A Contemplative Life

Yours truly from a few days ago with my Peace Around the World EPP WIP. It's not done, lol, but my novel sure is! In a most unexpected fashion, churning out THREE chapters yesterday to complete The Deadfern Miracles . (Heads up - this is long, but not as lengthy as the book, lol.) So, I guess I still can pull words outta my backside, hehehe. 8954 words thereabouts, as I just checked the document. The first chapter was only twenty-five hundred words, which I completed at nine thirty Friday morning, having gotten an early start. Yet I wasn't plotting more than dealing with laundry and attending last night's May Day protest at the Humboldt County Courthouse. In fact, I ate a quick lunch before beginning the next chapter, which I knew would either be the last or penultimate. By one thirty p.m., that chapter was done, but The End had yet to be found. One thirty, hmmmm. One thirty seemed early enough that if I sat at my computer and let God do his thing, The End would e...

Hand-quilting the rainbow extravaganza is going to be a LONG PROCESS, but better than no stitching on it at all. And sewing! Although that's being managed like I'm on a minutes restriction. Sometimes writing feels that way too, half a chapter here, another half there. Yesterday, however, I wrote an entire chapter, which felt AMAZING. While today, ahem, this entry will be it. (Heads-up: Long post, lol.) Part of my stop-start fictional output relates to morning activities. Tomorrow we're celebrating a birthday with friends, sharing lunch as one of them turns eighty-one! I'm hoping to get a scene written before we meet with them, might be half a chapter's worth, possibly two-thirds, what I accumulated a couple of days ago, woo-hoo! Not quite as thrilling as turning eighty-one, but certainly noteworthy as sixty keeps knocking on my door, dude.... Didn't I just get into this writing gig, wasn't I just in my forties? Um, NO. Sometimes that feels like a LONG TIME A...

Ruthie the Barnevelder hen. A not so broody hen notwithstanding.... First an update about that hen. Ruthie is now her name, as now I can tell apart the triplets, whew! Their combs tell the tale; Ruthie has a very small comb (and wattles), while Gigi has the largest. Icey is the third, and her name is made from the initials IC, which stand for irregular comb, as Icey's comb has an odd spike in the center. Fortunately Ruthie has been a well-behaved hen for two days now, and *HOPEFULLY* that spate of broodiness won't be revisited anytime soon. Now, about that novel.... I am still pondering how I can be ever so blessed to craft stories, especially after not writing a complete manuscript for over, ahem, two years! I finished Home and Far Away in mid December 2023, then wrote a quarter of The Enran Chronicles Book Five last June. Yet that incomplete manuscript, while not haunting, remains unfinished. The book I began today is a standalone (WOO HOO, lol...) about miracles. And it ki...

Always a pleasure to announce the release of a new novel; Nothing More Complicated: The Hawk Book Four has been a joy to my heart in these difficult times. Despite the blithe title, this novel addresses the effects of depression on three characters, and how their beloveds address a malady that in the early 1960s, when this novel is set, was rarely discussed. This story is also about patience. And healing. And how meaningful is family to which we weren't born, but have found love and comfort within. And this novel sets the stage for a major shift in the plot; Eric's issues have been the main topic for perusal, however a deeper layer awaits, which I did NOT foresee when beginning this tale back in the fall of 2013. It was merely going to be about a man who, well, changed. A LOT. And how that affected his wife and their friends. But sometimes a depth is plumbed little by little, which at times is all we can absorb. This series is that kind of character-driven saga. Below is the f...

Title emerged as I was *SLOWLY* peeling day-old hard cooked eggs. Then came the ruminations.... Those hard-cooked eggs are now deviled eggs, and pretty tasty too! A New Year's treat that I sampled today, lol. But first! I had to attend to chicken maintenance. Like dumping the dregs from the feeder into the run, hence luring said chickens into the run, as they've been free ranging much of the day, and most of that unsupervised. Oh, you know what, this might be a long post, so heads-up. (It IS a long post, with lots of links to entries from this year about various pastimes.) Anyway, back to sorting out the chicken feed for the rest of the day; the feeder was quite low, and best to let them have the spoils as though an actual treat, HAHA! Into the run went all but one, and upon a quick glance I noticed Owl was missing. What is up with that gal, I wondered, as my husband went to check the coop. Sure enough she was curled in a nesting box, bless her poultry heart. But I digress, y...

A camellia to honor Jen! Photo courtesy of my husband. People enter our lives for a reason, a season, forever. Sometimes those distinctions bleed into one another, so I can't rightly say how Jen S. fits; more than a reason, not quite a season? Yet one solid purpose was to proffer Liner Notes as a title for the author's page at the conclusion of my novels. For the last few days, I've been reading the final quarter of Home and Far Away , which is definitely my favourite story emerging from, well, not merely my creativity, but as a gift from God. To whom I credit all my fictional and life efforts, but especially the writing. My almost twenty-year literary path has been one of fun, exploration, tears, and self-examination, among other treats. This morning, as I completed the novel, I then read the Liner Notes . If you aren't into music, or merely stream all your songs, Liner Notes hearkens to the day of vinyl, where the artist or recording company spilled a little or a lo...