Living the Dream

Good morning. I’m stepping away from my Did You Know? for a moment to give those of you who don’t live in this area a few pictures of what Wednesday was like here. The first picture was taken about two hours into the storm. The two at the bottom show the willow tree in my yard bowed so low that it kisses the ground. The last picture is the willow Thursday morning. Sadly, it will have to come down.

This final picture was taken by my sister of her deck and her table with its tablecloth of ice. It actually looks pretty in an eerie way.

Mother Nature has been throwing a lot of really ugly weather at us recently. We’ve seen brutal tornadoes, snowstorms, ice storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions … you name it. How does freakish weather help me as a writer? It helps make descriptions more realistic, thus immersing the reader in the situation.

Today’s Did You Know focuses on the letter F and how something like a freezing rainstorm and a frozen landscape can enhance your writing. Many of my readers have commented on the realism in my descriptions. I’ve often been told that reading one of my books is like being there. There’s actually a really good reason for that. In many cases, I’ve been there and seen the places for myself or lived through the experience. If I didn’t live through it, then I research extensively, find interviews with survivors and authentic news reports on the subject. Of course, living in my little sector of Canada, I’m exposed to some fairly brutal winter weather. Living where I do, I set a lot of my books during the winter. Most recently, those settings have been snowstorms, but I foresee an ice storm in some book this year.

In my novel, No Good Deed, from the Vengeance is Mine series, the story starts with my heroine navigating her way through a snowstorm.

Take a peek:

Late April

Alexa O’Brien white-knuckled the steering wheel, her foot barely touching the accelerator as she followed the taillights of the pickup truck ahead of her. She didn’t dare stay any farther back. If she did, she wouldn’t see the guiding lights at all and would end up in the ditch. Of course, if the truck went off the road, she would be up Shit Creek without a paddle.

She snorted, fluttering her lips. “Damn you, Mother Nature. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

The tires on the old wreck she’d bought were almost as bald as her stepfather had been. What a lecture he would give her if he could see her now. Another man who’d claimed he knew what was best for her. In this case, he was probably right, but he’d been wrong too many times to count. It was her life—her mistakes to make—and while some of them had been doozies, she’d taken control once more.

Pray God she didn’t have to brake suddenly.

She’d planned her escape so carefully, timed it to coincide with Richard’s trip to Africa, and now this. Where the hell had a foot of snow come from? It was the end of April. Even in Canada, that meant spring, or at least it had in the past before climate change had become a real and terrifying fact of life.

The distance between her car and the vehicle ahead shortened. Alexa eased up on the accelerator. What was she doing? Twenty miles per hour? Maybe twenty-five?

The lights ahead turned a deeper red. She was coming up on the truck too fast.

“Holy shit!”

She moved her foot from the gas pedal to the brake, pumping the pedal twice, but it didn’t help. She screeched. Like Bambi on ice, the car swerved, spun around twice, and then skidded to the right. Time stood still—the car didn’t.

Think, Alexa, think. What did you learn in that damn defensive driving course?

Heart pounding, stomach roiling, she took her foot off the brake and slowly turned the steering wheel until the tires of the car pointed into the skid, praying the damn things would grip.

Donuts in a parking lot were one thing, but they weren’t quite so much fun at night, on an unfamiliar road, during a frigging snowstorm.

She trembled, holding the steering wheel so tightly she was sure her fingerprints were embedded in the plastic. All she could see were the trees coming at her, but ever so slightly, the car slowed, straightened to face the direction she wanted it to, and stopped less than three feet from the pickup’s tailgate.

Her heart thundered in her ears, and she exhaled heavily. While she wasn’t directly behind the small truck, she was back on the road, no worse for the wear, even if she did feel like a cat who’d just lost another life. Shaking so badly that she had trouble shifting the car into park, she rested her forehead against the steering wheel, waiting for her heart to slow.

Someone tapped on her window, and she jumped.

Who the hell would be walking on the road in this weather?

