A Milestone Reached

 This is being posted late because I wanted to do my daily writing first.  Why was that important?

Today was a special day.  Today marked the 900th day in a row of writing for me.

That's 900 days of getting at least a few words down.  That's doing it despite fatigue, sickness, and grief.  That's squeezing it in when I've been busy and burning the midnight oil to finish a project.

It feels good to hit it.  For me, a streak is incredibly motivating.  The longer it goes, the harder it is to break.  I can look at the march of stars on my calendar and see that every day, I accomplished this one thing.

Will it last forever?  Who knows?  So far, Covid hasn't stopped it, a death in the family hasn't stopped it, my lack of discipline hasn't stopped it.  I'm not saying it can't be stopped.  But so far, it's healthy.

My next goal?  1,000 days, of course.  

What motivates you in your passion?

Sorry...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We enjoyed our time with our children, and especially our two grandchildren.  Lavinia is four and Matthias will turn three this month.  I'm wondering where the time went.

 If you're here looking for my short story "Black Deeds on a Black Friday," the week is up, and I've taken it down.  Thanks to all who read it and let me know what they thought.  

I'm currently working on a holiday collection I hope to get out the first half of this month.  I will keep you in the loop on it.  

I hope the season is treating you well.  What's your favorite part of this holiday season?

At the moment, I'm in Orlando, Florida doing some Disney time with a couple of friends.  Lots of fun, but of course I brought my laptop to write every day.  The streak is well over 800 days now (I don't recall what it is exactly) and I'm not planning on breaking it now.

See you in a couple of weeks!

Writers of the Future

 Writers of the Future (https://www.writersofthefuture.com/) is a quarterly contest for writers of science fiction, fantasy, or horror short fiction.  

I hadn't entered in a while - I wasn't sure I was still eligible.  After my mentor assured me I still was able to enter I sent in a short story, not expecting anything.

To my delight and surprise, my urban fantasy "Wishing, Well" received Honorable Mention.

I'm waiting for my certificate and will share it when it comes in.  And yes, I plan to enter this quarter as well.

Just goes to show it never hurts to try.

Great fun on the radio!

 On October 14th I got to sit down with Don Elwell of the "D&D Live Show" (his partner was out of town).  Don did his homework on me and we had a great time discussing my latest collection and other writing.  He said I can come back sometime, so I must have done okay <g>.

Want to Hear What I Sound Like?

 I'm going to be on the radio show "D&D Live" Friday, October 14th, at 9:05 am Eastern.  I'll be talking about my latest collection and whatever else they ask me about.  If you live in Highlands County, Florida you can tune in at 730 AM or 95.3 FM.  Not local?  You can tune in the livestream at https://www.newstalk730am.com/

Life after Ian

 This will be a bit more personal than usual.  Hurricane Ian gave us a glancing blow on Wednesday night, which was more than enough to produce howling winds, downed trees, and uprooting my two rosebushes.  It also killed power to our house, never a great thing.

Fortunately, my husband Don, a physician, has access to the doctor's lounge at one of the local hospitals.  The hospital has both Internet and power and I'm taking advantage of both as I post my bimonthly blog.  

Thanks to this access, I've been able to keep up my writing streak, which is currently over 800 days.  It's comforting to be able to write even in the mild chaos our lives are in at the moment.

If you were in Ian's path, I pray you are okay.  If you weren't, please continue to pray for those of us who were.  

Are you receiving my newsletter?  If not, I'd love it if you did.  Check out the left-hand side of this page to sign up and receive a FREE short story as a way of saying thanks.

To show you some of what Ian did, I've included two pictures of my poor rosebushes.  I'm hoping we can save them.

Until next time.  Be safe, everyone!

Life on the bike path...

 As I type this, I am STILL dealing with an eye infection, though my pressures have gone down.  This meant I needed to get an antibiotic ointment to treat them with and it is not cheap and not covered by insurance.  Such is life...

My short story collection of Bible stories "Seeking Refuge and Other Bible Stories" is available as an ebook and a paperback.  This collection contains five stories from the Bible that I have added some "What if?" things to (For example: "Seeking Refuge" tells of a man going to a City of Refuge for protection.  While the cities are mentioned, someone taking advantage of them is not).  I would love you to read them and tell me what you think (ebook cover image below).

It's hard to believe it's mid-September already.  Hope things are going well for you and yours.  Until next time!