Blog

What I’m Working On

It’s the first week of October and Christmas tunes are playing in my studio. What I love most about the music (besides it putting me in a festive mood) is it makes me feel like I’ve won a battle with my husband. For over twenty years we’ve argued (good-naturedly) about when it’s okay to play Christmas music and when it isn’t. He says December (maybe after Thanksgiving). I say when the mood strikes.

For the first five years of our marriage, my husband actually hid my Christmas CDs until the day after Thanksgiving. He lost ground when I ripped all the CDs to my computer and had a song ready to play as soon as it snowed, which in Wisconsin often happened late October or early November.

So why am I playing Christmas music on a sixty-degree day in Idaho at the beginning of October? I needed to set the mood for my Christmas Short Story Collection. Technically, Christmas music has played since September because it’s when I started writing my Christmas stories.

My Christmas collection will be five Christmas short stories. The first three are written. I will finish the fourth one this week.

I’m having fun writing Christmas stories. My brain is already playing with other ideas on future collections. I will release this collection during the first week of November.

Stay tuned!

2020 in Review

What a year! I wanted to get this posted at the beginning of January but a few things cropped up. At least this post will still show up in January, albeit the last day.

The beginning held great promise with going to Maui, gaining a bonus-mom, and spending six weeks outside of Breckenridge, Colorado. Then along came co-vid 19 and a job layoff. Since our life had gotten shaken up (as was the case with many people), we decided to throw in a move from Wisconsin to Idaho. There’s a long story behind that decision, but I want to keep this post short.

Despite the upheaval riddled with much uncertainty, I still progressed in my writing.

What I Accomplished

I wrote four novels.
My goal was to write more than this, but life had a few other plans. I learned to roll with what life threw at us.
I published two novels.
Typing that makes me smile. The other two from the four that I wrote will be published in 2021.

I completed Dean Wesley Smith’s challenge of writing one short story each week for a year in mid-April.
Thanks Dean. This one taught me a lot about sticking to my goal and finishing no matter what. I managed to keep the streak going through travels, co-vid, the job loss, and getting the house ready for sale. I wrote a few more short stories throughout the year, giving me a total of 20 short stories for 2020.

I entered the Writers of the Future contest every quarter.
I received three honorable mentions and a semi-finalist award. If you love to write speculative fiction, I encourage you to enter Writers of the Future. It’s free, it gives you practice on finishing stories on a deadline, and it’s fun.

I had fun.
Typing this is a bit strange considering the weirdness of the year, but I can’t say that the co-vid challenges made it the worse year ever. I’ve had years way worse than this. I took advantage of things not happening to focus on improving my craft, exploring a new area (I love the outdoors), and really digging in to write.

With all the things happening so far at the beginning of 2021, I’m optimistic that things will get better. It’s the only way I can keep moving forward. In the meantime, I plan to keep writing, publishing, and creating art.

Here’s to an improved year.

Rivers Amiss

This is the first book in my Rockton Treasure series.

Seven treasures on seven planets remain hidden after 175 years of people across the galaxy searching.

Cam Ingram (a one-legged treasure hunter), her assistant bot, and her team visit the planet Cragglin to solve the clues left by a wealthy businessman from the Sojourn Space Station.

A rough start to their mission leaves them struggling to stay ahead of their competition.

If you love treasure hunting, sci-fi stories, grab River’s Amiss today.

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Digital Footsteps

Adriana’s tech-savvy parents frequently test her with computer puzzles and physical drills with no explanation.

The night Adriana wakes to the home security system going off, she believes her parents created another test for her.

Adriana’s strange life grows stranger when she follows the rules instilled in her from childhood and uncovers a tech world hidden in plain sight.

If you like young adult, science fiction adventure stories, read Digital Footsteps today.

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Luck of Fortunes

A fortune telling provides entertainment; a peek into what could be based on the fortuneteller’s observations.

Mandy Artsen believed this until she received her cursed fortune from Lady Rosella. A fortune that told her to stay in her sleepy town of Hartfield and brought her bad luck when she disobeyed.

Now, five years later, Mandy desperately wants a different fortune. One that allows her to feed her adventurous soul.

The light-hearted story “The Luck of Fortunes” explores the fate three fortunetelling cards can have on one woman’s life.

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2019 in Review

2019 was fun. I learned so much about writing, telling stories, and publishing. I challenged myself in new ways. Many times I found myself energized by the pleasure of jumping in and figuring out things as I went.

What I accomplished:

I published four novels.
If there was a word for the super, huge, mongo smiley face that is on my face right now, it would be here. All of my current books are available in any e-book format or in print.

I wrote thirty-seven short stories.
I love the format of short stories. In April, I entered Dean Wesley Smith’s Short Story Challenge. The goal is to write one story every week for a year. As of today, January 28, 2020, I am finishing short story number #42.

I submitted twenty short stories to magazines; multiple times.
Submitting is something I tend to procrastinate on because I love to write more. So my submissions go in bursts (something I plan to adjust in 2020). I’ve received quite a few “try again” letters and have noticed over the last few months many of the letters I receive are more personal in responses. I figure I’m getting close to getting something accepted and published.

I received two honorable mentions for the Writer’s of the Future contest.
So far I have entered three short stories. The third one I won’t hear the results for until sometime in March 2020. The Writer’s of the Future contest is a quarterly contest open to amateur writers. If you love writing science-fiction, fantasy, and/or horror you should enter too.

I graduated my oldest from homeschooling.
While I can’t take full credit for this one, since homeschooling is a team effort, my teaching duties for our oldest shifted from making sure the checklist was checked, to advisor for navigating the adult world. The high school years are a bit more challenging because their interests are different than mine (almost complete opposites) and the way I taught had to change.

I finished a couple of paintings.
Writing took most of my focus for the year, but I found I felt more balanced when I gave myself a break to play with my paintbrush. I will post pictures of my favorites soon.

I had fun.
This one should maybe be at the top. I had fun navigating the waters as a writer. I learned how to format books, design covers, and use some graphic programs that I always meant to master when I worked as a web designer. I also experimented with many genres of writing.

Those were the highlights for the 2019. At the beginning of February I will post my goals for 2020. One of my goals is to keep my blog updated more regularly.

I hope your year went well and that 2020 is filled with fun.