A second tap, harder and more urgent than before, gave her no choice. Scraping away the frost on the inside of the window, she was blinded by the sudden brief flash of light in her face. Bile rose in her throat, and her heart resumed its frantic pace. Hand trembling, she rolled down the window.

“Excusez-moi, mais le 30 est fermé. Tu dois rester sur the 20.”

“I … I don’t speak French,” Alexa stammered to the police officer.

“There has been an accident,” the woman said, her th sounding like d. “This highway, it’s closed. Turn right at my car and follow the 20 through Dorion. There’s a motel along that road. Not a good night to drive.”

“Thank you. I’d sort of figured that out for myself.” Alexa rolled up the window once more, taking two deep breaths to calm herself before putting the car in gear and slowly inching along behind the truck.

There is nothing like experience to help with description. You only have to be caught in one of these once to remember. Sadly, it’s almost an annual thing.

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter G. Enjoy your day.

Welcome back! This year I’ve chosen Did You Know? as my theme, giving you a look at some of the things I’ve learned over the years as an author.

Today’s Did You Know is all about endings. It’s a fact that everything you start has to end and as vital as a good beginning is, a good ending can make or break a book. Here are what I consider my rules for ending my books:

1. Know your ending before you start writing. I may be a pantser, working without an outline, but I do know how the story will end.
2. Build tension in the leadup to the end. While I should know how the story will end, the reader shouldn’t. So, to that end, I will add complications, many of which will be red herrings to keep the reader guessing.
3. Try different endings on for size. I have done this a couple of times. While I found the ending to the original version of Fire Angel, did wrap up the story, I didn’t find it satisfying, so when I got the chance to edit and release the book on my own, I changed the ending.
4. Leave room for interpretation. This is especially important if you are considering writing a sequel to a book, or if the story is one that continues. In my Harvester Series, the ultimate plot isn’t resolved until the fourth book, The White Dahlia, but in each of the four books, the romance plot as well as that segment of the main plot is resolved. While each book can stand alone, they should still be read in order.
5. Ensure that your ending makes sense. Nothing annoys me more than reading a book where the ending seemed contrived and leaves me hanging with that What the hell? feeling.
6. Evoke emotions. In every book I write, it’s important to me that the reader can identify with the main characters. I like to think that the ending makes the reader smile and gives them a sense of satisfaction. I may toss in an epilogue to peek at the future, but overall, I want to reader to be satisfied.
7. Make sure your ending resolves the storyline. Have you ever seen National Lampoon’s Vacation? There’s a scene where he ties the dog to the bumper when they stop. A few scenes later, the leash and collar are still tied to the car, but there’s no sign of the dog. That has been my mantra as a writer. Don’t leave the dog tied to the car and drive off. If you add an issue, you have to resolve it. In other words. This is your gift to the world. Wrap it up nicely and tie it up with a bow.

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter F. Enjoy your day.

Today’s A to Z challenge is below this blog.

Here it is. April. One quarter of 2023 is already behind us. Time seems to fly these days, or perhaps, I’m just getting slower. We’ll be celebrating Easter this weekend, and I still have some of my outdoor Christmas decorations out–frozen in the ground. Time waits for no one but Mother Nature. Bits of green have poked their noses out in my flowerbeds, but I don’t expect to see anything bloom for some time to come, unlike last year when everything was up weeks ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, early to bloom meant early to die, so by mid-August, I was cleaning out the beds for winter. Perhaps things will be more ‘normal’ this year.

This month’s question is an interesting one for me as I mark my ten-year anniversary as a published author. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed, and yet it feels like only yesterday.

April 5 question – Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now, and how is it working out for you? If you’re at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

This is an intriguing question The first book I wrote was for a writing class ten years before I actually realized that I could in fact achieve my dream of becoming a published author. That manuscript sits on my desktop in a folder entitled. In Process. It’s the only ‘complete’ manuscript in the file, but perhaps complete is a misnomer. Once of these days, I may even revise and publish it. I got top marks in the course, and the people who read it all loved it, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine why. The plot is adequate, although there are a few holes the size of the Grand Canyon in it, but it’s still quite viable since it was a fantasy dealing with fairies, crop circles, and Stonehenge, a place I’ll be seeing for myself, in person, come July.

