In A Bookish, Quilty Mood

Puzzle progress as of last night. Kinda like semi-retirement, but not.... Sometimes life grinds to a halt; projects sputter, poor health intrudes, ideas meander as new shinies flex their muscles. Sometimes all of that is tangled together, sometimes separate. Sometimes the best laid plans simply go awry. Right now life feels that way. My life, but perhaps others. Probably others. Maybe heaps of others. Today I finished the letters portion of Letters and Papers From Prison . Appendices remain, but Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his brother Klaus, and their brothers-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and Rudiger Schleicher were executed for their roles in the plot to assassinate Hitler. Hindsight provides as much information as exists, yet for all their prayers and wishes, those men, and so many other people, did not survive that awful war. My still aching shoulder precludes serious hand-sewing. Typing out journal entries from 2002 hinders new written work. Gray windy weather hampers my small gardening effor...

A pretty apt photo for today's subject. Over three years ago Smashwords and Draft2Digital became one company. Last night I received notice that it was my turn for the migration queue, and for the rest of the night I was...slightly pensive, nostalgic, and resigned to change. Lol. Change is often not nearly as traumatic as we think it will be, current American governmental coup notwithstanding. I chose not to do more than ponder this somewhat monumental to me alteration, instead working on a one thousand piece puzzle (see above) that will keep me occupied until I feel the shingles are truly GONE. 'Nuff said about that. Yet for Smashwords, my goodness! I independently published The War on Emily Dickinson on July 16th, 2011, that's coming on fourteen years ago! SO MUCH has changed in indie publishing, although this is not an analysis entry, more of a walk down memory lane while assuaging my mind and heart that ALL WILL BE FINE. It truly will, ahem. Since then, I've releas...

Youngest grandson's hexie shirt; more about that at the end of the post. This morning as I watched the moon rise and Venus emerge, I was grateful for clear skies and warm tea and the quiet moments in which to appreciate these blessings. A few hours later I learned one my beloveds is in hospital with a serious ailment. The trajectory of how I wanted to present the above treasures now takes a sharp twist, as sweet meets bitter, yet I am undaunted to recount the good while praying for the lesser element. Because this is often how life goes, joys hand in hand with sorrows. How we balance that is another issue altogether. I'm nearing the end of Letters & Papers From Prison , Dietrich Bonhoeffer's last two years of life documented in correspondence between him and those he loved. After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler, the letters dwindle, and I'm reaching that point in the book, but the truths exchanged between Bonhoeffer and his best friend Eberhard Bethge det...

  A hunk from my Lavender EPP quilt, currently in progress. Around the first of March, I took an early Lenten sabbatical from Bluesky Social. My account with that form of social media is only from last November, after the election. I didn't abandon a Twitter handle for it, as that type of social media had never been my preferred method of outreach. As you can imagine, I like a LONG manner in which to share my thoughts, smiley face inserted HERE. Yet I was happy to create the account, and enjoyed the camaraderie I met. Giving up Bluesky was in part a Lenten sacrifice, as well as a need to distance myself from the weight of what was happening in America. I fully expected to rejoin the banter once Easter was over. That plan has been discarded, as I will continue my absence from Skeets and a three hundred character limit for posts. That was certainly a hindrance, as often I have far more on my mind, LOL. But what I found most interesting was how I didn't miss that level of social m...

Our back garden in Yorkshire from the date I began writing the journal entries. It's a quiet start to the day; I went to bed early last night after being on my feet for two hours at a protest at the Courthouse. While I slept eight hours thereabouts, if you hit the hay before eight thirty, that means rising before five the next morning. Which is fine, smiley face inserted here. It feels a little incorrect to use more than that on Easter, not sure why. On my Ukrainian flag yesterday I had the names of Josiah Lawson and Freddie Gray . While Love Thy Neighbor and Remember flew off the flag, those names remained. My prayers for those family continue. My husband just woke, I'll finish this later.... So.... I threw blankets in the washer, will change out the sheets. A gray start to our day, but sun is forecast for later. I typed out the first of a series of...journal entries or devotional entries or whatever will come of several months of entries written in 2002. I truly do...

