'd even gone so far as to stick candy canes into the mugs. Sam reached out for her cup, smiling with appreciation. 

"This is lovely!" 

"I invited you out for a drink," he said, lifting his mug in the air in mock salute. "I didn't plan on the road to town being closed, but we can make do."

Sam's tongue darted out to lick the whipped cream off the top of her lip as she swallowed her first sip. "This is more than just making do," she smiled. "I'd almost suggest you engineered that downed tree to be able to pull this off."

David's lifted eyebrow and roguish grin played along. "You caught me out!" He gestured to the tree behind her. "Did you see, I put your ornament on?"

Sam nodded and turned her attention back to the quaintly decorated tree. The ornament she had given him, a small angel made from seashells and bits of dried flowers, hung next to a cardboard house decorated like a gingerbread house. "What's this ornament?" She pointed to the twisted glass.

She turned in time to see a self-deprecating smile on his face. "That used to be a trumpet," he announced, adopting an air of solemnity. "When I was a boy, I pretended to be blowing the trumpet and accidentally bit the end off. My mother insisted we had to keep it. A few years ago the other end broke off when it was put away, so it doesn't look much like a trumpet anymore, but I put it up for her."

(As a little behind the scenes storytelling, I used my husband as the basis for this scene. We still hang his twisted bit of glass on the top of our tree - it's almost 60 years old and no longer looks much like a trumpet, but every year we tell the stories behind the ornaments we hang while we are trimming our tree. This will be the first year without his mother here to comment on it. 💔 )

Review list of books mentioned in 2020 newsletters

Merry Christmas!

In case you missed any of the newsletters sent out this year, I wanted to do a recap of the books I mentioned with links to check them out. Note that you will want to verify that the books are still available at the prices/giveaways as they were when I first put the notification in the newsletter. 

In no particular order, these books received mentions in 2020:

 This is a biblical fiction short story I wrote a number of years ago. Nothing like my Fighting in Shadows series, but available to you for free if you are interested. I hope you enjoy it!

 J F Rogers has all three books of her Ariboslia series available on Amazon in a boxed set!

Meet 17-year-old Fallon in book one, Astray: A mysterious amulet leads Fallon to everything she’s ever wanted… and possibly her death. Book two is Adrift: Fallon returns to Ariboslia to save lives. But the creatures she wants to save want her dead. Book three is Aloft: Fallon and Morrigan face off for the ultimate battle… in their minds.

If you enjoy visiting alternate worlds that feature fast-paced adventure, supernatural creatures, compelling characters, and exciting plot twists, come to Ariboslia. You’ll love J. F. Rogers’s page-turning Christian fantasy series.

 I picked up this book and wanted to give it a shout out - if you enjoy the X-Men, or other "I have super-hero powers I didn't know I had and have to learn how to use them somehow" stories, you might enjoy this book. There is a reverse harem story-line, but the book is clean and I think would be considered "slow burn," in that there are just a few kisses exchanged -- at least in the first book. It's available in KU, too!

 If you are looking for a dystopian read that has nothing to do with viruses or zombies, check out the Jethro Parables by Justin Fillmore, available in ebook or paperback from Amazon. "Jethro must navigate a world where family just means another mouth to feed, and survival depends upon the whims of those who'd trade a life for a trickle of water. " 

 Author Anca Antoci's debut novel, Forget Me Not, offers fantasy fans a new look at some familiar horror creatures, including fairies, hellhounds, demons, and shapeshifters, and a plot that layers in the action and adventure. Forget Me Not is the first of a trilogy set in Alaska. This book is also available on Kindle Unlimited.

 For readers who appreciate dynamic good vs. evil stories, Carla Thorne has Creator, the first in her new Warrior Saints series, available for pre-order today, with a launch date of April 17. Click on the cover to go to the Amazon page to preorder. Not sure if it's for you? Click here to get an exclusive sneak peek of the first few chapters of the book and join her newsletter. The second book, Destroyer, will be out soon!

 If you haven't read your fill of Urban fantasy lately, take a look at L.L.McNeil's Kouzlo Saga 4-book bundle, free to read on Kindle Unlimited or available to purchase, and immerse yourself in the world of phantom Seila and the Kouzlos working to protect London from demons. I think you'll enjoy it!

 For a quick introduction to Timothy Bateson's Shadows over Seattle world, check out this free short story, Under A Hunter's Moon. If you like shifters, be sure to give this one a try!

 Andy, the gypsy's son, has the gift of sight that his mother only pretends to have. Will it help him to win in love? Check out The Gypsy's Son to find out.

