Welcome to week 3 of this year’s A to Z Challenge Blog. So far, so good. I’ve managed to post on time daily, read other people’s posts, and follow a few new bloggers. I’ve discovered that for one reason or another, I can’t comment on some WordPress blogs, but at least I can like them. I’m not sure why I get a message that I’m not logged in when I am, but such are the mysteries of the Internet and its various resting places.
Today’s letter is M and stands for Mondays. Before I retired from teaching, I used to dread Mondays. The students were either wired or dragging their asses after a weekend involving too much–work, fun, sugar, misery–you name it. I used to joke that some didn’t wake up until Wednesday while others never slept until then. We never got much done from whatever I’d planned on Mondays, so I made sure never to schedule a test, a movie, or a guest presentation that day. And since attendance declined sharply on Fridays, essentially I had two to three productive days to work with. My favorite day for important work was Thursday. Then, I retired.
Suddenly, there was no difference in the days of the week. In fact, I often wasn’t sure what day it was until evening when my favorite television shows dictated the day. In some ways, it’s still that way 14 years later: Monday, Murdock Mysteries, Tuesday, the FBIs, Wednesday, the Chicago series, Thursday, 911 and Discovery (Or whatever new Star Trek is on), Friday, Blue Bloods, SWAT, and Fire Country. Weekends varied depending on the season. We could watch a movie or just go out with friends. Come summer, we only watched TV on rainy days.
Since I started writing, Monday has become the day I organize my writing hours, my home duties, and my social calendar, not that I have that active a social life. This week, I have a lunch date with a former colleague. Until my mother died, my calendar contained the days I would drive to Alexandria to visit. Now, I rarely have a fixed activity. It’s strange. I have more time than ever, but I seem to get less and less done. It’s a mystery, another great M word.
This morning, I plotted the subjects of this week’s blog posts, set my writing guidelines for the week, and took a few minutes to meditate, another M word, this one designed to lower my stress level and help me sleep better. I like to listen to music while I contemplate the day.
Thought I would leave you with a couple of my favorite Monday songs.
That’s it. Hope you liked one of my favorites. This week, of all the songs, Karen’s song seems the most appropriate as we have another rainy Monday.
Come back tomorrow when I’ll talk about my choice for the letter N.
I’m pleased to cede my blog to a good friend of mine. Good luck, Mimi. Wishing you all the best.
To escape the dysfunction of city life, Demi Fedora leaves behind everything she knows to move to her deceased grandfather’s derelict cabin in the wilds of Alaska. There she encounters true adversity that puts her life in danger more than once.
Irresistible Freedom
Land of the Free Book 1
by Mimi Barbour
Genre: Romantic Suspense, Adventure
Escape… a new beginning.
That’s what Demi Fedora yearns for. And so, she leaves everything and everyone she knows to move to her deceased grandfather’s derelict cabin in the wilds of Alaska, the one he left her in his will.
Meeting Whittaker Hart isn’t in her plans. Though the ruggedly handsome gold prospector does everything to win her over, she keeps her distance until her need to survive a life totally foreign to her nature overcomes her desire to do everything herself.
After rescuing a young drunk and taking on the tough life of a greenhorn, she realizes one thing. Between fixing up the place to make it livable for the coming winter and learning how to exist in a land filled with vicious storms and treacherous wildfires, she can’t cope alone.
No matter how much she yearns for independence, she needs help…. a lot of help.
Excerpt for the first book – Irresistible Freedom:
From time to time, Demi sensed that reality was just on the other side of her closed eyelids, but she refused to let it in. Instead, she soaked in the sensation of floating. Maybe she did it as a defense from having to face the brutality again. She didn’t know. When she heard voices, she pretended not to.
Periodically, she felt a cool cloth on her face, washing it and bathing the swelling that had finally stopped burning. Hands would also clear away her hair from tangling around her shoulders. Gentle hands. Hands that soothed and made her sigh with contentment. She loved those hands.
Only when the room was empty did she finally allow herself to open her eyes. Darkness surrounded her, and she loved the safety of concealment. Hadn’t that been her go-to as a young girl after that brutal attack when she was thirteen?
