2/28/2022 0 Comments Planning AheadWriting a novel requires planning. I have spent a month outlining a new novel. Now I can begin fleshing it out and doing the actual writing. I have been a home gardener as long as I've been a writer. Gardening is an activity that teaches you lessons applicable to the rest of your life. Patience, Perseverance. Experimentation. And Planning. I ordered seeds for my future vegetable garden. One experiment is trying new varieties of jalapeno peppers. I didn't grow enough last season to can. I have a few in my freezer, but my goal in 2022 is to have an overabundance worth pulling the canning equipment out of the closet.. Last year's garden provided green beans and tomatoes - enough to carry us through to next season. My husband was between contracts during peak gardening season, and took an interest in the vegetables and flowers. The more beans you pick, the more the vines produce. Or so it seems. Pole beans, unique varieties of tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers are part of our future garden plans. I also hope to improve our beet production, and push indoor starts for eggplants and cucumbers to produce earlier in the season. My husband is sprouting marigolds indoors. We're going to try starting pots of flowers indoors for earlier blooms in our short growing season. In the writing world, I have ambitious plans for three novels. I can't possibly finish three books in one year, but I can lay the groundwork for each, and complete at least one. Whatever your 2022 goals are, begin with a little planning. I hope you enjoy a bumper crop of success!
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2/21/2022 0 Comments Doubloon JeopardyI received my author copies for Doubloon Jeopardy. I'm thrilled with the vibrantly colored cover art. The cozy mystery novel is part of a series available here. I had so much fun writing this novel. I like the stylized fictional pirates of literature and movies. Writing a story where I could play with real versus fictional pirates, and include pirate dialect, was a blast. This is the description on the Annie's Fiction website: As the townspeople of Crescent Harbor, California, prepare for the inaugural Pirate Days festival, excited tourists clad in pirate attire descend on the charming village. Local legend claims a pirate landed there and buried his treasure. Scarlett McCormick, head curator of the esteemed Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology, is pressured to validate the legend or face a mutiny. Scarlett plans special exhibits at the museum to coincide with the event, and she stops at a pumpkin patch for autumn decorations. The errand takes a disturbing turn when she finds a dead man dressed like a pirate. Dead men tell no tales, so it’s up to Scarlett and her friends to learn the truth. The discovery of an ancient cutlass and gold doubloons supports the man’s connection to the pirate festival. But the cause of his demise remains unclear. Was it an accident or murder? While Scarlett investigates the death and the artifacts, she unwittingly becomes a target. Will she solve the mystery before she’s forced to walk the plank? 2/17/2022 0 Comments Honesty2/15/2022 0 Comments What Are Pantsers and Plotters?In the fiction writing world, a battle rages between Pantsers and Plotters. Learn what the brouhaha is all about in my article appearing on the Pikes Peak Writers blog here. 2/8/2022 0 Comments Library Reading ClubI have envied children and their library reading clubs. They earn prizes for reading books. Being a dedicated reader my entire life, I would have liked a little recognition for my motivation. Finally, my moment has arrived. The Pikes Peak Library now offers an adult reading program. "Join us for this year's Winter Adult Reading Program: Ocean of Possibilities "From Tue., Feb. 1 - Thu., March 31, 2022 log 30 days of activities to earn prizes! Activities include attending any of PPLD's virtual programs, anything listed under the activities section below, and reading for 30 minutes or more a day." Thirty minutes reading a day? I've got that covered! Now to collect my prizes... 1/31/2022 0 Comments Indoor GardeningYes, the days are slowly getting longer, but we are far from outdoor gardening season. I am already perusing the seed catalogs. Spring can't come soon enough. To lift my sagging spirits, I tended to my indoor garden - houseplants. Some plants readily root when a cutting is placed in water. I planted several-week-old cuttings in pots. My African violet looked crowded. I planned to repot it. To my amazement, there were three plants in the pot! When did that happen? I broke them apart and gave each one its own pot. My husband threw a handful of marigold seeds in a pot as an experiment. They have sprouted and look terrific. Now the question is, how are we going to make room for all the new additions to our plant family? 1/24/2022 0 Comments Smiles on the TrailPeople share happy little surprises on walking trails and in parks to make others smile. I leave painted rocks in place when I find them, unless I have one of my own to replace them. I also randomly release my little works of art into the wild, to make someone else smile. Here are recent sightings. My granddaughter found the fairy, and moved it to a new hiding place. The seal is an anomaly, found in the middle of the trail. Too funny not to include.
1/17/2022 0 Comments Wind TurbineThe sight of a wind farm is stunning. Dozens, or even hundreds, of towering wind turbines dot the landscape. Gigantic white blades spin slowly in the wind. I'm researching wind turbines for a future novel in a new series. I learned something truly interesting. Sweden built the first wooden wind turbine in 2020. It's the first modern design using wood. One concern about the steel tower currently in use is the environmental and financial cost of manufacturing and transporting the materials. Wood is a renewable resource. Humans are wonderfully inventive. I expect solar and wind energy technology to improve over the next decades. Both industries are still in their infancy. What we see now as the be all and end all design may seem primitive some day. On the other hand, I still see plenty of the old windmills on Western ranches, pumping water from wells. And in the Netherlands, windmills are still used to drain water from the lowlands. 1/11/2022 1 Comment Doubloon Jeopardy - New ReleaseDoubloon Jeopardy has a cover! The Annie's Publishing series Museum of Mysteries is now available. My contribution is the third novel in the series. Scarlett McCormick discovers a body in a pumpkin patch. The dead man is dressed like a pirate. The entire town of Crescent Harbor has pirate fever as it prepares for their first annual Pirate Days celebration. The mayor pressures Scarlett to affirm the legend that pirate treasure is buried in the small California coastal town. Scarlett needs proof before she'll risk her reputation as head curator of the Reed Museum of Art and Archeology. Can Scarlett solve the mystery of the body in the pumpkin patch? Are an ancient cutlass and gold doubloons connected to his murder? When she becomes a target, Scarlett fears someone must think she has figured out the case. Join Scarlett and her friends in this fun cozy mystery! 1/1/2022 0 Comments 2022 BeginsPeople are cynical about the prospects of a bright new year, and rightly so. Our optimism that "next year will be better" has been shattered since the pandemic began. I have reason for optimism this time around. Not for any political or financial reasons. Our trajectory in those arenas seems destined to go off the rails again, in a flaming train wreck. My optimism is based on waking to snow. Folks living in wetter climates may loath winter snow for its depressing frequency. In Colorado, we celebrate every flake. Many areas of the state haven't had significant moisture in months. Finally, January 1st, we are getting snow on the Front Range. Maybe 2022 will really be a bright new year. Happy New Year! |
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