I started seeds back in March. I am behind on sharing my 2025 gardening adventures. This is my first gardening post of the 2025 season.

I no longer use the small pots for starting seeds. The plants seem too prone to going leggy or getting root rot. I use larger 4 inch starter pots, and then transplant when they've outgrown those.

A nice, thick, ball of roots is what I'm hoping develops. This tomato held the dirt together when I removed it from the original pot.

​Another change I'm experimenting with this year is leaving the grow lights on 24 hours a day.

I am not rushing to put delicate plants outside. As you can see in the photo below, we're still getting snow. Sure, gardeners can push the season back by covering plants with all sorts of clever tents and tubes of water, but I've got too many writing projects going to expend that much energy on the garden.

The project my daughter and I have been working on for a long time is finally coming to fruition! We hope to announce the release date soon. I've been talking about this YA novel for a while, under a different title.

Name changes: First, my high school student  granddaughter decided we needed to call the series The Tapestry Tales. Then the college student granddaughter told us our original title, Five Palms, was lame. And we always pay attention to the opinions of these two young women. They are nearly always right! We now have themed titles for the series and the individual books.

Cover changes: Merida Bass, co-author and artist, has created several iterations of the cover. For a series, the font, art design, and color schemes need to have uniformity. This cover will have meaning for readers, once they dive into the story. And do you notice the TFE badge in the lower right corner?

Book One - Frayed Dreams: Jagrav Mahajan needs his mother’s approval for a cybernetic leg replacement, but she vanished with her Pythagorean cult of mathematical naturalists. Inspired by eco-superhero Breaker, African American high school student Nia Beckett is determined to save the last wild jungle from development. When the teens meet at the crumbling Five Palms Resort, they suspect Breaker is there on a mission of her own. What none of them realize is that Ando the squirrel monkey's powerful Talent is growing with every passing moment.

After doing research, we realized most YAs seem to be heavy on dystopia, angst, and romance. Our story fits the lighter tone of Ready Player One, which is definitely a dystopian world, but has welcome helpings of humor. Our teens are disconnected from the Tapestry, and exposed to the natural world with no buffer of mind-filling entertainment - or control.

This is our experiment in Indy publishing. I have dozens of reasons for going this route with this project. Merida is determined we should do as much of the work ourselves as possible. She has taken on the lion's share of the publishing research, and is doing all the artwork and graphic art.

I'll announce the release date soon. We intend to follow-up swiftly with book two in the Tapestry Tales series, Broken Threads.​

Day 3 of Left Coast Crime 2025, I was still high energy. 

After the breakfast buffet, I attended the Reader's Panel. It's always a good idea for writers to hear from readers. The panel discussed what appeals to them, and how they discover their next favorite reads.

After that I listened to the Senior Sleuths panel. A common theme was that the senior characters are often underestimated by other characters. Another thread was that as the population ages, there will be more senior sleuths included in mysteries.

The third slot of the day, I was on the Mysteries with Animals panel. We had a lively discussion of the whys and hows of including animals in our stories. I mentioned a series by author Shirley Rousseau Murphy with a point of view character that is a talking cat: Joe Gray. One audience member responded enthusiastically. Another Joe Gray fan - yay! The controversial question of cats versus dogs came up. I jumped right into that one! I'm definitely a cat person, although I don't currently have a kitty in my life.

After lunch, I attended the Changing World of Cozies. The authors all agreed that covers mean a lot. The traditionally published have little to no influence over their book covers. Both Trad and Indy authors emphasized the importance of key words and description to enable readers to find their novels.

During the conference, I had pushed myself to have hallway conversations, and to actually speak to people at breakfast and on breaks in the hospitality room. My Turtle Power was waning. I was ready to withdraw into my shell. Three days of crowds, noise, and socializing had taken a toll on my introverted nature.

By the time we headed to the Saturday evening banquet, I was pretty thoroughly exhausted and peopled out. Then I saw fellow Type M for Murder blogger, author Charlotte Hinger. She had just learned she was up for a Spur Award from Western Writers of America! Charlotte is a finalist in the Best Western Contemporary Novel category for her book, Mary’s Place, published by Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press. Excitement over her achievement buoyed me up for a bit, but I had to leave the banquet early. Turtle Power was fully depleted.

Home again, we had two big social events in close succession. Argh. Good times, but poorly spaced. Now I am entering full turtle recharge mode. It's time to withdraw fully into my shell and work on my fiction projects!

My novel The Body in the Cattails was inspired by a "what if" moment. The thick tangle of riparian growth seemed the ideal place for a body to escape notice. Until a clever cat makes a horrifying discovery. 

Cattails grow along creeks flowing through the greenways in town. For the past couple years, I've been paying close attention to their lifecycle.

Cattails, of the genus Typha, are a tall plant that grows in marshy areas. Their most noticeable characteristic is the  brown fuzzy "tail" that forms on a spike.

In spring, green, grassy-looking growth pushes up from the creek banks. Later, the "tails" form. By fall, the tails go to seed, looking like a startled cat's tail puffing. The fluff is distributed by the wind, creating new growth.

