Happy Friday! We're nearing the end of February, if you can believe it! Sometimes I think this year is going by fast. February is a mixed bag of emotions for me. Early February marks my eldest's birthday, which is a good thing. One of my siblings has a wedding anniversary. Another good thing. Two family members (a sibling and a cousin) have birthdays. (I think other relatives have birthdays this month, too, but I can't remember). Some friends have birthdays. More good things. Unfortunately, my friend, Sarah's death anniversary is also in February. So, while I like Valentine's Day okay, and I'm totally on board with celebrating birthdays and anniversaries, always in the back of my head is February 20th. That's the day Sarah died. This year marked 10 years, which felt big. I couldn't figure out why it felt big, but one of my counselors said "It IS a big one." Leading up to February 20, 2023, I did have several bouts of tears. But none on the ac...

  Happy January (about 30 days late)! Happy New Year! Can you believe it's a brand-new year, and 2023? So much happened last year. Some good, some hard, some not-so-good. I often get a mixed bag; although, some of it I hope never happens again. Good and bad often happen every year, though. January has been busy. Family stuff, mostly. Nothing bad, just as I said, busy. My eldest is getting older and had an overnight trip. I was a worried Mama, but Eldest was fine, of course. Eldest had fun at this camp for 2 nights. It was weird having Eldest gone for longer than a night, but I reminded myself that one day Eldest would become an adult and be out there in the world doing whatever Eldest decides to do with life. Kinda a spooky thought, all things considered, but parents do have to help their offspring grow up. I'm querying one of my manuscripts and have about 4-5 WIPs in various stages of being written. There are about 2-3 main ones that I'm focusing most of my attention on at...

  Happy Wednesday All, Surprise! I'm actually posting BEFORE the end of the month! Imagine that. 😊 I think my part of Texas is confused about what season it is. We were having some cooler temperatures and then all of a sudden it decided to go up again. Now, that's relatively normal in a sense for us, but what is curious is that the tree in my backyard decided it wasn't winter, but FALL! All these colored leaves are covering my backyard. I looked around and thought "Guess the plants and trees are confused as to what season it is. Can't blame them since the weather is, too!" December is quieter so far than September through November were and I am NOT complaining about that. In September, my father suffered a bad fall and consequently there was a whole lot of stress. October saw my folks move out of their home of over 30 years into Assisted Living. When November came along, me and my family had a stomach bug. The very beginnings of December was the tail-end of m...

  Happy Monday All, Also, Happy All Hallow's Eve aka Halloween! I meant to write an October post earlier this month, but there were things going on in my real life that made it so I just didn't get to it. I'm doing okay--just a lot going on in my real life. But doesn't everybody usually? October also means my birthday, which I celebrated by going over to my parents' house. Dad had a fall in September, so it was nice to see him making so much progress and doing so much better. I told them that since they had such an integral part of me coming into existence that it seemed appropriate that I'd come over for a visit. We had a lot of fun. It was simple, small, and just right for me. My parents gave me a beautiful card that touched my heart (I got teary!) and I got some other cards and gifts from my siblings. My husband got me Chinese food for dinner a couple of days before since I was going to be at my folks' house on my actual birthday. I can't complain. It...

Happy Thursday and September! Somehow it feels like the months are going by faster. I'm not sure why I feel that way--maybe I've just been super occupied while things were happening. In my personal life there has been plenty going on--from being a mom, to a wife, to my family-of-origin stuff, there has been several things happening. Some good things, some hard, some okay--basically life. As far as my writing life is concerned, I've formed a private writer's group with 2 other authors. They're super encouraging and it's fun to be a part of a writer's group again. I hadn't decided what I wanted to do as far as joining one, so this is perfect for me at this time. I've been doing some writing (I've got like what is it, 3 WIPs--Works In Progress--right now? I don't work on all of them at the same time--I just go with whatever one I'm in the mood for or have ideas I want to add. Normally I don't work this way, but right now it's working...