 A different shifting story!

I started this story in the afternoon, and was to the half-way point when I had to put it down because my eyes were struggling to stay open any longer. This isn't a werewolf tale, but if you enjoy shifters and adventure, give this one a try!

 Try a new author

Author Austin Baillio's series, the Crystalline Kingdom, pits creatures of light against forces of dark in a world born from the conflict between good and evil. He is offering this short origin story free to readers to entice you into his world.

 

 Sanctuary

This is the YA dystopian story of Mara, who lives inside the dome of Sanctuary. Her technical skills make her the misfit in the man-made paradise, but a perfect explorer to send beyond the barrier. What does she find in the world beyond? Get this free novella to find out for yourself!

 This story of Jace, Kyrin, and Kaden takes place in a fantasy world filled with mythical races and a clash of good and evil. Persecution, faith, loyalty, resistance - they're all here in a clean story that will suck you in and hold you to the last page. Available on Amazon for sale or free to read with your Kindle Unlimited subscription. 

 She's offered the promise of everything she's ever wanted. But is it worth the cost?

Izzy Runar longs to be part of the Order of the Guardians. But, as the daughter of a Core worker, her chances are slim to none. A forbidden vision of the future, however, tells her more may be at stake than her own aspirations.

Visions of the Guardians, is a free young adult dystopian short story.

 Brothers will clash. Faeries will fall. 

Arius must lead the faeries of the Haven and protect them from the evil designs of the dark faeries who seek their destruction. But when he runs into a dark faerie who claims to be his brother, everything could change - or it could be the beginning of a dangerous rivalry.

This story just published in September! Free when you sign up for author's newsletter.

 Some sacrifices cost more than death...

Thirty years ago, dark magicians unleashed power on the earth fueled by demons. Magicians ended up on top of the food chain.

Becca survives these dangerous times by relying on her wits, her fists, and the limited goodwill of her boss, a local crime lord. 

On the hunt for her missing sister, Becca must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to save her sister.

On Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

That's a lot of books!

I wish for you a Merry Christmas, the Peace that passes understanding even in a year with a pandemic, and a Happier and Healthier New Year.

What's up with all these newsletters?

I am a reader. 

I think that statement is probably true of a lot of writers - we start to write because we enjoy reading so much. Either we just have stories inside of us begging to be told, or we have tried to find stories that we want to read, but cannot, so decide to write them. A lot of us write for both reasons, and perhaps more as well.

I'll tell you soon about how I decided to take the independent publishing path, but this week I am focusing on one thing that Indie Publishing requires if an author wants to get any traction - marketing. Specifically, newsletters.

There are a lot more successful authors who can tell you the whys and wheres of putting out a newsletter, some of whom I follow and hope to learn from. This blog post will illuminate my experience, both as a reader and as a writer, with newsletters.

As I stated, I am a reader. As such, I am as down as the next limited-income reader with getting free books to read. Even better are when I can find lists that offer free books in the genre and rating-level (fantasy, clean, pg-13 or less) I prefer! Chances are that you have come across the kind of promotion I mean, especially if you get my newsletter, because I include them. You browse the offerings and find books that look appealing, sign up for the author's newsletter, and receive the ebook for free. You are free to continue to receive the newsletters or unsubscribe, and the ebook remains yours. 

I have signed up for a lot of newsletters. Like a lot of readers, I haven't even read all of the books I currently have downloaded, and yet I still look for more. That can end up being a crap-ton of newsletters! I use these newsletters as a form of research. What do other authors do that I like, and may want to copy? What do other authors do that I hate, and will make sure I don't do?

Some authors treat their newsletter as a marketing tool - which, to be fair, it is. However, if all I see when I open the email is a bunch of promotions and books to buy, or a pitch to buy the author's other books, then I may stick around for another email to see if it changes but chances are I'm hitting the unsubscribe button.

I get enough flyers in the mailbox, and I pitch those directly in the bin to start the woodstove with. If I had a way to stop getting so many of those, I would. I don't need to start that many fires. In my email, I do have a way to stop receiving what I don't want. I unsub.

A newsletter needs to be engaging. There should be something in there that makes me want to open it. They also need to be aware of my time. (okay, newsletters are not sentient. Their authors, though, should be.) Michael's Arts and Crafts store convinced me to sign up for their coupons. I'll admit, I would want to open those, if I'm going to be heading to the store. I did NOT want to open the five emails they sent me a week. Unsub.

My favorite newsletters are entertaining. Not necessarily dishing personal details about the author, but at least enough to give me a connection. Share a bit of yourself with me, I'll share a bit of myself, either with comments, a reply email, or at the very least, my time. 