In the winter, cattails aren't too impressive. Like most everything else, they're brown and dried up. It's just part of the lifecycle. I'm anxiously waiting for the first green blades to push up out of the old cattails.
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 In the meantime, here are some photos of cattails in their various stages.

A large part of what made the conference a valuable experience was the opportunity to catch up with other authors, and to meet readers and librarians. The second day of Left Coast Crime 2025 began with a nice breakfast buffet, and more panels. 
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At dinner Friday, I was delighted to meet up with fellow Encircle Publications authors. We talked business and future projects. Each is a multi-published and accomplished writer. Mike Befeler has written twenty-five novels, beginning with his Paul Jacobson geezer lit series. BJ Magnani is the author of a four book Dr. Lily Robinson series, Drawing on her expertise as a toxicologist and pathologist. CM Wendelboe is a retired deputy and Marine, and the author of over twenty books, including several Western series.

The Sisters in Crime carnival Friday night was a blast! My co-author daughter and I told our husbands we got arrested in Denver, then received prison tattoos. The photographic evidence is in the gallery below. Plus pics of the five panels I attended Friday.

I was fully out of my shell, and behaving very un-turtle like. Having a room at the conference in which to retreat was essential.

After surviving my participation in the wild and crazy Author Speed Dating at LCC 2025, I plunged into the Thursday panels.

I made a full day of it, going to a panel during every time slot available. It was difficult to decide which panels to choose.

First up, I attended A Touch of Romance, where authors spoke about how they folded a little romance into their mystery novels.

Next, I went to Crime in Colorado. What true crime tales have made their way into fiction?

Behind the Badge: Writing Authentic Police Procedurals held my attention. I don't attempt writing police procedural novels, and admire those who have the real life experience, or the ability to do the research, to make them factually accurate.

The final panel I saw Thursday, Animal Sidekicks, was especially interesting because I use animal characters in most of my stories. Authors who write cats, dogs, or other animals into their novels always seem so fun!

A conference isn't just about the organized activities. Some of the best moments Thursday were meeting new readers, authors, and librarians in the hallways or in the author, author! bookstore. This was only the beginning of a long weekend.

For a person who prefers solitude, attending a conference is a challenge. Spending three and a half days surrounded by writers and readers at Left Coast Crime 2025 stretched my turtle nature to the max.

It began early Thursday morning when my daughter / co-author and I left our homes before dawn, and drove together to Denver. I needed to be on time.

Speed Dating for Authors is a frenetically paced event. Each table seats ten people: two authors and eight readers. The readers remain in their seats, while the authors pitch their novels, then move to the next table. 

The room was noisy, with over a hundred eager readers. Authors were given two minutes to pitch their stories. Most handed out bookmarks, and some gifted people with swag bags. My swag included two bookmarks featuring my two book series, two pieces of candy, and two cat stickers. When one series always has a cat on the book cover, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with cat-themed swag.

I teamed up with my friend and author Jeff Schmoyer. He pitched his Snack-Sized Mystery series. Watching reader reactions to his clever spiel, I gained a good idea of what caught attention - and laughs - in the midst of forty other authors.

The hosts of this crazy party rang a cowbell to let us know when our two minute pitch began and ended, and when to shift to a new table. I appreciated how some folks paid rapt attention. Others checked their phones or pawed through their growing pile of swag while we were speaking. Ah well, can’t win ‘em all. The folks who seemed eager to listen, and better yet asked questions, made it worthwhile.

We were all - authors and readers - pretty well worn out by the end of the two hours. It felt a little like running a mid-length foot race.

After a lunch break with Jeff, Deborah Brewer, and my daughter Merida Bass, I was somewhat recharged and ready to dive into attending panels.

I was glad for breaks, when I could retreat into my turtle shell (hotel room) for a few minutes.

Coming up - panels.

I'll be posting more later. For now, I can report I survived the conference. I was happy to share experiences with other attendees who poked their heads out of their turtle shells. One strategy everyone shared was giving themselves breaks. Go for a walk, rest in their hotel room, or hang out in the hospitality room. 

I'm home, exhausted, and ready to apply all I learned.

Sometimes, you just need to take a break.

Last weekend, I went for a hike all by myself. I was able to clear my head, get exercise hiking a trail, and saw the most amazing wildlife.

If I hadn't taken a break, I wouldn't have seen the herd of big horn sheep that frequent the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

I am refreshed, and ready to dig back into work. Two projects are in the final polishing stage, two are in the drafting phase, and one short story needs revision.

Plus, later this week, I'm attending Left Coast Crime 2025. Lots of peopling will be happening, so I'm grateful for my nature time. 

Okay, a spacewoman. More correctly, an astronaut. How does that saying go? Not everyone gets to be an astronaut? Maybe that won't be true in the near future, when civilians can travel in space like we currently buy tickets to fly on airplanes.

I saw this at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Whenever I see images of astronauts, or in this case, an entire spacesuit, I catch a song virus.

Harry Nilsson Spaceman (1972) www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdZhnK8DLns