If it hadn’t been for Tanner, her foster brother and best friend at the time, who knows what might have happened. He’d taught her to fight back. Given her the confidence she’d needed to care enough to do so. He’d instilled in her a spirit of battle where one didn’t give up. And she hadn’t… not during that fight. It’s what saved her.
But afterward, when she’d hidden for days in any dark space she could crawl into, that’s when she’d let her weakness take over. Tears of self-pity had poured out until she’d drained them all. Then began the questioning to God of why her? Why had it happened? What had she done?
Eventually, Tanner had found her hiding spot and asked her why she’d run away. She hadn’t been able to talk about it then. Though confused by her behavior and more than willing to take on her demons, he’d finally taken her at her word that she was fine and dropped the subject.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she arched her body, the discomfort beginning to make itself felt. It’s then she sensed she wasn’t alone. A tall figure came to her side of the bed and had seen her eyes open before she could pretend she hadn’t woke up.
Whit sat carefully on the side of her bed, his hand reaching out to gently push her hair over her shoulder. “How are you?”
In this atmosphere of safety, she couldn’t find her battle gear, her sarcasm, or her uncaring, pissy attitude. In a small voice, she whimpered. “I must be a bad person. If not, then why do I seem to draw all these maniacs into my world?”
“No way, Demi. You’re the bravest, most beautiful soul I’ve met in a long, long time. I don’t know what happened in your past, and if you want to share, I’d be happy to listen.”
She shook her head. “I was terrified.”
“Yet you still attacked that killer to save Glen and me. We’ll never forget it.”
His voice mesmerized and seemed like the balm her sadness needed. She reached for him, her good arm winding around his lowered head. She peered into eyes that shone in the dimness, shone with a light that made her feel good. Actually, better than good. He made her feel happy to be alive.
Moments passed where they just took their time to search… to gaze. All she saw was hunger. She pulled him closer, needing the touch of caring to wipe away that stench of hate.
When he lowered his mouth to gently caress hers, she let him. In fact, she’d unconsciously reached for his lips. And when they met, she knew such gladness. All the loneliness disappeared. She was alive. And she was desired.
Demi has been consistently warned that the northern winter would be perilous, yes. Yet nothing in her wildest imagination could prepare her for the reality. In book two, she will go through incredible and frightening adventures where the little bastard (as she calls her wild wolf pup) will be instrumental in not only driving her crazy but saving her life… more than once.
Her ongoing belief that Whit will survive being lost in the fire he and Glen went to fight becomes a huge conflict. She refuses to accept any other ending… but should she?
And Glen, the young native friend she saved in book #1, will be a challenge that can’t be ignored. Life isn’t easy by any means. Thankfully, the awe-inspiring land, many call God’s country, has a way of soothing those in need.
Conquering conflicts and battles, Demi and her Alaskan family face more unexpected adventures. Battling for her life is just the beginning. Before she has a chance to catch her breath, she’s deep in a fight for her best friend’s future.
Nothing comes easy in this wild country. Even with the support of the handsome gold prospector, her new brother, and her wolf, life in the North continues to challenge her every step of the way. If she fights with everything in her, will she finally find the peaceful existence she craves?
NYT & USA Today, best-selling, award-winning author, MIMI BARBOUR, has nine romance series to her credit. She also has a new Trilogy, many single titles and a huge number of box sets – her own and multi-author collections.
Mimi lives on the East coast of Vancouver Island with her small dog, Charli, and writes her various romances with tongue in cheek and a mad glint in her eye. She’s been known to say: “If I can steal a booklover’s attention away from their everyday grind, absorb them into a fantasy love story, and make them care about the ending, then I’ve done my job.”
Here we are at the end of the second week of the challenge. It was a busy week with family visiting, the eclipse, and warm weather that made you want to sit outside and worship the sun, but we’re back to seasonal weather for the next little while. That will make it easier to stay on task and get things done. No, not my spring cleaning, although that is on the list, but I need help with that both inside and out.