I'm still learning. My newsletters are not perfect. In fact, earlier this month I sent one out without a link to the book I was showing and had to send a corrected version, hoping readers would open that to click to the book instead of getting mad and unsubscribing.

Here are two case studies I've recently done.

Author A, whose name appears at the top of the genre on Amazon and has hundreds of reviews, agreed to mention my book to her readers in exchange for the same from me. Hooray! Plus, I joined her list. I received her newsletter. She has a lovely banner at the top identifying her brand. She jumped in with chatty smatterings of what is going on in her writing and otherwise life, including a couple of photos. All great! I was enjoying this! 

Then she had a separator, and graphic images of three promotions and the cover of my book. No introductions, no explanations of what we would find if we clicked, no words. Just the hyperlinked images. Her newsletter just ended. It felt like someone had engaged in a conversation with me and then turned and walked away without comment before the conversation had naturally ended. (Another word for that is Rude.)

I'm sure you know my reaction. Unsub.

Author B, whom I had not heard of before even though she has written a couple of series, got me to sign up to receive her free book. I almost didn't click on it, because I don't love the artwork on the cover - it's just not my style. 

Because this is a positive review, I'll reveal that the author's name is L. S. O'Dea. Her newsletters have me eagerly checking my inbox. Each newsletter has a theme that she briefly discusses and includes references for (feeling different than others, animals adopting other animals, animal superpowers) For example, the first one was about not fitting in - it had a snip of conversation with her mom, quoted statistics with reference links, had funny pics she tied into reading her book. Then she put in a couple of paragraphs from one of the books that had to do with not fitting in.

In all of the newsletters I've received, she has more images than I've read is good to include, but they are fantastic. I've even gotten used to the weird art she has for her covers. (This is just my opinion, probably other people wouldn't find it weird at all. You know, if they like weird art.)

At the bottom of each of her newsletters, she has links and images (Again!) of each of the books in the series and then another series, plus a link to sign up for her FB page. This must be the onboarding sequence still, because there are no book promotions or swaps or other stuff in any of these; they are all about her books so far. 

I admit I still haven't read the book, other than a few paragraphs in the newsletter. But, I have read and reread each of these newsletters, so she has definitely got my engagement! And I know her book will be one I turn to sooner, rather than later, based on my enjoyment of her newsletters. If you would like to sign up for her newsletters, go to her website. (lsodea.com.)

TLDR: I'm not interested in receiving sales flyers with no personal engagement, so I will not be sending those type of newsletters out. I have thoroughly enjoyed these themed newsletters with entertaining and informative tid-bits in them, tied into the author's series. Enough of the author's humor and style show in the newsletter to engage me. I plan to redo my onboarding sequence to increase the entertainment value and hope to increase engagement. I want conversations, people!

So tell me, if you are a reader, what newsletters do you enjoy, and why? If you are an author, what do you include in your newsletters? 

Lobster eggs!

The past two weeks I have not had many words put onto paper, because I've been focused on our harvest.

My family has been in the cranberry business for nearly 30 years. We started by inheriting a couple of cranberry bogs - that's the name for the land area where the cranberries are grown. The bog is lower than the surrounding land and encircled by a moat-like ditch to make flooding the bogs with water possible at harvest time.

We use a reel to pick the berries. Cranberries have little air pockets in them, so when the reel scrapes the berry from the vine, the berry floats. What you see in this photo is floating cranberries being pushed toward the pump that will put them onto the truck for transport.

We sometimes have visitors during harvest, especially if we are picking a bog easily seen from the road. One year, a tourist who had never seen a cranberry harvest asked if we were harvesting lobster eggs! (I don't think he ate much seafood, either!) We all got a good chuckle at that, and it has become a favorite story for my husband to tell new visitors.

This is the reel, which has a hydraulic beater bar/reel in the front. As the bog is being flooded with enough water to make the vines and berries start to float, the reel is driven onto the bog and around in circles to knock the berries from the vines. 

Once more water has been added to the bog so that the berries float above the vines, we can start the job of getting the berries onto the truck to transport to the processing plant. We don waders to wear into the water and grab our handy "pushers" to help direct the berries toward the suction box.

To keep the berries from floating whichever way the wind would blow, we use corral boards that hook together with hinges. Some companies have "cranbarrier" which is more flexible and lighter, to corral the berries, but we use what we have. 