  Happy June Everyone! I hope your May went well. My husband had to take 4 trips up to Springdale, Arkansas to clean out and sell his father's house, so that was a lot. He's fine now and the papers to sell the house have been signed, so that's good. I've recently pulled up an unfinished manuscript of mine and have been reading through the 80 or 82 pages of what I had already written. I've edited what I've read so far for a preliminary edit, and think there might be something here. We'll see. There are some new releases that have piqued my interest. I don't normally pick up mid-grade novels (although, I have read several over the course of my life) but my author friend, Tom Phillips has his debut coming out on June 7th, so I've been watching the countdown with great interest. Another author friend of mine, Cheyanne Young has a new contemporary YA, releasing, too. Plus, there always seems to be more novels releasing, too. I'm sometimes slow to ge...

  Happy Monday and Happy May! April was full of many things...including going up to Springdale, Arkansas to lay my father-in-law to rest. I didn't know him very well, but being up there with my husband and kids, I got to learn a little more about him. I knew he'd loved his wife to the very end of her life, but what I didn't know was how much. Several pictures had the caption "My beautiful wife..." and then a description of the picture. In the living room and his room, the walls were full of pictures of her and of their wedding. He had several of them framed. In all of them he looked happy (she looked happy, too, just in case y'all wondered). So I got to see more of his devotion to her. My mother-in-law died some years ago from Alzheimer's. By the time I met my husband and we were getting married, she was already pretty far along (although we did talk a tiny bit about her rose garden--which the flowers in their yard were lovely). They're now buried toge...

  Happy Monday Everyone! It's MARCH! Can you believe February is already over? I meant to make this blog post earlier than now, but I was busy with editing, and life, so I had to put the post on hold. Editing is currently done, so I've got some time to post. So let's see... Lent has begun, which was punctuated for me by Ash Wednesday. I like to go to church to receive ashes. It was nice. I had my offspring with me--which meant a bit of adventure, but we managed okay. The Author Encounter is gearing up for its 2nd Annual Authors March Forward events. A little smaller than last year, but still exciting. Watch TAE website and social media for more information. (I'm looking forward to it, as I do all our events because they're informative and fun). I'm not excited about the clocks moving forward on Sunday, March 13th. Losing an hour of sleep, not fun. I'm sure I'll adjust, though. Hopefully I'll have some exciting news in April regarding something that ...

  Happy Friday Everyone! It's February of 2022! February. Let that sink in a moment. February makes me a bit nervous this year. Last year, on February 15th, we lost power and water, got displaced for about 4.5 months (due to water pipe bursting and needing to fix parts of the house). With the talks of winter storms and things, I'm doing a lot of praying for this year not to have another Snowmeggeddon. (Yes, I'm praying for those who DEFINITELY will be dealing with bad parts of the storm, but I'm also praying that we don't have to go through what we did last year). In between all this, I'm editing. My freelance editor, the incredibly helpful Deb Ewing finished all passes on my manuscript and now it's down to me doing the final read-through and little nit-picky things. Deb warned me not to get so hung up that I lose the way my story works, which is a fair point. As a writer, you don't want to poke and prod your work into a oblivion and lose the voice that ...

  Happy Wednesday & Happy December! I hope December 2021 finds all of you well. I can't believe we're already nearing the end of 2021. It feels like the year just started yesterday or something. Who participated in NaNoWriMo2021? I didn't. I don't really do NaNo, but I fully support those who do. If you did participate, I wish you a great word count! If NaNoWriMo something that works for you as an author and/or you enjoy it, then I say go for it! I know people who do Camp NaNoWriMo or other NaNo-like events and they say they actually help them with their writing. Every author is different, so you have to find a process/technique that works for you. I'm working on getting into the Christmas spirit. We're in the process of putting up the tree (have to fix something on the lights so the ornaments aren't on there, yet). I've been playing Christmas Carols and I've almost completed my Christmas shopping. My biggest concern with the cooler weather isn...