The issues are in the writing. Point of View couldn’t have been a big deal for the professor since she ignored the incredible amount of head hopping I did–and not just head hopping. I have talking heads all over the place! There have to be at least two dozen different characters with POV, something that might’ve worked for Tolkien and Dostoyevsky, but isn’t quite as popular today when the omniscient POV isn’t as popular. I have a couple of books where I have three POVs and some readers have difficulty with that.

But writing that book did whet my appetite for more. I wrote a few short stories and some non-fiction before retiring from teaching. That was when I decided to try and write a book of my own. I did. I submitted it to a publisher, and it sold. That was 44 books ago. I now chose to self-publish and continue to put out books on a regular basis. In 2022, I wrote five new ones and in 2023, I already have 2 to be released next month, one almost finished, and I hope to finish at least 3 more before the end of the year. Lofty ambitions.

I enjoy writing. The books I write cover differnt genres depending on the mood I’m in. I’m not getting rich by any means–I don’t have the capital to invest in the kind of promtion needed for that, but on the whole I’m satisfied.

Hope April is kind to us all. Check out other posts on this topic here. https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

Welcome back. Believe it or not, it’s a balmy 8 degrees Celsius (48 F) and sunny, but we are under the threat of a freezing rain episode later tonight and tomorrow, so I’m putting this together and getting it ready to fly into cyberspace a day early. Even if I lose power, the blog will be out there. My theme this year is Did You Know? and it’s a series of bits of knowledge I’ve gleaned over the ten years I’ve been a published author.

Today’s Did You Know involves the letter D and deals with DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the molecule that carries genetic information for the development and functioning of an organism. DNA is made of two linked strands that wind around each other to resemble a twisted ladder — a shape known as a double helix. It controls absolutely everything about who you are as a person, your appearance, your health, even whether or not you like certain foods. As you may recall in my first post, in order for you to exist, DNA from your mother’s egg (23 chromosomes) had to combine with DNA from your father’s sperm (23 chromosomes) to make you (46 chromosomes.) But those 46 chromosomes can be vastly different from one person to the next.

You would’ve learned some of this in science class as I did way back in the sixties when we learned the Mendel’s four postulates and laws of inheritance are: (1) Principles of Paired Factors (2) Principle of Dominance (3) Law of Segregation or Law of Purity of Gametes (Mendel’s First Law of Inheritance) and (4) Law of Independent Assortment (Mendel’s Second Law of Inheritance).

My science teacher had explained it with blue-eyed and brown eyes parents, which is why, having brown eyes and my husband having blue ones, I would’ve expected at least one of my three children to have brown eyes, since brown is a dominant gene. Not so. Not only are my three all blue eyed, my sister’s children with the same brown/blue ratio that I have also only had blue eyed children.

He never mentioned that other generations might get into the mix, and though while my eyes were brown, my father’s were blue. Thanks to my own research, I know that it isn’t as simple as the tall plants and short plants were. Every now and then, the ancestors get into the mix.

Simplified to the max, the explanation goes something like this. Each cell in the human body contains a nucleus filled with thread-like structures called chromosomes. Each chromosome is made up of DNA tightly coiled many times around proteins called histones that support its structure. A gene is the basic physical and functional unit of heredity, and those genes are made up of DNA. Those gene cells form a genome that makes us human.

As much as it pains me to admit it, human DNA is not 100 percent unique.  In fact, the human genome is mostly the same in all people, but there are variations across the genome. This genetic variation accounts for about 0.001 percent of each person’s DNA and explains why we are all slightly different in appearance and health factors. The only people with the same DNA are identical twins.