Berries are loaded onto the truck through a suction hose that gets staked to the bog just under the surface of the water/berries. The water and berries go up to the wash box at the top, where the berries are diverted to the waiting truck and the water and leaves and other debris go out another pipe into the trash truck, which separates the debris from the water. Water is directed back to the bog, and the debris - leaves that were knocked off, grasses, etc., is hauled to a pile and dumped out.

At the top of the wash box is this spray bar, which sprays water onto the berries and debris coming out of the bog. This causes the debris to fall through the metal rods below, and the berries to bounce down into the truck to be taken to the plant for processing.

The way our harvest is handled is similar to my idea of a Barn Raising, in that some of our friends come to help and we feed them good, hot food and try to have a few laughs. When the water is hard to come by, as it was this year, or it's very cold, or raining or snowing, it can make the work a lot easier when you can have a few laughs along the way. We are so grateful for the help of our friends! 

This picture is of myself and my husband, smiling because the sun finally came out, the crop is almost in, and I bought a new selfie-stick and made him stand with me to try it out. 😉

 

How do you schedule your days?

 

I am not a disciplined person.

I believe I have established this already, right? I said in May that I was going to post a sprint every week, and promptly disappeared. I mean, I didn't really disappear. That would be amazing, and I wouldn't be wasting time worrying about measly little things like schedules if I could be invisible! But I didn't manage to get those sprints done every week, and of the ones I did do, most of them did not make it to the blog. 

I have several projects going on, like a DIY kitchen renovation project that morphed into a take-over-the-whole-house project that has still not been completed but at least is giving us room to breath. We have cranberry bogs, and this is prime harvest season, with the added pressure of being in a drought and having to keep pushing down the anxiety of whether we will have enough water to flood the bogs to harvest them or not. I am close enough to the end of the next book that I can see most of the road to the finish line, but still far enough away that I cannot say I'll be finished in the next week or two. I'm helping to wrangle gremlins who are hybrid schooling, with the assorted meltdowns that the week on/week off schedule introduces (on top of the little-girl-world meltdowns that happen because, life). Oh, and I do have a real job, even if thanks to the pandemic my hours have been slashed to just more than occasional.

I wish I was a bullet journal person. I've tried - I have a whole stack of really cool stickers I bought to make myself a more organized and productive person. They are still in the bag I brought them home in. I think I used a page or two. I love the idea, but my brain doesn't work that way.

What my brain can manage, though, is a to-do list. (Hey, this is progress. I was an adult diagnosed with ADD before I learned how to use external tools to help myself stay on track!) When I was working a more stable schedule it was easier to stay on track and I largely didn't have to resort to the list or planner or... I don't believe in living in the past. We have to deal with what is, right? What is, for me, right now, is that I need to stay a bit more focused if I hope to accomplish things. 

So, back to the calendar with the to-do list. And something new I'm going to trial this month: I'm going to block out time for certain categories of jobs. Something like: editing before going in to the real job. Writing after the real job until gremlins come home. Finishing up the DIY projects, or cranberry harvest related chores that can be done with gremlins in tow, or corralling school projects or homework or myriad other gremlin-related things will be done after school until dinner. If there's still incomplete items left on my list, and I still have energy after supper, they may fit in there. 

So, how do you schedule your time? Are you a planner person, or do you go where the wind blows? Do you need the help of external lists, or are you able to keep it all together just in your brain? (Don't you have anything else going on in there?) {Just kidding!}

What wildlife do you see?

I love to go hiking and kayaking. I admit, my hiking looks more like walking through the woods than hanging off of rock faces or scaling ravines, and my kayaking tends more to paddling than skimming white-water rapids, but I do enjoy getting out there and enjoying nature. I particularly love being in nature with a good camera for when I come across wildlife or beautiful scenery.

I would have absolutely loved to have been part of the kayaking trip my sister and brother in law were on last week in New Hampshire, when they came across a young bull moose wading in the stream ahead of them! How amazing that would have been! I grew up on a farm, and I'm no stranger to animals, but I never tire of seeing the wildlife that tends to hide from humankind. 

I've taken photos of fishers, bald eagles, moose, deer, coyotes, otters, alligators, turtles, herons, and myriad kinds of birds in the wild. I keep my eyes open when we are driving in New England, hoping to see a bear or moose. (This isn't my photo, though I wish it was!) Bears don't usually live near me, but one made the news a few years back when it was travelling in the area. I was both hopeful and afraid that I would see it while out in my yard! 

I love to bring the wildlife around me into my stories. This is why Nathan and Jessica Bolduc are pekan (fisher) shifters in Approaching Shadows.