  Happy Friday & Happy November! We're clocking in the first week of November if you can believe it! 2021 kinda started slow for me when we had "Snowmeggeddon" in February. Now, it feels like it's going by fast! My editor has sent some of the chapters for my manuscript, and I'm just waiting on the rest. My query letter is written, I figured out a tag line (which I will probably look over again) and I'm working on any polishing that's needed on my synopsis. I've got some other manuscripts in various stages of having started but not finished with the first full draft. I've also got other ideas that play in my head from time to time, so we'll see what happens with all of those. The Author Encounter's Indie Author Day is happening next week (Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12 & 13). Click here for more information on the lineup and tickets . (They're free!) I've started Christmas shopping (I always like to start early so I'm not c...

  Happy Happy Friday! It's been a little while since I updated, and there is plenty to say. :-) 1. I'm free of the sling! Yes, you read that right. No more wearing the sling for my non-displaced shoulder fracture. On Wednesday, Oct. 20th, I had an ortho appointment and the doc said that I didn't have to wear it anymore. I'm working on some physical therapy, which is going okay. My poor arm is stiff! More good news is that I can use my left hand to type, so I'm back to typing with both hands, which is awesome! 2. My mss (manuscript, i.e. story/novel) is with my freelance editor. The editor has my mss. She'd sent some edits back some time ago, which I finally worked on. So, now just waiting for the rest of her notes. 3. My query letter is all ready! It's been critiqued and revised and is now ready to be sent off when everything else is ready to go. 4. My synopsis is almost ready. I've got it out with a proofreader and have already had critique done on it. ...

  Hi Everyone! I've been out of commission/not blogging because I was busy with family and then I had a bit of an accident. In August, I had a slip and fall in one of the rooms in my house. I ended up with a non-displaced fracture in my left shoulder. The important thing is I'm fine. I'm getting better, but I've been in a sling and I've been seeing orthopedic people who are helping me. Right now I only have use of one hand. In fact, I wrote this whole blog post by dictating an email to myself and copying and pasting it onto my blog. So most of my writing and editing has been put on hold for the moment except for some edits that I can do on my own or with help from my husband. I have been able to participate in different things that The Author Encounter is doing, including in September we had Traditional Publishing Day , which was lots of fun. There was a workshop on query letters, we had a couple of indie bookstores do a panel talking about what they sell and how t...

  Happy Thursday! I didn't know I'd do another blog post for July. I wasn't sure I had anything to say, but you know, things happen and suddenly I've got some fun stuff for a blog post! Okay, since I list it first, let me talk discoveries:  I have discovered the existence of UK Actress, singer, author, vlogger, Carrie Hope Fletcher. So, this was completely by accident. She's got a new book release dropping in August (I don't know when it's supposed to be available in the States) that looks interesting. Rather prolific given in a short period of time she has published around 5 books (maybe 6?) and has a new one coming out. Anyway, she has an amazing voice, which gives me chills--hence the reason I wanted to tell you, darling readers, about her voice. I haven't read her work, since I only just learned of her existence, but her upcoming release sounds interesting. In terms of writing, I continue to edit my current WIP (Work In Progress). In any case, I...

  Happy Wednesday All, I can barely believe it's July already! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July American Independence Day. We didn't do very much for it, which was okay. There were plenty of people around us shooting off fireworks for 2 days (late into the night, too). After Texas "Snowmeggeddon" displaced us from our house from February 15th to late June, we're back in our house and things are fixed. We're unpacking boxes from things we had to box up while the contractors were here putting our house back together. We had 2 pipes burst--one in the kitchen, the other around the garage. My kitchen looks so different, but I love how it turned out. We were glad that insurance covered so much of it. While our house was getting help, we lived at my parents' house. We were lucky they're still living in the two-story I spent a lot of my growing-up years in. Except, my old room is now my dad's office so there is no sign of the pink walls anymore. Al...