Today’s letter is L. I’ve chosen to talk about the focal point of all romance books regardless of the genre: LOVE. How much love is enough? In some of my books, the romance is more front center than in others where I emphasize the plot, at least in the early chapters. Sex at the drop of a hat isn’t love, it’s lust. There is love at first sight, but should that lead to instant physical action? In my humble opinion and based on a 52-year-old marriage, I believe that to truly love someone, you have to get to know them, to become friends. Maybe yours is an older-than-time relationship that explains how you can get from A to Z in the blink of an eye. Are your characters soulmates, twin flames that had a fiery relationship in the past, or in a PAST LIFE, that ended suddenly in some fashion where the two were ripped apart, like Mount Vesuvius exploding in Beneath the Ashes, or a jealous sorcerer wanting what wasn’t his and angering the gods in Listen to the Stones. In both of those books, love is the impetus that will make things right as the lovers are finally reborn to pick up where they left off.
Thanks to television, movies, and social media, too many people put physical attraction at the top of the list when they look for a partner, but a soulmate won’t necessarily look exactly the same from one lifetime to the other. There will be something familiar about them, but it will be their personality and hearts that will draw them together as well as those vague memories and the sense of deja vu they’ll feel when they meet. But how much of the book needs to be dedicated to the actual aspects of their love, the physical joining as it were?
Let’s look at my current WIP. I started my novel, Listen to the Stones, with a dream sequence that identified the book as contemporary, paranormal, and romantic. I dropped hints that there might be danger involved throughout the story, but essentially, the first half of the book is dedicated to both the hero and the heroine trying to understand what’s happening to them in the here and now and why. The story focuses on plot and background, not in one quick blob, but slowly, methodically, the way a real person might discover that what she’s always believed to be true isn’t at all that way, bringing them all to the appointed place in plausible ways with just enough knowledge to move on to the next part of the story.
The conflict itself is explained in dream sequences, magical explanations, and paranormal events, but things don’t start to come together until all the players are in place–Callea, the sorceress, Raven, the messenger of the gods, the two separated at conception but who should only have been one, and the prize, the reborn daughter of the sea king, raised away from the sacred place for her safety. The future rests in her hands. She must choose between between two men, one who has loved her across the ages, and another who lusts after her and only wants the land. If she chooses love, those who have been imprisoned for eons will be released. If she’s blinded by the pretender, they will remain prisoners of the stones for eternity. A difficult choice to make and the only thing to help her will be her ability to recognize true love despite the obstacles she’ll face.
That’s it. Come back on Monday to see what I come up with for the letter M
Today’s letter is K. As an author, an introvert, and essentially not the most secure person in the world, the one thing I need more than anything else is encouragement. I get some of that from my family, my spouse, my friends, those who read my books, especially those who leave reviews, and those who read my blogs and comment on them, but it isn’t always enough. Not to sound needy, but not even my husband of 52 years understands the demons I fight as an insecure writer. For that sustenance, I rely on a friend I have never met in person, one I’ve never spoken with, and yet the one person who knows me almost better than I know myself. She lives in Romania while I live in Canada, essentially 7,000 km apart, and yet we are closer than people living next door to me. Melinda is my kindred spirit.
What is a kindred spirit? It’s someone who shares the same opinions, feelings, and interests as you do. Melinda and I met several years ago when we both had the misfortune of being published by a small publishing house run by a scam artist. Of course, we didn’t know that at the time, but eventually she showed her true colors and left us all high and dry.
I’d met several other authors through my infamous association with Front Porch Romance, but the colleagueship Melinda and I forged didn’t vanish the way the others did. It grew and developed into a deep and lasting friendship, one we both depend on to keep us sane and grounded in the dog-eat-dog world of Indie publishing.
Anca is younger than my sister and my own children, but we meshed right from the start. We’ve both lost people over the past few years (her father, my parents) and shared our grief as well as our joys at accomplishments in both our personal and professional lives. We’ve also developed a symbiotic relationship. While I edit the books she publishes under two pen names, (check out her out here: https://melindacolt.com/ and https://melindadeross.com/) she’s not only my sounding board but my cover artist. You can find out all about her artistic abilities here. https://www.coveredbymelinda.com/
Despite the six-hour time difference, we communicate via Messenger daily, sometimes discussing the weather and the state of the world, at others sharing funny memes, jokes, and pictures, or talking about what we’ve done that day or what we plan to do the next. I frequently bounce ideas off her about plots, characters, and potential scenes, always grateful for her input. She’s also the one who gives me marketing advice, although truth be told, I don’t always take it simply because I hate marketing. I’m trying to change that, as she knows, but this old dog is slow at learning new tricks.
