Wow, the month of May slid by and here I sit, looking back and wondering what happened to all that time. Time seems particularly slippery during these shelter-in-place months. Back in March, I thought I would get so much done . Let's just say it didn't work out as I'd planned. Time doesn't stop while sheltering in place. Image by xaviandrew from Pixabay As I write this, my mind wanders to various musical pieces that have to do with the passage of time. The first few songs that come to mind are some personal favorites: George Harrison's All Things Must Pass   Simon and Garfunkle's A Hazy Shade of Winter   The Beatles' A Day in the Life   Pink Floyd's Time   Oh, let's not forget As Time Goes By  from the movie Casablanca . This leads me to wonder if there might be lists of songs that have "time" as a theme or element. Time for research! Here's some of what I found (the first two lists have embedded YouTube videos so...

Covid-19 has, if not forced, then inspired us to find new ways to fill our at-home time. There are a lot of things I need to do, like clean out closets and drawers, but I just don’t have the energy to do that. Besides, I’ll wear that sweater again sometime. I’m sure I will. That style is making a comeback. I’ve always used the library, whether for audios when I take a trip or books to read at home that I don’t have to buy to fill my already overflowing bookcases. I have books I’ve bought through the years that I haven’t yet read, but I love my Kindle and prefer reading on it. Now the library has become the go-to place to read books by downloading from Overdrive. My library gives us fourteen days to read our chosen work. My friend and I have been storming through Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series. Fortunately, there are eighteen books in the series. A couple of the early books aren’t available to download from Amazon on my Kindle because of their format, but I’ve been abl...

With shelter-in-place orders in effect, many of us have more time than usual on our hands. This is yet another example of the way time rules our lives from the moment of birth until we draw our last breath. Each day, it dictates the frame in which we must work or play or laugh or cry or engage in any activity to get the most (or the least) from that fixed period. Some might say time imprisons us. Others may argue it sets us free. We all have perceptions of time based on our needs, our experiences, our views of life. My view of time has changed dramatically over the  years. For example, it now differs significantly from when I was six months old. At that age, clocks and days meant nothing. I could express my hunger or frustration or discomfort equally well at 2 a.m. or 2 p.m., or any time in between. It was simply time to eat, time for a diaper change, time for comfort, time for relief from my bellyache, and so on. At age six years, I entered the time zone. School started a...

I have been in quarantine for months, both because I am at risk and because I have been ill (but no proof it is COVID). Luckily, we are "retired," so there is nowhere we have to be other than doctor appointments (telehealth now), and the pharmacy. I have to give props to all of the books, movies, and streaming stories for keeping me sane. I read the entire Poldark saga books. Reread all of Anna Huber's The Anatomist's Wife series. Several Carol Goodman books. Cinda Chima Williams fantasy Seven Realms and Shattered Realms series, Deanna Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series, and the Ash Princess series by Laura Sebastian just to name a few. TV series are too many to list.  As I wrote about in Story Building Blocks: The Four Layers of Conflict , most stories follow a comforting, expected flow. There are variations on the theme but they go something like this: A problem presents, characters are forced to do something about it. Things go wrong, creating new...

I hope everyone is staying safe and keeping well. My thoughts go out to all those on the front lines (and their loved ones) putting themselves at risk of infection to help others, and also to anyone who has been affected first hand by the virus. Image by Ryan Richie , via Flickr For some, staying safe at home has meant hitting pause on many of their usual day-to-day activities, and I know that some of my own friends have had to come up with novel ways to keep busy (i.e., entertain themselves) without leaving the house. But, for me, the past few months have passed in a blur as I have raced against the clock to publish my latest book, The Convoluted Key - while at the same time (like many other parents during this Covid-19 pandemic) finding myself unexpectedly and unpreparedly pitched into the role of homeschooling mother and children's personal assistant (and trying to avoid allowing my children's daily dose of screen time to increase by too much). Request an advanc...

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of."                      Poor Richard’s Almanac June 1746 Pixabay So here we are, many of us reluctant to get out in the world even if government and/or health officials are relaxing restrictions on retail stores and personal care services (with proper masks and social distancing, of course). I’m one of the reluctant ones, being of a certain age and all. Others, perhaps younger and anxious to get back to work, or living alone and feeling the stress of isolation, or even just eager to get a haircut and color, crave the freedom to get out of their homes and get on with life. Can we have both safety and freedom? I do hope so, but when I see large numbers of people out and about, a shoulder-touch apart and no masks, I get scared. I’m afraid that belligerence will come back and bite people in the form of COVID-19. I don’t want to be one of them...