What kind of animals live in your area? Do you live where you can see them often? Do they scare you? 

 

Sprint in WIP

Today's sprint is a 15-minute romp trying to use the following words - License, river, escape, prefer, ballet. I decided to use my current Work In Process, the sequel to Shades of Deception. Image of cute pups is for attention, ;) a couple of coyote pups that were playing at our cranberry bogs nearly 20 years ago - before my digital camera!

 

Sam hesitated. Could she handle being inside with other people, with all the smells and sounds of silverware clinking on dishes, conversations, and myriad other noises she never realized existed until they started to overwhelm her senses and she craved escape?

“I don’t know if I want to go to a restaurant. Could we just grab some sub sandwiches and go to that picnic area near the river?” She suggested.

Jason shrugged, still juggling his keys, and looked at Sarah.

Sarah briefly considered the idea, nodding. “Sure, if you prefer that, we can stay outside. Less of a chance we’ll be overheard, too.”

They moved down the steps of the church and headed to the sandwich shop in the plaza next door. The door opened as they neared it and a girl stepped out, a frown creasing her face. Her glare passed over them as she searched the parking lot for something or someone.

“Excuse me,” Sarah murmured, lifting a hand to grab the door. 

The girl finally noticed them. “Oh, sorry!” 

She stepped quickly out of the way. She had a lithe way of moving, even angry -- she held her frame with the poise of a ballet dancer. Sam’s interest piqued, watching the girl walk back to a car in the front row of the parking lot. 

“Sam, you coming?” Jason was holding the door for her.

Her attention redirected, Sam stepped through the entrance and looked up at the menu board behind the counter. 

As you can see, I didn't get to all of the words in the sprint. On the other hand, I did get words down, working toward finishing this story up. That is my approach to sprinting - use it as inspiration, but don't get bogged down in specifics. Just get the words flowing!

Do you have a favorite way of sprinting? I'd love to hear about it!

One of those days

Have you ever had one of those days?

I had one this week. First, it was Monday. Second, we'd gotten the kiddos to bed late the night before so they were sluggish getting going. (Okay, we were all sluggish, I'll admit it.) We had run out of good toasting bread, but I didn't realize in time, so decided to make do with a baggie of dry cereal during my ride to drop the kids at the babysitter. We made it to the car to discover that I'd left the windows and the sunroof open, and we'd had a shower or two during the night. A couple of trash bags and a towel to cover the seat later and we were on our way. I pulled out my first few bits of cereal, only to discover that it had gone stale in the humidity. It was going to be in the 90's that day, and my air conditioner was only blowing hot air. All of this, and it wasn't even 9 a.m. yet!

I have a job in healthcare, currently working with clients in their homes. One client's grandson had a little Magic 8 Ball he had gotten for his birthday. He excitedly asked me to play, so I asked, "Am I going to have a good day today?" You can only ask Magic 8 Balls questions that can be answered with a yes or no. I turned that ball over, and the little stinker showed me, "Maybe."

Wasn't that the truth? 

I could have let the number of things that stacked up against me in the morning set me off. I could have decided that the day was going to be horrible - hadn't it already proven itself? 

I didn't, though. A few years ago I was talking with an older friend who was planning to attend an outing. I told her I hoped she had a good time, and I've never forgotten her response. 

"I know I'll have a good time - I bring my good time with me!" She said.

I've thought of that response often since then. We can determine ahead of time that we are going to enjoy ourselves, or that we are not, and then watch that determination become a self-fulfilling prophesy. We can decide to reframe our mood, or our circumstance, or whatever the issue might be, with different words that help us to look at it differently. 

Is your child picky, or selective?

Is your friend/spouse/boss nagging, or persistent?

Is your day going to be horrible, or are you going to pause, take a breath, and reset?

For me, a good song on the radio coupled with the knowledge that the AC would be fixed the next day helped me to roll on with the day, despite the wet car seat. An afternoon iced coffee helped combat the heat, and believing that it is okay to cut yourself (myself) some slack, especially when high temperatures can make people do stupid things, let me finish the day with breathing room.

Next time you're tempted to growl at the day, remember to bring your good time with you instead.

C is for Cookie...and coyote...and Christmas in July!

Have you ever read a story with a dark, stormy scene and glanced out your own window, surprised to see sunshine? Well-written stories have the ability to transport our minds to different places and times. Writing stories can have that effect, too. To write a scene, you have to be able to envision it, to feel it and smell it. Sometimes that can be a difficult task, even when it's a welcome one. For example, it's 9 o'clock in the morning in Massachusetts, and already well into the 80s. My WIP is currently set about a week before Christmas!

