One of the perils of writing regencies is that I tend to write them while I’m half asleep, so I end up with a lot of somewhat disjointed and contradictory passages that I have to stitch together and massage into some kind of story. In this case, a cozy-ish murder mystery. This can lead to... Continue Reading →

I’m having one of those weeks where I’m working hard and getting things done, but every time I cross something off the to-do list, three more things jump onto it. Someday, I’ll get around to writing a few not-time-sensitive posts that I can pull out of the hat on days like today. But today is... Continue Reading →

My childhood home has a pond in the backyard. It’s a little unkempt nowadays, but it was quite clean and usable twenty years ago. My parents, being responsible humans who wanted their kids to safely enjoy playing in and around the pond, signed us up for swimming lessons, which were taught at the local lake... Continue Reading →

It’s spring, every horse owner’s favorite time of year. There’s mud, volatile weather, bugs, and lots and lots of shedding. Most livestock and many wild animals grow a winter coat and lose it once the days get longer- much to the annoyance of farmers and ranchers trying to keep their critters safe from spring storms,... Continue Reading →

I reread a lot. I have to, else I’d never leave the library, or I’d be permanently broke from trying to buy All The Books. Perils of being a compulsive reader, sub-type semi-controlled. If I see words, I read them, but I don’t actually walk around with my nose in a book. Situational awareness is... Continue Reading →

… that Daylight Savings Time exists to benefit farmers. Does anyone still believe that? Most of us apply the sniff test to that and realize that no, farmers, especially ones of the early nineteen hundreds when DST started, are the people who’d benefit least from DST. They wake up when the sun rises, work all... Continue Reading →

One day, you’re writing along, oh-so-innocently, and then you see, off in the distance, the looming train wreck that your characters, even more innocent than you, are about to encounter. You can see it coming; there’s no stopping it, unless you stop the story entirely, and you’re a writer, goshdarnit!- you’d sooner cut off a... Continue Reading →

Here in the continental United States, it’s currently 35 degrees and overcast, dropping to about 14 tonight and giving us an inch of snow and ice tonight before warming back up to the mid fifties by Saturday. So, of course, I’m working in the garden. What else would I be doing? Not just planning and... Continue Reading →

Some days, I don’t feel like doing anything. This time of year, those days are more frequent than not. So I fall back on habits and routines, and the ever-present and never-shortening To-Do List to keep me on track. Certain tasks can be done on autopilot, and then I don’t have to chase myself with... Continue Reading →

Geek, not Greek. When I’m not paying attention, those words look remarkably similar. It gets especially interesting when reading regencies, where ‘greeking’ was a term associated with cheating at cards. Merriam-Webster is not overly positive on the subject of geeks, defining it as 1) a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked, or,... Continue Reading →