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Sheltering in Place – Day after day after day
Today I baked a cake, a banana cake to be exact. With cream cheese frosting. Covered with walnuts. Four hours of my life. Standing on my feet most of that time. I’m bringing it to my mother-in-law because she likes it when people make cakes for her. The cake on the left is not mine.…
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Sheltering in Place – Day Who Can Remember
Pickled Penning For the past thirty-eight years, I have been a Mrs. Even though I held a job, actually ran a department at Stanford University, hubby was a hotshot performer. Being with a rock and roll band, a jazz duo, and with other musical skills, he outshone me. That left people always asking, “what’s it…
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Sheltering in Place – Day I Have Lost Count
The Life of a Writer Who isn’t Writing et al Get up late. Or whenever. Have coffee. Stare at desk. Sit at desk. Read emails, answer emails, ponder emails, delete emails. Do internet search for wire brushes re: outdoor grill. Feed Ellie the Cat. Brush Ellie the C. Play with E the C. Watch E…
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Sheltering in Place – Day I Have No Idea
They say A Day Without Writing is Like a Day Without Sunshine. Actually, maybe ‘they’ don’t. Maybe nobody else says that but me. I know I’ve been paraphrasing something or other for so long, I can’t even remember what the original phrase is. A Day Without Wine is a Day Too Sober? Hmmmm. Maybe not.…
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Sheltering in Place – Day Whatever
I think I’ve been given the right name. Heather. I’m a delicate flower and a blooming idiot, often at the same time. It’s the perfect name for me. But I wonder about a lot of people who have weirder names. In school, I used to know a kid named Graham. Not such a…
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Sheltering in Place – Day Something or Other
When it comes to my writing, I have a fire in the belly. Or maybe it’s acid reflux. It’s hard to tell sometimes. All I know is I finished writing Casting Call for a Corpse, Book 7 of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, on Sunday night and now I’m itching to start the next novel. …
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Sheltering in Place – Day 77
I am mad at Mailchimp. And don’t try to talk me out of it. Mailchimp! Aaaaaargh! Why oh why must they keep changing things? It’s not that they’re making it easier or better for the user. No, it’s just they seem to like moving stuff from here to there. Why do the people that work…
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Sheltering in Place – Day 76
Getting to know a person — even a fictitious one — takes time, thought, energy, trial and error. Sometimes they get pissed off and you don’t know why. Sometimes they laugh when you think they should cry. You thought they’d like bagels in the morning but they don’t. A living, breathing character, even one on…
Latest from the Blog
Winner of Best Cozy Mystery 2021, BIBA
When cousin JJ’s husband goes missing on an archaeological dig in the middle of ancient Mayan ruins, the Alvarez Family springs into action and heads for Guatemala’s El Mirador Basin. Even though ace detective Lee Alvarez tries not to go anywhere she can’t plug in her hot rollers, she can’t help but follow the clues in a foreign land filled with earthquakes, wild animals, deadly gods, stolen artifacts, villains, and yuk! snakes. But can she find the missing man? Or will she, too, become another casualty of this alien world, beautiful but deadly?
Learn more or get the book on Amazon
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