Thursday Update with a Twist

Hello friends!

Yesterday I received several private queries on one of my social media sites. One asked about my writing style and how I come up with my ideas. I thought about how often I am asked that question and it’s not something I’ve written much about. I’ve dropped small hints. There is an interview that exists where I explain it a bit, but that went away once the server changed, I think haha. So, I thought that today, I’d talk a little about how I do what I do.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas of your own. I love learning how others come up with their wonderful ideas, and find it fascinating how so many of our brains work so different from one another! And when I say this, I in no way think I’m the best writer. I think I do alright but I think I’m onto something here, at least for me, so here we go!

Everyday life can often fuel fantastical storytelling; even the most mundane thing can create a thread in your mind and leave you with a string of magical ideas, if you allow yourself to be open to it. One thing I often do with my family is come up with the entire life story of a random person we may see on our commute. They get entire names, family life, job descriptions, what they do for fun, and so on and so forth.

Or maybe you come across an old, discarded, filthy doll with one missing eye and only a few tufts of hair, and while thinking about what its history may have been, you can come up with an entire storyline. Something scary, perhaps? Or maybe something sad and heartfelt. Maybe you’ll end up writing the next “Velveteen Rabbit”? Side note; I think the Velveteen Rabbit is one of the most important children’s books in existence.

Or maybe it’s just a phrase. I remember one time I was talking with a musician friend of mine, who writes beautifully I might add, and I don’t remember what it is I said, but right after I spoke my small sentence, he spun it into a beautiful start to a song on the spot. He did nothing with it, but I was really taken aback at how quickly he did that. When I do it, It’s usually a conversation I have with myself in my head and when I can I try to rush to write it down before I forget it too, maybe, be used in a future story.

If you’re not careful, these fleeting moments, these snapshots in your mind, can vanish as quickly as they had appeared. So, if you’re an aspiring writer, or any type of artist, carry something around where you can record what you’ve seen immediately. Whether it’s a notepad, a recorder, perhaps just the camera on your cell phone.... but do it. Because for me, it is personally the best way to come up with ideas. After all, magic often hides itself in plain sight, just waiting to be discovered.

Checking Back In after a Break of Unexpected Events!

Hello everyone!

I apologize for my absence last week. My computer was out of commission while we were basically trying to reorganize our entire house. At this time we are a family of 9 in a four-bedroom home. A lot, right?! Absolutely. I can explain.

I have four adult children. We live in one of the most expensive and top-rated towns in the country. The way we can afford to do this is by splitting rent with my oldest son and his wife, and my youngest son, who is still in college, pays the electric bill. Without this setup, there is no way that we could afford to live here, and we still barely can. Especially with everything going up right now, I think we’re all feeling the pain in our wallets.

Both my son and daughter-in-law work from home. My son is currently helping build a 2D/3D gaming engine called Godot (If anyone is interested–it’s FREE! And people are loving it so far.) My daughter-in-law is an executive for a well-established advertising company. I write and take care of their little baby boy. My husband works in PC repair and, as previously mentioned, my youngest son is a student at SNHU studying software engineering and works at a fast-food restaurant to help pay the bills. Our house has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, but it also has this lovely sunroom, which has been turned into my daughter-in-law’s office.

This past year, my youngest daughter and her 2 children came to stay with us because, to be blunt, she was in an abusive situation in another town about 4 hours away from home. My ex-husband, his girlfriend (Who I adore, btw) and I went up there about half a year ago and brought her here. It’s been a stressful situation on many fronts. And not because my daughter is doing anything wrong, or anyone else in our home for that matter, but it’s a combination of space and noise, as there is a little baby who needs a lot of sleep and a LOT of zoom meetings with clients and staff.

We created a makeshift bedroom in one corner of the living room for my oldest grand, who just turned 12. Weirdly, for the time being until I can get something else that works better, I turned a heavy table sideways, stapled some sheets to the table and a high part of the wall to make a high ceiling for him and surrounded it with small dressers to give him privacy. My youngest son has been moved from his room to the dining room, which we also closed off completely so that he, too, can have privacy. It isn’t perfect; we need to buy more soundproof curtains and stuff. And it’s not super beautiful, either lol. But we’re trying our best to make do in a tough situation.

My youngest daughter, however, is being hit left and right with stress. Her ex has been threatening her and hiding from the police, so that they can’t arrest him for DV or serve him with the restraining order or even custody orders. She’s struggling to find a job. She’s had a lot of great interviews that she was sure about, and even a job offer, but they are giving her the runaround about when she can start. On top of that, she is stressed about the noise from her little baby, almost two, who has the vocal range of Maria Callas (famous opera singer), which, causes additional stress, as our house needs to be quiet almost the entire day because of work and sleeping infants.

So, we’re trying to navigate that issue. We have noise-canceling curtains hanging everywhere that are graded for welding, yet my little angel girl’s voice pierces through it like a siren. So, if anyone has any ideas on what we can do about any of that, please reach out, because we are at our wits end. We’re a tight-knit family, and I want to keep it that way! HAHA.

My other daughter and her soon to be husband are doing fantastic, albeit quite tired, as the newest little sleeps all day and likes to stay up partying all night. Her big sister is taking the role seriously and is doing a beautiful job keeping Momma busy as she tries to share all of her food with the new baby! But we have wonderful news, my soon to be son-in-law graduated school and landed a nice AC job right out of the gate. So we’re very excited for him.

Anyway, so there is the tale of why I went MIA for a week. I’ll try to do better, and maybe next time talk about books, characters, authors, writing ideas, or whatever else.

Oh! Before I go, I DID briefly hear from Jenna(best friend and co-author, including for the latest anthology we have out for Ties of Friendship) over a week ago. She is doing all right so far. She’s starting a respite care program; she seemed quite hopeful about it. But she’s still fighting! We don’t call her Stonewall for nothing!

Anyway, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone that we still have 2 anthologies available to order. Both cost only 99 cents if you get a digital copy, so there’s that! You just cannot beat 5 authors for 99 cents.

Order here!

Beyond the Realms, Ebook, which you can pre-order now and receive on August 12th or Paperback, which can be shipped to you right now: https://books2read.com/u/4XkyqN

Ties of Friendship, Ebook which you can pre-order now, will be delivered October 15th: https://books2read.com/tiesoffriendship