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I was thinking about going out and taking some pictures of the budding plants this morning. But it’s *pouring* rain currently, and I just can’t work up the enthusiasm, I’m afraid. I’ll try to remember to get out and take some pictures when it’s nice this week.
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Instead, I’m going to talk a bit about the writing. I was at a local event yesterday (waves to the people I saw there). It was absolutely fabulous to get some repeat customers! I’m still kind of in shock about that, actually.
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After I describe one of my books to someone, one of the comments that I frequently get is that I’m really imaginative. I get that. I do. I’m kinda out there when it comes to ideas, more so than some of the other writers I know.
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How do I do that? Consistently? A lot of it is practice.
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I’m an intuitive writer. I don’t know what I’m about to write until it flows out my fingers.
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But a lot of the ideas and general shape of the book go through a process before I start typing.
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For example, come Monday, I’m going to start the last of the Water Witch mysteries. (“The Bad Apple Witch” is the current title.) It’s going to take place both in Milltown as well as in a town I’m calling Little Bavaria. For those of you familiar with Washington, yes, that’s Leavenworth. (It’s a town in the Cascade Mountains that’s been done-over to look like a Bavarian village.)
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To get ready for this, I re-read book one in the series. I want to make sure that the promises I made to the reader on page one of book one are all fulfilled by the end of book last.
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In addition, I skimmed book five, the last book I wrote in this series. I took notes, to make sure to give every character received the arc they deserve.
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I always want to have original ideas. How do I do that?
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The process is completely unconscious for me. I didn’t even realize I did it for years.
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Basically, it goes like this:
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· Think of an idea. Throw it away.
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· Come up with the second idea. Throw that away.
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· Develop the third idea. Throw that away.
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By the time you’ve come to the fourth idea, you generally have something unique.
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As I said, I had no idea that I did that, not until I was in a workshop and the instructor told us that we had to follow this process.
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Honestly, when I first started, I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. I had no problem coming up with unique ideas. But I still did what the instructor wanted us to do, and forced myself to write down what I first thought of.
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That was when I realized that I’d been following this process unconsciously for all my life.
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It messed me up for a short while, when I brough my technique to the surface. Eventually I was able to go back to doing it without thinking about it. I assume that I still do it, that I’m still writing that way. I haven’t ever bothered to dig through the gunk to get at how I come up with ideas again.
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So yes, I come up with strange, unique, twisted things. It’s a process.
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ION, I finished my first knitting project of the year! I started it on Dec 20, finished it last week.
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It’s a colorwork pattern, worked with two different yarns. One is an off-white color, and the other is variegated, going from a light lavender to a really dark purple.
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Originally, I started it with the variegated yarn as the background, and the off-white as the stars and pattern. However, after I finished a dozen rows I realized I really hated it. It was impossible to see the pattern because the variegated yarn was too distracting.
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So I unraveled what I’d done, down to the brim, and I started again.
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Now, here’s a picture of the work in progress. You can see the pattern clearly. Made me so much happier.
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And here’s a picture of the finished hat. The top was a little weird and a little pointy so I made a little pompom to go on top.
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And I think that’s it from me this week. Hope that your new year is still going well.
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We're running a Kickstarter through most of January.
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Five volumes. One hundred stories. Multiple genres. One long, wild ride.
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Many of these stories have never been released out into the wild, as it were. Each volume is around 600 pages, 20 stories in each. That's a LOT of material for those of you who are looking for your next binge-read.
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Of course, there's a lot of SF. Three volumes worh, roughly divided into Earth, near Earh, and the Galaxy. Then there's a volume of fantasy, as well as the last one which is evenly divided between 10 superhero stories and 10 action/thrillers.
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We funded in less than two hours (thank you to the fans who got there early!) But you can still get in on the action. As I said, we're running until the end of January.
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Coming soon to other retailers.
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A cozy mystery novel. With magic. And MEAT.
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The sherif classifies a young man’s tragic death as a suicide…
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…but the “supernatural hotline” informs Las Chicas de Carne that it was murder.
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They decide to investigate, in part because the death occurred in the same location as their next barbecue competition.
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Then one of the judges for the contest dies under mysterious circumstances.
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Was the judge killed by the same person? Or are the murders completely separate? And can Las Chicas solve not one, but two crimes while still cooking up their award-winnings meats?
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Death by Brisket—the start of a new paranormal cozy mystery series—takes the reader along for a tasty ride. Come and get your serving today!
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Book six of Operation Marrakesh is coming out January 2026! (Undaunted) So book one, Trial by Leviathan, is now on sale for just $0.99.
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A test run of an experimental weapon turns unexpectedly deadly when Marrakesh and its crew run across a Wronlori Leviathan, who charges in to destroy them.
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A game of cat and mouse ensues, the two ships hiding in a deep nebula.
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Captain Boru could leave the area, but he wants a bit of revenge, as well as a fight against a bigger battleship.
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Trial By Leviathan, the exciting first book in the Operation Marrakesh series, takes the reader on a thrilling military space adventure. Be sure to read all the books in this series!
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