One scene in the work-up to Christmas is all about cookies -- in particular, they are making Sour Cream cut-outs. In honor of bakers and eaters, and the shapeshifters that have become both, I thought I would offer the recipe I've used in the past for these. They seem to hold their shapes better than traditional sugar cookies do, for decorating. This recipe comes from a Betty Crocker Cookies book from the 1980's.

Sour Cream Cookies

1 C sugar

1/4 c butter, softened

1/4 c shortening

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 c dairy sour cream

decorators frosting

Heat oven to 425. Mix first grouping of ingredients, then add second group. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each part 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Cut into desired shapes with 2-inch cookie cutters. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until no indentation remains when touched, 6-8 minutes. 4-5 dozen. 

(As an aside, the cookbook suggests you use the decorator frosting prior to baking, but I've never heard of that and never done it. I believe that to be a miss-typed sequence!)

My favorite cookies are a chocolate chip cookie that made the rounds a few years ago as having come from a famous department store that, through some unclear communication, sold the recipe to a customer for an outrageous amount of money. As revenge, the story goes, the purchaser turned around and gave the recipe away to anyone and everyone so that the store would...somehow not sell anymore of these delicious cookies? I don't believe the story, but the cookies are delicious, even if they are a bit of work.

Department Store Cookie Recipe

2 cups butter

2 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

5 cups blended oatmeal*

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

24 oz chocolate chips

1 8oz chocolate bar, grated

3 cups chopped nuts

Heat oven to 375. Cream butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with the next group of ingredients. Add the chocolates and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake ~10 minutes at 375. Cool on rack. 112 cookies.

*measure oatmeal and blend in processor to a fine powder.

If you try either of these recipes, let me know how you like them! I'm always looking for good cookie recipes, so if you have a favorite, I'd love to hear from you, too. Leave me a comment or shoot me an email. 

Mashed sprinting

This week's 15-minute sprint is coming from a grumpy space! Well, we all have those moments, right? I hope you enjoy.

Write a mash-up character based on two or more people you know.

Sarah sighed. She could hear the voice of the youngest coming from the still dark bedroom next door. Glancing at the clock, she knew that she had half an hour before they would dare to come bother her. They used to come into her room as soon they woke - sometimes as early as four or five in the morning - but she’d gotten a clock she could set to change color when they were allowed to get out of bed. She stretched, reaching her arms above her head to touch the wall and pointing her toes toward the foot of the bed. She should get moving. Her eyes drifted closed.

“Mama, can I have breakfast? The clock is green.” The expectant eyes peered into her face as she blinked the sleep away.

“Mmph,” she managed.

“Mama, can we have cereal? I can pour it,” Tony asked. She lifted her head to squint at his voice, making out his fuzzy shape at the doorway.

“Yeah, do that,” she agreed. She dropped her head back on the pillow and heard the boys heading down the stairs. She’d give them a few minutes. Tony could get the cereal without making too much mess. Did they have milk? She couldn’t remember.

“Mama? Can I put the t.v. on?” She startled at Tony’s voice and opened her eyes again. The room was lighter.

“What time is it?” She squinted toward the clock again and sat up quickly. “Oh my gosh - school! You have to get dressed! We have to go!”

“We are dressed, Mama,” Tony said, shrinking out of the doorway as she bolted past him for the bathroom.

Sprinting for the story, and a chance for new books

First, an offer of new books:

If you're looking for something new, check out this promotion - you've still got almost two weeks. There are more than 50 stories available for free - some full books, some short stories - and plenty of new authors to check out. Find something great to spend a few hours of enjoyment!

Image by pixabay user Sebastian Ganso

Next, the writing prompt:

“Bottled emotions are a product you can buy.”

Sprint:

Jill stared out the window at the throngs of people milling about the sidewalk, but didn’t take in a single person. She was sitting casually at the table she always took in the sandwich shop, absently tapping away to the beat filling her eardrums. 

If the girl came for the edibles within the next few minutes, Jill would be able to make it to Gerry’s in time to pick up her next order of cactus this afternoon. She’d be able to get started on turning that into some cookies - the cookies sold best. She also wanted to try out the recipe she’d found for noodles. She liked playing around with the recipes - sometimes they worked right away, but usually she had to tweak them to account for the difference between the shade dust she made from the cactus and the canna sugar or butter the recipes usually called for. The recipe she’d found for noodles called for canna butter. She reviewed the changes she might make, glancing at the watch on her arm. She frowned. If she didn’t need the money from this sale to buy the next batch, she’d leave - the girl was already two minutes late. 

