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Welcome to the new people on my newsletter list.
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In 2023, I stayed in Portland for six weeks to take care of my niece after she had brain surgery. (She’s finally back on her feet, gainfully employed, and happy. I still talk with her frequently, and go down to Portland to spend a week with her once a quarter.)
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While I was gone, a northern flicker decided that the windows on my tiny house (TH2) made such a loud sound that it was going to tap on them all the time. Because I wasn’t there, the flicker grew used to using my house as a drum.
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Here’s a picture of a different norther flicker, at one of my bird feeders:
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I’ve had to barricade parts of my house every summer since then. I’d put up a large piece of wood with pans and tape in front of the sliding glass door. I had to put tape with with sticky side out on the door. This was because the flicker was so intent on making noise that it would FLING itself at the door, banging his chest hard against the glass. He stopped doing that when he started losing feathers to the sticky tape. I also had to completely tape over the screen on my kitchen window, so that he couldn’t hook his talons into the screen then peck at the glass.
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Let me be clear, him pecking on the glass isn’t the problem, as long as I’m not there. It’s the large amount of bird poop that I have to deal with. While I was in Portland, my husband didn’t notice that the bird had also been at my kitchen window. When I came home, there was a MOUND of bird poop on my porch.
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This summer, the flicker didn’t return. I removed the tape from my kitchen window screen. I never had to barricade my door.
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It was too good to last, though. The flicker returned recently.
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Fortunately, I’ve come up with a different, better solution.
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I had young downy woodpeckers this year who decided the posts that hold up my roof were perfect for pecking. So I put up mylar tape, the shiny stuff, that we use to keep the birds away from the grapes we grow. That actually worked perfectly. It stopped the woodpeckers as well as the baby squirrels from climbing those posts.
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So when the flicker returned, instead of the barricades, I put mylar tape on my door and window.
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This solution isn’t 100%. It works best when there’s a slight breeze. When it’s completely still, and I’m not home, the flicker continues to sit in front of the door. How do I know this? Because when I return home, I find bird poop on the mat out there.
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However, it has been mostly working, and it’s a lot easier to maintain than the barricade.
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Some year, that flicker will not come back. There might be a lot of rejoicing when I go an entire year without having to protect my house.
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ION, September 20, 2025, was the last day that I had a migraine.
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I’ve been having migraines since I was eighteen years old. They got really bad ten years ago, and I was having up to 15 migraines a month. At that point, I changed my diet and stopped taking all prescription migraine medication. The number of migraines I had reduced significantly. (I followed a lot of things in the Keto for Migraine book. The diet I changed to was the Wahls Paleo Protocol: https://terrywahls.com)
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My migraines slowly diminished over the years. At first, it was every 90 days or so. For a number of years, I had a migraine every 120 or 150 days. I have no clue why that was the time frame. It was consistent, though. Either every 120 days, or every 150 days, I’d have a migraine. Not just a couple of times, but year over year. And that exact number of days.
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This is the longest I’ve gone without a migraine since I was 18. (And I’ll be 65 come December.) I’ve had bad headaches now and again, but nothing that I would count as a migraine.
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Will I eventually have another migraine? I assume so. For now, I’m celebrating that they’ve become so rare.
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What are you celebrating these days? What is your good news for the day?
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Woo and hoo! I was invited to be in ths Space Opera Sisterhood story bundle. Basically, this is a collection of FIFTEEN novels that you can get for just $30. You should go check this out, as this deal will only run for a few weeks, then it'll leave orbit forever.
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It's September. The start of the cozy season. What better way to celebrate than with a sale on one of our most popular cozy fantasy books?
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The perfect cozy mix of dragons, myths, gods, magic, and found family.
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An evil wizard tries to transform the great champion Killian into a common garter snake.
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The spell misfires (or the fates intervene) and Killian instead becomes a dragon.
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Killian can’t wield his sword and lead his men into battle. Can’t speak. Can’t even shoot a majestic gout of fire but only spits a measly dribble of acid. (Which honestly? Kinda gross.)
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Thus begins the tale of the dragon named Talon, and his eventual fight with a God.
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Well, maybe just a demi-god.
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Okay, all right. Perhaps the person in question doesn't have any divinity at all.
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He will have you know that he is Someone Important, though.
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Plus all the other lies...
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Welcome to this lovely cozy fantasy filled with humor, found family, and plenty of breaking of the fourth wall. Prepare to be swept away into this somewhat silly world full of wit and heart, with adventures you'll love reading about again and again.
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For fans of T Kingfisher, Casey Blair, and Lindsay Buroker.
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This is our annual cozy issue!
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What sorts of crimes take place when students are on a spring break? Or perhaps what happens at an abandoned campus?
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Come see what the syndicate of MCM has dreamed up.
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Available at all reputable–and some not so reputable–retailers.
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I have a new book coming out at the end of October! It's a cozy fantasy romantic retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I did both a non-spicy version as well as a spicy version, as indicated by the green and red covers.
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Perfect for readers who love:
• Forced proximity
• Slice-of-life fantasy
• Slow-burn yearning
• Witty banter
• Gentle caregiving
• Mutual rescue and devotion
• Fairy-tale retellings
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The book is currently available for preorder on the KRP store and Amazon. It'll be available for preorder everywhere else by mid-September.
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In addition, I'm accepting ARC reader applications. Here's a link to the form if you're interested:
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