 The Author Encounter is doing a Blog Hop / Scavenger Hunt! The information is all available right here:  Military appreciation month officially recognized by Congress in May 1999, incorporates many holidays celebrating our women and men in the Armed Forces. Join us for a literary approach to celebrating the soldiers and families that proudly serve and protect our country. Crafting military fiction whether it’s romance, fantasy, mystery, or any other genre mix isn’t easy. Each story has unique challenges. However, creating believable, relatable characters, scenes and plot lines is a goal all authors aspire to no matter how they write. That is why so many authors use tropes to get their creative juices flowing in familiar ways to encourage their readers to fall in love with their stories. What is a trope? Or more specifically what is a military trope? A military trope is a commonplace, recognizable plot element, theme, or visual cue that conveys something about the military...

Happy Tuesday Everyone! Near the end of this month is Memorial Day, and in honor of it The Author Encounter is having a May We Remember Blog/Website scavenger hunt. In talking with my business partner (we're Co-Founders/Co-Owners of The Author Encounter) I got to talking about my grandfather who served in World War II. He was my dad's father, and he was a tall man who went by the nickname "Mickey" (no, I didn't call him that, I just called him Grandpa). My dad doesn't even know why his nickname was Mickey, nothing in his name suggested it (does the name Owen sound like Mickey?) But that's what he was called (apparently, my Grandmother even called him that--but I didn't know her, she died a year before I was born). Anyway, he was an MP (among many other jobs while in the army) and he went all over the place, including Italy. I've often wanted to go to Italy (not during a war, obviously, but on a visit--who knows when or if that will ever happen, bu...

  Happy Wednesday All, I can't believe it's already May! April got away from me and I didn't get to post any other blog posts besides the initial April one. Yikes, I'm sorry! Life continues to be crazy on my end. Our house is much closer to being ready (we have a great contractor!) and we have hopes of being back in our home not next week, but the week after. We'll see. Our contractor is industrious and efficient. He keeps us in the loop and gets things moving. We've been grateful to have someone reliable after the water remission people weren't the most communicative (which is a big reason why it's taking us so long to get back into our house). This weekend is my and my husband's anniversary (I don't give out details on how long we've been married--my husband likes a lot of privacy, so other than a few pictures on here and Facebook, you won't hear a whole lot about him). We've been together for over 10 years, though, and I feel a sen...

  Happy Wednesday! It's April 2021, if you can believe it! I went on a sort of hiatus from blogging because of Texas's "Snowmeggeden" in February. Our house suffered 2 broken pipes and is currently unlivable while we undergo demolition (of moldy/totaled out/drenched) wall, appliances, etc. in our kitchen (one pipe burst in our garage and the other in our kitchen). We also need to replace the carpeting in 2 rooms because of water damage. So we're living at my parents' house while all this is going on and hoping that it finishes, soon. Meanwhile, I continue to conduct The Author Encounter business with my business partner, Nan, and there are many things happening with that. Nan has done a ton of work on the website and continues to work on ways of making the website better and more user-friendly. We filed our LLC after having a "soft-opening" for a year in 2020. You check out everything on the website . My publisher added an addendum (per my request) t...

  Happy New Year Everybody! I hope you're having a wonderful 2021 thus far and that it's full of blessings, health, and happy moments to make it a special year. On New Year's Eve at 2:26 a.m. Central Time, I finished the WIP (Work In Progress) I'd been working on most of the year. I had wanted to finish it a month or so BEFORE December 31st, but life happens. So now it's written! The next step is to edit and then I'll query it out to agents. The Author Encounter has many events planned for 2021 and starting off great with D.C. Gomez's "New Year, New Mindset". While this workshop is mostly professional development for authors, you do not have to be an author to attend it. We're going to get into the harder parts of being an author: Imposter Syndrome, Rejection, Professional Jealousy, and More. It'll be about working through these feelings to a positive end. I've been impressed with what I've learned about D.C. in the time I've go...