Can you change your DNA? The short answer is not you personally, but Genome editing is a method for making specific changes to the DNA of a cell or organism. It can be used to add, remove, or alter DNA in the genome. Human genome editing technologies can be used on somatic cells (non-heritable), germline cells (not for reproduction) and germline cells (for reproduction).

Is gene editing safe?

The earliest studies showed that gene therapy could have very serious health risks, such as toxicity, inflammation, and cancer. Since then, researchers have studied the mechanisms and developed improved techniques that are less likely to cause dangerous immune reactions or cancer.

How much does gene editing cost?

Cell and gene therapies are expensive. Analysis by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) suggests the average cost of a gene therapy is between $1 million and $2 million per dose.

So, obviously, most of us will have to get by with the genes we have. For better or worse, you and your DNA are set for life.

Today, modern policing relies heavily on DNA evidence, especially in rape and murder cases. In the first book of my Harvester Series, The White Carnation, the police use DNA to identify a serial killer bent on creating his own dynasty. He selects the women, impregnates them, and after they’ve given birth, he kills them and discards the bodies since he no longer needs them.

Here’s the blurb:

He’s watching, waiting…
The last person disgraced reporter Faye Lewis wants back in her life is Detective Rob Halliday, her former fiancé, the man she blames for ruining her career and breaking her heart. But when she discovers her best friend’s mother murdered, she doesn’t hesitate to call him.
Breaking up with Faye after she unjustly accused him of sabotaging her career was a crippling personal blow for Rob, but he coped by burying himself in his work. For the past year, his team has been hunting the Harvester, a serial killer who ritualistically murders new mothers and vanishes with their infants. What Rob doesn’t need is another case, especially one involving his ex-fiancée. But, when the killer’s newest victim resembles Faye, all bets are off.
When Faye is assaulted in her own apartment, Rob realizes that not only are these cases connected, but Faye may also be the key to finding the elusive killer, providing Rob can keep her out of the maniac’s hands.
Realizing her vulnerability, Faye agrees to set aside their past to work the case together, but the more they investigate, the more complex the situation becomes. The mad man has an agenda, one that involves Faye. Can they catch the Harvester before he finds Faye and reaps another prize?

That’s it for me today. Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter E. Enjoy your day.

Welcome back to the A to Z challenge blog. Today, my Did You Know? features the letter C and probably the most critical aspect of any novel, character development.

Every author knows that character development means creating unique, believable, three-dimensional characters that the reader will bond with, care about, and invest a bit of themselves into throughout the story. Characters are expected to grow in some way, to achieve their goals, and of course, to entertain the reader from the onset to the very last page.

No author starts off absoltuely perfect in their field, writing a masterpiece from the first keystroke. Like everything else of value, we study those who have achieved greatness in the field and hope to learn from them. Here is part of an article on character development for Master Class.com, one of my online writing resources. In this article, the expert uses the famous Harry Potter character to prove his point. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-develop-fictional-characters

8 Tips for Character Development

When writing a work of fiction, from a thriller to a romance novel, prepare to spend a lot of time fleshing out the details of who the characters are, inside and out. Your goal is to create memorable characters by employing literary devices and writing techniques. Follow these development tips when you sit down to write:

