A Mystery that brings the heart and the chase

Possible book jacket blurb?

Secret Service or not, there really are no secrets in a small town, when people are alive to tell them.

Secret Service Agent Isa Campos returns to her stifling childhood hometown to recover from taking a bullet to save the first female president. Instead of recovering, she begins to spiral into an obsession with confronting a past secret and identifying the president’s shooter, bringing unwanted attention right to her doorstep. Isa’s past and present collide, threatening to devastate Isa, her town, and her country.

I love this quote from ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND Author Lewis Carroll:

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Seeing as many days I don’t eat breakfast, that means I have all day to dream. It also means that dreaming big is what gets you to the place you need to go.

Where will you be?

Last time I was here I was reading “Guncle” by Steven Rowley and chuckling to myself on the very rooftop of the same hotel that was mentioned in the book. And now I’m back at that same spot, trying to create a master plan of how to stay here forever…

I should say my heart belongs to that hotel, because it’s so amazing, from its design to the food. You’re hearing from a Portlander that has seasonal depression from September to July, that she loves Palm Springs. Not shocking.

I’m taking the time to write, a new WIP, and double check some final edits on Letting Go of Her. This is my inspo this morning.

I’m reading this volleyball book that’s written for my 7th grader, and it talks about all of the stages of fear to anger, and it’s so interesting.

It makes me so interested to think about what we do in life, work and with our kids when we decide it’s all or nothing. Before I went freelance, I struggled with not doing all or nothing. Looking back, I wonder who that person was and how she lost her way. Yet, I work with some exciting clients, and I feel that same pull. Is it completion? Success? Either way, I’m happy to be at a different crossroads than what I was before.

I look at my daughters and see the same struggle. I don’t want my kids to fall to the same people pleaser mentality that our generation did. One is an empath and one is a teenager so…what’s that? Unhappy? Kidding.

My husband has decided he needs to do daily cold plunges in our tub. And we’re buying bags of ice to make this happen. I mean, it’s good…no I’m sure it is. To hear some solid research, listen to the Huberman lab.

I guess I just falter in that everything in moderation.

Once we got through the ice storm, finally got electricity after a week, and our kitchen was finished…I never looked back.

Here are the final pics!

Going from very dark and closed in, to LIGHT, shapes a lifts my soul ❤️.

It feels like December gets sooo busy, it’s nice to shake things up with a good book.

What’s caught your eye?

Take a look at these amazing free neighborhood libraries. I think we might need one….

Here’s your ticket to holiday survival…#read

I was walking the dogs today and a brisk 45 degrees reminded me to get on with the warm food flair for the season. It is nearly Halloween after all!

Does anyone have a favorite crockpot recipe? Please share!

Red Tricycle had a good roundup of favs: https://redtri.com/easy-crock-pot-recipes-perfect-for-fall/

#nomnom #accidentalfoodie #food

The Writing Slump (verb): to fall or sink suddenly, to drop or slide down suddenly : COLLAPSE, to assume a drooping posture or carriage : SLOUCH

The writing process is so curious, when creativity decides to run rampant or it’s like nobody is home upstairs. Anyone seen the movie Limitless with Bradley Cooper?

“The next morning, I sent a little probe down into my brain. No surge of brilliance came up to greet me.”

That may have been an excuse to bring up Bradley Cooper…just sayin’.

The movie is great though…

Just like stretching, you have to work yourself to transition your mind into different places.

After getting a lot of interest in this second book from agents with very different and sometimes no feedback, I decided to try a different tactic “for learning sakes.”

I began working with an editor and am still going through the feedback and making edits, more edits. THIS is where I’m stuck. This is my fall, slide or slouch moment. Frankly, it’s harder than brain surgery to take a look at your work so differently. And of course, as a writer or just because it’s me, I strangely enjoy the torture. Don’t get me wrong though, it is torture.

So this is where I’m at…sometimes really stuck and it all these in between places of finding my brilliance. If you find yourself in this space sometimes, I think you can do it. We can do it.

Onward!