Latest Mandolin block completed last night. I'm feeling a mixed bag today; it's Maundy Thursday, the day when Jesus celebrated The Last Supper with his disciples and also washed their feet.  Colonel Nicole Malachowski's achievements as the first woman Thunderbirds pilot are being erased from official military websites . I wrote an email to family and friends denoting this, including the names and Washington D.C. phone numbers for Republican women senators. Here they are, if you're interested in letting them know your views. (All are currently on holiday until 28 April, but you can leave a message for each one.) Marsha Blackburn        202-224-3344 Tennessee Katie Boyd Britt             202-224-5744  Alabama Shelley Moore Capito    202-224-6472   West Virginia Susan Collins              ...

We squeezed in a trip to the beach, low tide and calm waves a pleasure. Close friends visited over the weekend, and while this morning is a cloudy mess, we enjoyed bright blue skies, warm temps, and marvelous camaraderie. Chatting with those of a similar age and interests is always pleasant, for while we are on different paths, the journeys coalesce in manners that remind we're not alone in 1) Getting older, 2) Navigating our purposes and 3) Maintaining sanity. Definitely important elements in this thing called Life. Then Life returns to its usually scheduled programming, which of course is wonderful too, mostly. My wonky knee remains tricksy, but is improving. Shingles have cleared up and left no visible reminders other than I'll probably need another vaccine in the next few months. I'm SERIOUSLY contemplating what I'd LIKE to next write, whoa! I'm making good strides with the Mandolin quilt, but A Quilt of Grace was moved off the sofa so others could sit on the so...

My latest release, Brave the Skies: The Hawk Book Two certainly falls under that heading, as do some errant but fun EPP blocks that might or might not turn into more than shinies. Time will tell. When starting a novel, I allow the characters free rein. We plan to let our chickens free range, but that's months away, lol, yet a similar notion, although if not all the hens survive into winter, that is out of our hands. Birds of prey, as well as foxes and possums, roam our neck of Humboldt County, and while we'll do all we can to keep the flock safe, nature always triumphs. As an author, I have more control, at least of nature. What my cast muscles their ways into is another story. The Hawk began with humble aspirations; I had been writing short stories back in 2013, my goodness, that's a dozen years ago now! Anyway, I'd been penning, or typing, brief tales and wholeheartedly assumed Eric, Lynne, Sam, Renee, Stanford, Laurie and the rest would neatly tie up loose ends in a...

A new book is out, WOO HOO! Brave the Skies: The Hawk Book Two continues the adventures of Eric and Lynne Snyder, an artist and his wife living in the Pacific Northwest. Eric's paintings are gaining new audiences while Lynne's former occupation of a hospital nurse has been jettisoned for the role of artist's model. Yet more is altering for Lynne, as she and Eric find themselves on the cusp of their hearts' desires; despite his time as a hawk, humanity has wound its way into their lives in a most precious way. It's hard to write a synopsis for this tale without invoking spoilers. Yes, Eric alters form, but not in a superhero manner. It's a tragedy for the couple, who have hidden this alarming but irrevocable action until their best friends Renee and Sam Ahern discover what has no logical purpose. The Aherns know a fair bit about calamity; Sam was injured during the Korean War, and the Catholic couple are unable to have children. In Brave the Skies , Sam recounts...

I've spent much of this day prepping my next novel for release. Brave the Skies: The Hawk Book Two has been published tonight! As it takes Smashwords/Draft2Digital several hours to get a newly published novel onto the Smashwords store, I have chosen to upload a new book in the evenings, Pacific Daylight (or Standard) Time, then happily find my story the following morning. Publishing novels isn't an earth-shattering experience, although writing a book and getting it to this stage takes much time, work, self-belief, and assistance from those who have been in my corner for the last thirteen years of indie publication, over seventeen years on my overall authorial journey. For seventeen years I have actively written/revised fiction, and despite the writing feeling a little thin recently, I have been heavy into edits both for The Hawk and The Enran Chronicles . Two series at one time is indeed a LOT of effort, taking away from time I'd love to craft a new story. After Brave the...