Her gaze flicked to the counter, where the boy who she’d given the gummies to sat absently picking at his thumbnail. His acne-scarred chin moved as he muttered quietly to himself. Jill had told him she would bring more for him with her next appointment - she didn’t want to get him too dependent on her. She limited him to a once a week delivery, and never the recipes with the shade dust. Watching what the canna products did to him, she knew she’d been right. Giving this boy shade-dusted edibles would be akin to handing him a bottle of emotion to drink with nothing to dilute it. A small frown played at her mouth. She knew too much about that herself.

Clearly, I have some research to conduct. I've never made noodles - and a quick search for recipes suggests that they won't be the right thing for Jill to be trying to make. However, this sprint - in some form or another - may make its way into the next book!

Sprint with an oops

This week's prompt is another from the Christian Indie Writer's Podcast. This week's topic was writing about trauma in life, so the prompt was to write a scene in which a character from your WIP (work in progress, the story you are currently working on,) is experiencing a trauma that you or a loved one has experienced.

One thing about writing prompts and exercises - sometimes it's fun to try to get all the words, or write exactly what the prompt instructs, and other times it's okay to allow the prompt to get you started and then just go where it takes you, whether that is following the prompt or not. Sometimes, like today, I am in such a hurry or so distracted that I don't read the whole thing before I start. Unlike those tests that tell you to read all of the instructions before starting the test and give a whole bunch of complicated things to do before the final instruction, which is to not do any of those difficult things but just turn the paper over, it's not a bad thing to not follow the instruction on a writing prompt. The whole purpose of a prompt is to get you started! As long as you are writing, you are doing it right. So, today's sprint is currently NOT written from my WIP, because I didn't notice that part of the prompt before starting. I think I have a way to change it up to fit it in, but here is the rough draft:

“Who ate the strawberries I had in this bowl?” 

Carly froze. Mama’s raised voice was tight and low. It was never a good sign when her voice got tight, but when it also went low, it was very, very bad. 

“All of you! Come in here, now!” 

Carly’s heart was skittering wildly in her chest. She scrambled off her knees, where she’d been playing cars on the floor in the back room, and ran to the kitchen. 

“I didn’t. I don’t know where it went, but I didn’t take it.” John’s jaw had that mulish set it got when he wasn’t going to budge. 

Mama turned to Mitchel. “Well?” 

“I didn’t eat them! I don’t like strawberries!” 

Mama set her hands on her hips and turned to Carly. “Did you eat my berries?” At Carly’s rapid shaking of her head, Mama’s brow wrinkles deepened. She glared at the three children. “One of you did, which means one of you is lying. I’m going to let your father deal with this. Go.” 

Mitchel followed Carly into the back room, both of them quiet. “Did you eat them?” Mitchel’s voice was low and tremulous. 

“No! I been in here playing all morning!” 

“What if we clean our room? Do you think maybe she’ll be happy, and forget to tell him?” Mitchel was twisting his hands inside his front pockets. Pretty soon he’d start chewing on his fingernails -- he always did when he was scared. 

Carly looked around the room. The dirty clothes they had worn yesterday were scattered across the floor and half-hidden under the bunk-bed where they had dropped them instead of the hamper, but otherwise the room didn’t look bad. “Let’s try,” she said, starting to pick hers up. Her throat was tight, making it hard to breathe. Hot tears spilled down her cheeks. She scrubbed them away with the t-shirt in her hands. Daddy would be even more angry if he thought she’d been crying before he started disciplining her.

 

For those interested in checking out the Christian Indie Writers' Podcast, find them on Facebook, Youtube, or their website.

If you'd like to join me in some of these writing prompt sprints, set your timer for 15 minutes and start putting some words down. I'd love to hear from you if you do - and if you've got a writing prompt you like, let me know! Maybe I can use it for my next sprint!

Scheduling discipline

Scheduling discipline

Readers of my newsletter will have noticed that I frequently include photos of animals. Some of you have wondered, what's with the wildlife? Here's a hint - each of the animals I have included photos of makes an appearance in the Fighting in Shadows world. Shades of Deception includes coyotes, owls, bears, and unnamed others. Approaching Shadows focuses on pekans and wolves. What critters will show up in the next book?

***

When someone works from home, unless the person is very good at setting boundaries and very disciplined in staying on task, other people and other tasks can push work to the back burner. When that person is a writer - a job most people don't understand, even if they live with someone who writes, those boundaries and schedules can be harder to navigate. 

