In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Amid a government shutdown due in part to health insurance costs, ironic could be one way to describe the timely release of my novel Home and Far Away . Allegorical could also be used for this fourth installment of The Enran Chronicles . Romance and sci fi and women's fiction, with a little time travel to frame how Sooz, Dardram, and Chelak arrived on Earth is also applicable. But mostly this is a love story, strongly aligned to current times even if it's set in 1971, as well as being written two-plus years ago. The fourth novel in this series details a trio's arrival on Earth and how they fit in, especially with the Lund family. Richard is a widower and father to five-year-old Gilly, who takes an immediate liking to their guests. Richard is wary, then slowly accepting, a man used to adjusting to unsettling situations. What he finds most jarring is that despite being black, Suze Noth is fearless. That she's also a doctor stymies, as well as how their mutual attraction ...

Another shot from the book cover photo shoot, snapped last Monday south of Ukiah, California. More rightly: for being able to translate what comes from my heart onto the computer. That's all I do, although nineteen years into this gig, I'm WAY better at it than when I started, LOL. I'm going through the last scroll of Home and Far Away . Found one misspelled word that was underlined in red: scrambed instead of scrambled . Major facepalm emoji averted (though other missed typos probably remain, sigh)! But as I scroll, I am inundated with the thrill of all that being an author entails. Such joy for the ability, wonder at how it all comes together, appreciation for the tenacity to keep doing it. Further gratitude for the outlet to publish independently. And an overwhelming giddiness of a long-held dream once again being made into reality. One last excerpt, then back to scrolling. Hoping to upload this novel this evening. Main message of this post: Don't give up on your dr...

From a UK craft magazine at least twenty years ago, but now it's done! No sewing occurred over the weekend, but I dabbled in other crafts hearkening to my past. Past Me needs some props, for starting the cross-stitching above that I completed with ease. I uncovered this kit a couple of months ago, and in finishing it, I found why I had given up halfway, a mistake made in the pale blue floss. Skirting around that error, I happily stitched trees, then added the backstitching in that bold red. It will be a for a dearheart in a little over a month's time. I then dug out my cross-stitching bag, finding pieces of my creative past long before I dreamed of quilting. Yet working with my hands has mattered for AGES, first in crocheting right after I had my eldest child. Once we moved to Britain I got into cross-stitching, and now in Humboldt County that pastime has emerged with stealth, lol. Not sure how much more I'll do of it, although a HUGE project remains, about on par with my A...

Five of eight; Camilla is already on the wall, the other two grabbing a quick snack before bedtime. Yes, it's been raining. No, I have not been sewing. Yes, I have been working on a manuscript. No, it's not Home and Far Away . LOL! But in the interim or meantime or whatever here's an update about the hens. They are nearly full-on hens, seventeen and a half weeks old, DUDE! We've had them for seventeen weeks as of today, and as of today Camilla is the most likely to start the egg-laying parade. We've uncovered the nesting boxes, and while we can't find the golf balls purchased to entice them into investigating, these chicks seem to have pretty keen instincts for the rest of their chicken-lives. Like eating grit and coming inside before it gets dark, although coming in out of the rain seems beyond them. Insert facepalm emoji HERE. But back to Camilla.... Always the largest chick, pullet, almost henny-penny. First with a comb, albeit yellow while Nadia had a pink c...

I'm looking very much forward to snuggling under this bright beauty, one of these days.... Anticipating machine piecing. And hopefully novel prepping....  Welp, I've done some novel-prepping, woo hoo! Home and Far Away now has end details and a chapter of the next book that one of these days I'll complete. Lol. But yeah, book stuff is happening! Synopses are next, insert winking emoji here. Truthfully, how to describe this story? Kind of like describing the quilt design pictured above. Fave Anna Maria Parry (AMP) prints old and new with some additional fabrics for good measure. I can't write that as a synopsis, but it correlates, because Home and Far Away is nearly a separate tale from the previous three Enran Chronicles books , mostly about Richard and Gilly Lund adjusting to two humans from outer space and an actual alien arriving with them. Set in rural California in 1971. With overtones of racial disparity and other biases intruding. And it's a love story. Clo...