While I was tending my garden the other day I happened upon two snails out for a stroll. I watched as they took their time navigating the rough surface of the paver bricks. And, as they crawled across the jagged wood mulch. Then, after taking their time, they ended up under the tender leaves of…
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A New Normal – After the Earthquakes
Last week, Southern Californians experienced significant earthquakes, the strongest in over 20 years. On the morning of July 4, a 6.4, and evening of July 5, a 7.1. The epicenter was near Ridgecrest, a small, desert town of fewer than 30,000 people. In Bakersfield, about 100 miles southwest of Ridgecrest, we felt both quakes, plus…
Countdown to Book Release
In the 11 days leading up to the release of my book Guardian of the Gifts, I posted about my writing process and fun facts about the novel on social media. In case you missed any or all of those posts, here they are in the order posted: “11” years: Between the research, writing, editing,…
Creating a Complex Character
Photo by Michelle Cassar on Unsplash Many times I’m asked, “How do you come up with your characters?” I explain that I go through several steps – which I will walk through in this post. While most characters pop into my head as either an image or a name, that’s only a small piece of…
Snippets From the Past – April 20
Snippets from my five-year diary. April 20. *1970 (age 12): Got Report Cards – 2 C’s, 3 B-’s, 4 B’s, 3 B+’s; 3/2’s, 1/1-’s, 3/1’s; 1 day absent, 0 tardies. On back, Mrs. Allen said “Good Joan, much improvement here” As I mentioned before, grades were a big deal. I noticed, no “A’s” this time….