"I know you said you were going to write today, but could you just watch the girls for a couple of hours so I can go to the store without bringing them?"

"I need you to pick up these parts for me today so I can fix the (you name it) when I get home. It shouldn't take too long."

"Are you working? My car broke down. I'm on the side of the road. I called a tow truck, but I need to get to the store to pick up..."

or even, (ahem)

"What are you doing in the garden? I thought you said you wanted to write today?"

One thing I've found helpful in making myself stick to the task is establishing accountability. To that end, I'm going to begin posting 15-minute sprints here weekly. Sometimes those might be focused on a scene, or a word prompt, and others might be bits of what will eventually end up in the Fighting in Shadows world. These are unedited bits, but they're fun to do and hopefully, enjoyable to read.

This week, I've decided to include one from the Christian Indie Writer's Podcast, prompted by using the words "horseshoe, pattern, ignore, habit, and employ." 

Hailey moved closer to the water’s edge, enjoying the way the wet sand squished away from her feet. The pattern of the reflected sky broken by the crests of the waves mesmerized her. Dark, light, dark, light, the refracted light rode the swell of the ocean and shimmered on the shards of mica scattered in the sand underneath.

“Hailey, Mama said not to go past your knees.”

Hailey ignored her sister, as was her habit. 

“Hailey, look at me!”

Hailey tossed a quick glance toward her mother’s towel back on the beach. Her mother was glaring in her direction. 

“I’m not past my knees, look!” She lifted her skirt, the hem of which had been flapping against her shins with the ebb and flow of the waves. The water was deeper than she had thought. She stretched to employ her tiptoes in the sand, trying to gain a little height, but it was no good. She grimaced up at her mother’s spot on the beach. “Oops! Sorry!”

As she turned her attention back to the water, intent on back-tracking just enough for her kneecaps to feel air, she saw it.

“Mama! Look! A horseshoe crab!”

A very delayed update!

 Well, it's been a while!
Since I've last updated, Halloween has treated, Thanksgiving has been and gone, Christmas and New Year's have been celebrated, and the whole world has come to a grinding halt due to a microscopic enemy.

I won't try to fill you in on everything from the past few months, but when a fan asked me about my blog this morning, I realized I've not treated my readers well by allowing this page to languish. I decided to rectify that right away.

This old dog is actually our new dog - we adopted Cooper from the shelter on the last day of 2019. He is in the area of six years old, we were told, and is the sweetest, most gentle creature.

His one fault, which is certainly not one he is responsible for, is that he was not raised as a pet - he was a hunting dog who, for whatever reason, didn't work out. We don't hunt, so that is not the problem - but a dog who is not raised as a pet, was most likely raised in a pen, has not been properly house-trained.  We are working on learning his "tells," his behavioral signs that he needs to go out, because he does not make noise (!) to let us know.

In fact, I've only heard him howl once, when he didn't know I was home, and have heard him whine when he is sleeping...that is it. I don't know if he knows how to bark! He doesn't seem to know to play with his toys - we've bought him a couple of squeaky things and a few balls, all of which he has batted at once or twice and then ignored. He does seem to enjoy certain of my granddaughters' stuffed animals, though.

The other thing I wanted to update you on was that I asked readers of my newsletter (if you don't already get my newsletter, which gets updated once or twice a month, sign up here) to take a poll for me, letting me know what it is about a new book that will make them choose to read it. I know that if you are like me, it is likely a combination of things, but the polling service only let people pick one answer. The question was which answer was most important in choosing to buy/download a book to read. There were five possible answers. As you can see, four answers received clicks. The fifth possible answer was "the number/rating of reviews."

As an author, I was surprised that not one person selected the number/rating of reviews, although, perhaps if people had been allowed to answer with more than one answer it would have been selected. Perhaps it's not the most important - but that doesn't mean that it's not important at all. As an author, I've been encouraged to ask readers to rate and review my books because that is one of the things that Amazon considers when showing books to readers - the more reviews, the more the book is shown, because Amazon (and other selling platforms, I'm sure,) wants to make money, and promoting things that are well-liked has proven to work for them.

To that end, if you have read my books and enjoyed them, I would like to ask you to consider leaving a review. Reviews don't have to be detailed - even a simple star rating can help get the books shown to more readers. 

   

Thank you for checking in with me. I hope you are well, and continue to stay well. I'm going to get back to working on the sequel to Shades of Deception. What else is there to do while socially isolating? Plenty, actually - I'll also be repainting my living room and starting spring cleaning. But, since all of that is work, and writing is much more fun, that's what I'm starting my day with!