Forgive me for word-playing on the title of one of my favorite books, Love in the Time of Cholera , but Gabriel García Márquez won’t mind. I’ve finished my book titled we are but WARRIORS (No initial caps), even created the cover (posted) and formatted the paperback. Clap, clap. My problem is I’m not sure what I want to do with it. I’ve self-published nine mystery/thriller/suspense novels. All at one time or another have been an Amazon bestseller, one was a Kindle Scout winner. I haven’t published a new book in almost two years. I’ve worked on my current novel off and on for a few years, mainly because there are political aspects that I felt might change, so I picked it up and put it down, over and over again. Now it’s finished. Do I want to go my usual route, try for an agent, or send it to a publisher that doesn’t require an agent? Would I be wasting my time with the two latter possibilities? If I choose one of the latter two, why? Is it for the validation a self-published book...

As writers, we always say something like, "Man, I wish I had time to write. If I did, nothing would stop me." What happens when, oh, a medical pandemic arises, forcing you to stay in place? Crickets. And for many of us, no writing. Although I see a plethora of memes every day telling me that I need to hustle hard and that I'm a slacker if I'm not using this time to grind and write, overall, I have not practiced self-loathing over not writing a book a day during this pandemic. I've been doing some writing--on social media, and I've been an editing queen, but for the most part, I've used this time to develop another talent: designing digital products to help keep people organized and "planned-up." This talent has morphed into a new Etsy shop, #HUGSlove Studios . For the shop, I create digital planners, planner pages, and stickers. I've created journals for writing self-care love notes and for journaling your coffee- and...

Since I work with words in the day job as well as in my fiction endeavors, there are times when I get tired of them all spinning nonstop in my head. This is especially true in these days of hunkering down "in place," and trying to live the "new normal"— which is constantly shifting and anything but normal!  When I need to escape, I go for a walk. I don't go far, usually just around my VERY suburban neighborhood. (I occasionally walk downtown, but that ends up stressing me out since so many folks seem to think the "new normal" equates to "let's just pretend this whole pandemic thing doesn't exist.")  To calm my jibbering, always-in-overdrive mind, I walk, try to erase words from my mind, and photograph what I see. In other words(!!), I take a short, nonverbal holiday and focus on the visual gifts the everyday world has to offer. Here's a sample of the sort of images I take: You can view the photos I ta...

Here in the U.S. we're heading into roughly week 20 of the COVID-19 pandemic, if counted from the first confirmed case in Seattle on January 20,2020. Since then, lives around the world have been in turmoil after the pandemic was officially named on March 11, 2020. People are finding their own ways to cope, or not cope so well as the case may be, and here at the BRP, some of us will be sharing how we are dealing with the day-to-day challenges. But first a little digression. I've always been an idealist and an optimist, but in recent weeks I'm finding it harder and harder to cling to any positive energy. Back in mid-March, when I thought this was only going to be an inconvenience for a few weeks, I armed myself with my idealism and strength of character and was ready to battle through whatever was thrown my way. But here we are in mid-July, and between the pandemic, the social unrest, the joke that is politics right now, and my own health problems, I feel like that old tr...

What marvelous fiction are you reading to help you get through the world pandemic?

All month we've shared our favorite hacks and gadgets, and I admit I've watched closely to see if any grabbed my particular interest. I've tried a few gadgets and apps in the past few years, but none have held my attention for very long. As the days of March passed, I realized that next to my laptop, the one gadget I use most is my Kindle Fire. Of course, I use it for the obvious reason - to buy ebooks! My most recent acquisition was this book by Becky Clark. It's an engaging and helpful read, and I'll probably review it here soon. Eight Weeks to a Complete Novel I don't just read ebooks from Amazon though. I soon discovered the Overdrive collection at my library, so now do most of my reading and research by checking out e-Library books. I love their format, and the fact that I can read online or download to the Kindle. And I can make recommendations for the library to add new books, including the latest from my blog team. Recently the library added Ann ...