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

Coming up with crazy ideas is typically not difficult for me. Now I'm working with a writer on several new projects. This writer is my daughter, and she is even better at generating crazy ideas than me.

On a recent trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, we both had an "aha" moment at the same time.

In our YA Sci Fi / fantasy novel, we have a silkie chicken character. If you've never seen one, I challenge you to look at a photo of the bird, then compare it to this photo of a mesolite crystal we saw at the museum.

In a future book, we have an idea for a predicament into which to place our silkie chicken. 

​Watch for future announcements about Five Palms, book one in the Tapestry Tales series.

Having a favorite dinosaur isn't just for children. My favorite is the Triceratops. The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has a wonderful fossil skull. 

On a recent trip to the museum with my daughter and two adult granddaughters, I realized how much I miss this kind of outing. We didn't have enough time to see everything.

The dioramas of taxidermied wildlife were not a favorite, although I did enjoy seeing a stuffed platypus. That might be the closest I ever get to a real one.

One granddaughter wanted to see the mineral collection. The other enjoyed the space displays. Those two areas were where we spent the most time.

We'll be going back soon. The Angkor, Cambodia exhibition will be opening later this month.

How much do I like the Triceratops? A fossil Triceratops is featured on the cover of book three in my Rock Shop Mystery series, Stone Cold Blooded. A missing brow horn spurs a mystery in a Colorado mountain town.

What inspired my early fiction? What is my newest novel about?
I chatted about both with Pamela Thibodeaux on her Wild Rose blog 

Re-reading a favorite novel is like visiting an old friend. There's a comfort level similar to sipping a hot cup of tea on a cold day. 

Why read an old favorite when there are so many new novels? That is a problem. "Too many books, not enough time" is true. Most of us have "real life" to attend to, cutting into our reading time.

Reader Lisa Varner rediscovered the classics, but also the value of rereading. "Most of us don’t need convincing that we ought to read more excellent books, but I suspect fewer of us have experienced just how deeply moving it may be to reread a title that we loved in the past, as well as to reread those whose impact we missed before." The Precious Value of Rereading Books.

Not all novels stand up to re-reading. For me, the complexity of the plot, clever wordplay, or engaging characters can bring me back for a second read. Even though you know what's coming, you might notice new details. Or you wish to simply return to a delightful world, whether a small town, fantasy setting, or historical era.

I recently re-read Malice (Detective Kaga #1) by Keigo Higashino. The plots in Higashino's detective novels have unexpected twists and turns, and I enjoy "visiting" modern Japan when I read his books.

Typically though, if I reread a novel, it's classical literature. Moby Dick was an assigned reading in college. I needed to reread it at a more leisurely pace, to truly enjoy the novel. I've reread Jane Eyre, and I'm returning to Jane Austen's world with Pride and Prejudice. My husband hasn't read The Lord of the Rings, so I am rereading it aloud when we go on long drives.

One benefit of the classics is living for moments in times free from modern clamor. No cell phones. No social media doom-scrolling. Reading slows the pace of life.

What novels have you reread? Did they hold up a second time?

​Let's get this year going!

My energy has returned, post-cold. I was in a fog the first couple weeks of 2025. One day, there even was a thick fog blanketing all of the outdoors, matching my brain's interior malfunctioning. That has passed. One day I woke up, and it was like a reset button had been punched.

What's on the agenda? 

This being January in Colorado, lots more miserably cold weather. Deceitful days where the sun shines boldly, but the temperatures are arctic. Gardeners will persist in planning for a spring we're optimistic will return, as it does every year. We'll soon be perusing seed catalogs, visiting gardening centers, and preparing trays for seedlings.

Writing projects include a series my daughter and I are creating, with a hoped for release date in 2026. We've completed the YA, but need to think about how we want to pursue publication. I'm writing book 4 in the Rose Creek series, while waiting to hear the fate of book 3. The Body in the Cattails, book 1, is slated to be released in mass market paperback format by Harlequin this summer. I'm also trying to get back to short stories. Maybe shoot for writing two a year.

I don't know how my husband's imminent retirement will affect my schedule. He has a long to-do list he placed on hold in anticipation of quitting the day job. We've pulled up our Bucket List. Or maybe it's more appropriate to call it a No Regrets list, of things we want to do, and places we want to visit, while good health and finances still allow. Our kids and grandkids want to plan camping trips with us. While I love to write fiction, I might have to ration out my time more carefully later in 2025.

I plan to attend two writers' conferences this spring. Left Coast Crime is in Denver this year, so I have no excuse to skip it. And of course I'll be at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. 

Sharing my completed book reads is a goal this year. Not necessarily as recommendations. I don't want to task myself with reviewing. Just to share what I've enjoyed reading. To keep myself going. I hope to stretch my reading tastes a bit. More history and biography. Some mainstream and literary crossovers. As well as cozy mysteries and my new interest, romantic suspense.

Keep walking and running. The accursed cold knocked me off my fitness schedule, and I need to get back into routine. I have a treadmill, so the aforementioned bad weather is no excuse.

At the same time, I want to pace myself. Take more moments to smell the flowers and notice the sunset. Time is precious. I want to be mindful about how I spend the minutes, hours, and days I'm given. 

How is your 2025 going? Have you experienced setbacks? I encourage you to take a moment to breathe. Clear your head. Hit your own reset button. Then dive back in with renewed energy.