I do know that if it weren’t for her, I would probably have given up writing after the fiasco with the publisher. She kept me going, making me see that somewhere out there, I had readers waiting for my next book. When I’m down, she cheers me up as I try to do for her. She is my best friend, my kindred spirit, and I don’t know how I would manage without her in my life. In my small way, I tried to honor her I fashioned the main characters in two of my books after her.
Hello again! Today, I’m going to talk about the different ways people can use blogs. I like to use mine not only to promote my writing and the work to others, but I use it as a platform to just gab about things that matter to me, not just with my writing but with life in general.
J is for Journaling. There is no right or wrong way to use a blog. Some people simply post interesting photographs. Others post recipes. Still more post instructions for art projects. Many authors use their blogs as platforms to showcase their writing, especially when they have a new book coming out. Still more use it as a soapbox where they can pour their hearts out about things that matter to them.
I use blog posts either here or on another platform to write about Christmas or another holiday, a blog hop with my current WIP, the changes COVID made to our lives, my travels, my father’s death in 2019, and most recently my mother’s in 2024. You can read that post here: https://authorsbillboard.com/2024/02/saying-goodbye-for-the-last-time/
Using a blog as a safe place to journal isn’t new. When I first started blogging, I would say most of my posts were a series of random thoughts. I find writing to be cleansing, and when I can’t put something in a book, I can journal it. Some journal entries can’t be shared, and they serve a purpose, too. When I click delete, I toss away the anger, the hurt, and the frustration. If you find yourself storing up negative emotions, consider writing them down. At times when I do that, I can see how utterly petty I’ve been. Whatever you discover, you can learn a lot about yourself through journaling.
Come back tomorrow to see what I have for you under the letter K.
We’re halfway through the second week of the challenge. I hope you’re enjoying the posts. Today, our letter is I. As an author, I essentially live inside my head, creating mysteries, romances, fantasies, and whatever comes to mind. After yesterday’s eclipse, I have some sci-fi possibilities floating through my head.
Today’s letter is I for imagination. So, I did a little quick brainstorming because I’m not ready to write a new book yet, since I have to finish Listen to the Stones, and sci-fi would be a new genre for me, but yesterday’s eclipse got me thinking. I’ve decided to share three separate ideas that have come up.
At first, I contemplated a time travel story where the eclipse creates a rift in time, and my fighter pilot flying over the Pacific gets sucked back in time say five thousand years, and crash lands on an island.
What does she do? How is she received? Does she decide to stay there with friendly natives or does she have to fight for survival against cannibals? Would she be alone or would there be another pilot with her? The more I think about it, the more the idea has merit.
A second idea floating around involves the Bermuda Triangle. I know the path of totality wasn’t eclipse wasn’t visible there this time, but the partial one was visible. And, as an author, I can use literary license in the story. What if she’s a helicopter pilot(I like that occupation) delivering supplies from Nassau to one of the other inhabited islands in the Bahamas and during the eclipse her chopper’s instruments fail and she crashes her chopper on a remote island. She encounters people marooned there during a storm some four hundred years ago. Does she stay? Could she fall in love and give up her life? Does she fix her chopper and head back to what she hopes is Nassau in the twenty-first century? Does she report them or let them continue to live in anonymity? Is she alone? So many possibilities there.
Every time we’ve gone on a cruise, we’ve traveled through the Bermuda Triangle. Nothing weird has happened to us, but you can read countless stories written about people. planes, and boats that have vanished.
The last idea, and possibly the one that presents the greatest challenge is going back to revamp a space exploration novel I started years ago. In the novel, the last vestiges of humanity are looking for a new planet to call home and have to deal with a saboteur onboard. What if they land on a primitive planet just before or just after a solar eclipse? Would the inhabitants see them as a danger or a blessing? Again, lots of possibilities.
And there you have it. My imagination at work. Come back tomorrow for the letter J.
The day after the eclipse, I’m still awed and humbled by the experience.
For someone who makes a living with words, I’m at a loss to justifiably describe how I felt yesterday during the total solar eclipse.