1. 1. Establish a character’s motivations and goals. Think of Harry Potter’s quest to defeat Lord Voldemort, fueled by his parents’ murders. Great characters are driven by a deep-seated motivation and have a goal they are trying to reach. This creates interesting characters and also creates a story arc. The main character’s driving force should be one of the first story elements you figure out since the subsequent action will be driven by this motivation.
2. 2. Choose a voice. Who will be telling the story? First person point of view allows a character, usually the main character, to narrate the story using the pronouns “I” and “me.” Third person point of view is a voice that is outside of the action. The perspective of the narrator will determine how a character’s information is revealed over the course of the story. Learn more about point of view in our complete guide here.
3. 3. Do a slow reveal. Refrain from revealing too much the first time you introduce a character. Reveal information bit by bit as you tell the story—not unlike the way people get to know one another in real life.
4. 4. Create conflict. Conflict is a literary device that pits opposing forces against one another, most often involving the main character. There are different kinds of conflicts that will impact your character’s decisions. For example, if you have strong characters, test their resolve by putting them against something that reveals their weaknesses. A conflict can be external—create a bad guy to go up against a good character. A character can also have an internal struggle when they have to act against their morals or grapple with opposing beliefs. Conflict creates tension and is used to move a story forward by forcing characters to make decisions.
5. 5. Give important characters a backstory. We all have a backstory, and your fictional characters each need one, too. Dig into your characters’ lives and flesh out their histories. Even if most of it won’t make it onto the page, a character’s backstory will help you figure out what makes them tick and will inform their decisions in the story.
6. 6. Describe a character’s personality in familiar terms. To create believable characters, create a personality for your main and secondary characters based on characteristics of real people—that will help you create a multi-dimensional, round character with recognizable personality traits and quirks.
7. 7. Paint a physical picture of your characters. Describe your character’s physical appearance: hair color, eyes, stature. What are their mannerisms? What is their body language like? Describe them to help readers envision a more realistic image of your character.
8. 8. Develop secondary characters. Create different types of characters that contrast with one another. A sidekick (think Watson to Sherlock Holmes) or a foil (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter books) can illuminate the main character’s traits, strengths, or flaws. If you create a static character—a flat character arc that does not evolve much—contrast them with a dynamic character, one who undergoes a metamorphosis throughout the story.

I try as much as I can to base my characters on real people that I know. I’ll often name a character in a book after a family member or close friend. Sometimes, I’ll choose a name because it interests me. For example, let’s look at Twyla, the main character in Same Time Next Year. Here’s the blurb:

A novel within a novel. For three short weeks, Twyla Lancaster was the fairy tale princess who’d found her prince, but just like that, reality ripped them apart. Now, fifty years later, she needs to know why the only man she ever loved broke his promises. As she writes her memoir and learns more about that summer, she realizes things were not what they seemed. Hormones raced, promises were made, but Twyla left Michael Morrison high and dry, and within weeks, married someone else.

Grieving the loss of his parents and her betrayal, he turned his back on love, focusing on his military career. Now, goaded by his sister, he agrees to attend a wedding and reunion, knowing Twyla will be there. It’s time to find out why she lied to him all those years ago.

The moment the star-crossed lovers see one another, love blooms between them, but when Michael discovers Twyla’s secret, he’s devastated. Is love enough to erase fifty years of pain and betrayal?

Creating Twyla allowed me to draw on some of my own past experiences, some of my husband’s, and incidents from the past, its treatment of women, the events of the time period, and of course, the wonderful music popular in 1967. Twyla is strong and determined. She has her doubts and fears–and of course her secrets. Michael is not perfect. He’s made mistakes, and it’s facing those mistakes that will eventually heal fifty years of pain and loneliness.

Check out the free preview to see what motivates Twyla to finally look for her answers.

Find other bloggers and their posts here. https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84

Come back tomorrow when I’ll give you a Did You Know? for the letter D. Enjoy your day.

Welcome back to Tuesday Tales, the weekly blog that gives you a peek into our works in progress. It’s hard to believe we’re in April and that Easter is less than a week away. It still seems as if we just celebrated Christmas!

This week, our word prompt is TOUGH and our scenes are limited to 400 words. I’m continuing with Finding Melinda, my newest Romance Suspense novel about a woman who discovers that the person she thought she was, isn’t the one she is. Enjoy.

I know the literature says it’s possible to have differences, but really? You aren’t even showing up on my tree as a distant relative, which is absolutely ridiculous. You’re my sister.”