Fortunately, we had a clear, warm, sunny day with the temperature hovering at 16 degrees Celcius. At 2:00 p.m., I went outside, wearing a light cardigan and carrying my eclipse viewing glasses and a beverage. I settled down to wait. I was about to see something incredible, but I wasn’t prepared for the reality of it.
Around 2:15, the moon took a nip out of the bottom right section of the sun, but it made no difference to the level of light nor to the temperature. By 2:45, it started getting significantly cooler, so I went into the house to get my coat. The next thing I noticed was a change to the way I perceived colors. We were in our driveway and my husband’s car, a cherry red Mazda, looked almost a dark rust color while the neighbor’s dark blue truck seemed to be a brighter shade of blue. By now, the moon almost covered the sun, and everything became surreal. It wasn’t dark out, but it wasn’t light either–a kind of odd twilight.
And then it happened! It got quiet, the streetlights came on, and a weird night and day darkness descended. The moon completely covered the sun. As I mentioned, it was clear here. I wish I’d had a camera capable of showing you what I saw. The planets and stars were visible more clearly and brightly than I’ve ever seen them. It was magical, a true miracle of nature.
For those two and a half minutes of totality, we just stared up at the sky, reveling in the once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was strange to sit in darkness as we were and look up at a light sky and still see the stars. Luckily, a friend had a better camera and captured a much better image than I did.
And just as quickly as totality started, it ended. In a matter of seconds, it was light again, although it took a few minutes for colors and the temperature to return to normal.
While the partial eclipse lasted another hour, the magic was over. How did I feel? Sad, the way you do on Christmas morning after all the presents have been unwrapped, and it’s time to clean up and get to work again. The magic was gone. I was sorry to see it go, and yet, I was happy that I got to see it all.
I’ll never experience a total solar eclipse like this again since by the time the next one comes around this area, I’ll be long gone, but for now, I have the memories and my pictures, and that’s not such a bad thing.
So, today’s letter H stands for Hello Darkness, my old friend, a line from a Simon and Garfunkel song. It also stands for humbling, the way I felt in the face of such an event, especially when the moon stole not only the sun’s light but its heat.
I must admit, it has also given me an idea for a novel. Can you imagine what it must’ve been like thousands of years ago when humans experienced this phenomenon? Did they believe the world was coming to an end? Did their soothsayers predict that something like this would happen? I’ll leave you with one last picture posted by an author friend of the eclipse taken in the South Pacific. How amazing is this? To use an old-fashioned word, it’s a real HUMDINGER! April 8, 2024 has gone down in history.
Here’s another taken in Toronto with the CN Tower bisecting the solar eclipse.
Come back tomorrow to see what I have for you under the letter I.
Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. Our word prompt this week is GENTLE. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones, my Contemporary Paranormal Romance Suspense. How do you think James and Jerome will react when they meet for the first time?
“Marina, is something wrong?”
James came into the foyer. When he noticed Dr. Morrison, he stiffened and glared. He seemed to stand taller, reminding her of the silverback gorilla she’d seen at the zoo. Would he pound his chest and scream at the interloper, too? He was certainly acting territorial.
Dr. Morrison turned to him, raised his hand, and rubbed a spot in the center of his chest, his now pale face cringing as if he were in pain. He’d been fine a moment ago. Before she could ask him if everything was okay. James spoke.
“And you are?” The frost in his voice chilled her.
The doctor’s eyes narrowed, and he frowned. He inhaled and exhaled several times before answering as if he needed to deal with whatever was bothering him first.
The doctor’s eyes narrowed, and he frowned. “Jerome Morrison. I’m an archeologist. I’ve come here to study the standing stones and hopefully persuade Lady Fraser to register them as part of the National Trust. Scotland’s treasures need to be recorded, studied, and preserved. Rumor has it that someone is buying land on Lewis, specifically tracts filled with unregistered monoliths made of Lewisian Gneiss, which they intend to mine. Unscrupulous people see the stones only as a means to increase their wealth. I’ve arrived early and her ladyship has been kind enough to give me my room ahead of time.”
His explanation seemed to lack something. It was certainly plausible, but she sensed there was more to it. Hadn’t she felt the same way about James’s reason for being late? Perhaps she was reading more into this than there was. Still, the atmosphere in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Why did she get the feeling these men were sizing one another up like two dogs about to fight over a bone, and she was the bone?
James moved closer to her. Raven hissed at him as if she were telling him to back off. He ignored her. Marina pulled the kitten tightly to her chest and gently caressed her, hoping to calm her.
“Shh, Raven. I’ve got you.”
That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.
Welcome to Week 2 of the A to Z Challenge Blog 2024. How’s your Monday shaping up? Mine is filled with excitement and curiosity. Why? Well, for the first time in my lifetime, I will see a total solar eclipse from my own backyard. Here’s the link with the details of the event. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/canada/cornwall?iso=20240408
So what does that fantastic opportunity have to do with the letter G? Glasses! It’s all about the glasses people have to wear to protect their eyes. Looking up at the sun can cause permanent damage. People are being told to keep their pets inside, too.
When the media started talking about the eclipse, I was so-so about it. I mean, what was the big deal? We’d had partial ones, but … Then, the school board changed the date of a PD day so that the kids wouldn’t be getting out of school during the time of totality. That caught my attention, but somewhere inside my head, I’d failed to understand what that actually meant. I decided to research the event, and what I discovered amazed me.
The eclipse will last 2 hours and twenty-three minutes from start to finish, with the time of totality, when it will get dark, will go on for 2 minutes and 16 seconds. The one thing every description of past eclipses had in common was that each person felt that a total eclipse of the sun was without a doubt one of nature’s most phenomenal events, something you definitely wanted to see if you could. Considering that the next one visible here won’t happen until 2093, I won’t be around to see it. This is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Towns and cities in the band of totality area expect thousands of people to show up to see it. Some have declared states of emergency because of it. Our city is hosting an eclipse party in the park, but I will not be there. I can enjoy the event in the comfort of my own yard. Safer, easier, no parking spot required.
With that in mind, I’ve opted to get the necessary eye protection to truly experience the wonder. I turned to Amazon, researched the brands available, and settled for Soluna. The glasses are made of paper. When I saw them, I was reminded of the 3D glasses we used to punch off the back of cereal boxes. Still, as flimsy as they seem, these paper glasses meet the ISO12312-2 safety requirements. I purchased 5 pairs since our sons would be home. My daughter has purchased some for the grandkids so we are all protected.
Here is some of the information available from the site above specific to eclipse glasses.
Eclipse Glasses
The American Astronomical Society has compiled a list of vendors where you can buy safe eclipse glasses. Make sure you carefully read the instructions that come with the glasses.
Use proper eclipse glasses and solar filters to protect your eyes.
NASA also recommends welder’s glasses rated 14 or higher. These can be found at your local welding supply store. Keep in mind that welder glass grading may be different in different countries.
When to Use Eclipse Glasses
Eclipse glasses must be used whenever the disk of the Sun itself can be seen. This means:
In the brief moments of totality during a total solar eclipse, the Sun is completely covered, and the ghostly solar corona becomes visible around the Moon.
For these few moments, eclipse viewers can be safely removed. (In fact, if you don’t take off your eye protection, you won’t be able to see the solar corona.)
Practice Using Eclipse Glasses
To get the most out of an eclipse—and to avoid the risk of accidental exposure to the Sun—Professor Chou recommends that everyone practices using their solar eclipse viewers.
How to Use Eclipse Glasses
Hold the eclipse glasses with two hands
Stand with the front of your body toward the Sun, but look down
Still looking down, put the eclipse glasses onto your face
When they are securely fastened, raise your head and look up at the Sun
“Finally,” says Professor Chou, “don’t try to walk around with them on your face, because you can’t see anything.”
Here’s the timetable for the event:
So, I’ve got my glasses and information on how and when to wear them. Now, all I have to do is hope it won’t be too cloudy for us to see anything. The forecast today is for partially sunny skies. Let’s hope the clouds come after the event.
Come back tomorrow for the letter H and I’ll quickly tell you how my experience went.
Well, I successfully completed the first week of the A to Z Challenge Blog for 2024. A to F is in the can, and we move on to G to L this week. The farther into the alphabet we get, the harder it is to find word prompts to fit the letters.
This coming week, I’ve chosen my word prompts. Glasses, Humdinger, Imagination, Journaling, Kindred spirits, and Love. I’ve got something in mind for each of those words and hope you’ll drop over to see what I have to say. have a great Sunday.