“I know, and it bothers me, too. My crazy imagination is working double-time. I keep thinking I was switched at birth or something, but Mom would’ve known that. I mean, animals can tell their offspring from others, surely humans can, too. Since I’m not sleeping well, having nightmares where I’m running down the streets naked, screaming who am I? I took your advice and took the baby hair from that family album Mom made when she was into scrapbooking over to one of the private labs in the city, along with Dad’s ballcap and her favorite scarf. The technician was pretty sure they could extract enough DNA from them to help verify maternity and paternity. Once I establish that I am indeed a Crites, my brain can let go of what’s driving me crazy. The minute those results are in, I’ll frame them and hang them in my office. Then, the rest of this won’t bother me, and I can file it away as an anomaly.” She laughed. “Maybe I’ll even write a book about it.”

Mandy harrumphed. “You shouldn’t let this get to you. Of course, you’re part of the family and no stupid test is going to say otherwise. You’re my big sister, and I love you. So does Danny. He feels awful about all this.”

Melinda nodded even though she knew her sister couldn’t see her. “I know it’s been as tough on him as it has been on me. Danny called last night. He’s done nothing but apologize since we got back from the D R. As if this is his fault! It’s caused problems between him and Chloe, and that’s a shame. I really like her. The fact that her family’s results were all similar just made matters worse. Honestly, I’m okay with this. It’s probably just a case of atavism, you know, the throwback in the family. Maybe the original Crites did get to Ireland from the Basque region of France. The Basque were renowned fishermen. It’s not as if I was born with a tail and webbed feet. It’s not that big a deal.” But it was, and she was lying through her teeth.

That’s it. Stay safe, and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.

Welcome to April 3, and Day 2 of the challenge blog since Sunday’s don’t count, although I did blog yesterday. Mother Nature is having a rough month, or maybe that’s me, and it’s only a few days old. Here in Canada, where we measure temperature in degrees Celcius, the temperature on Saturday afternoon was 16, then plunged to -7 at night. Today, it’s raining–April showers and all that– and it’s a pleasant 11 degrees, but we’ll see -1 tonight. Now, that may be good for the maple syrup industry, but it sucks for most of us.

My theme this year is Did You Know? And today the letter B is all about Bifurcation. When I was teaching, one of my favorite things was the word of the day, and I would encourage my students to bring in words no one would recognize and challenge them. not only to look it up, but to use it in a sentence.

Everyone knows the famous Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken. Here it is in case you’ve forgotten it.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

As a writer, I’m constantly hearing the importance of varying the vocabulary, and in an effort to do that, Iam a great fan of the thesaurus, bearing in mind that the thesaurus gives you synonyms that do not always mean the same thing, or have the same meaning, and that brings me back to Bifurcation, the process in which something splits in two. Bifurcation may sound fancy and la-de-dah, but all it means is splitting or cutting in two. If a stream divides into two smaller streams, that’s a bifurcation. In Robert Frost’s poem, that road bifurcated. Now, go back and reread the poem substituting bifurcated for diverged. Not quite the same, is it?

The point I’m trying to make here is that while fancy words have a place, that place isn’t always in the book you’re writing. It is essential to grow your vocabulary as an author, and there’s always a place to insert unusual words, but do so sparingly and only when that word will somehow add to the narrative.

Here’s an example of using such a word in prose. This is from my current work in progress, Finding Melinda.

He took the glass of ice from her, the slight touch of his fingers conjuring up images of those hands caressing her body. She shook herself, forcing her mind away from the erotic thought. She’d better watch her alcohol consumption; otherwise, she might say or do something supremely stupid.

Marc added the ice to the wine. “There you go, just the way you like it. Water and wine at its finest.”

She smiled, aware of the laughter in Danny’s eyes. By now, he’d no doubt realized what had her so discombobulated earlier. He’d always teased her back in the day when she’d been getting ready for one date or another. She might not have been the most popular girl in school, but she hadn’t been a wallflower either. She did have a few social and flirting skills even if she hadn’t used them a lot lately. Reaching down, she tugged on the skirt of her dress which had crawled up a few inches displaying more thigh than it should.

Grabbing her wine glass by the stem, she sipped and then turned to Marc, well aware of the fact that, while he tried not to make it obvious, he did seem to be watching her closely. She hoped that meant mutual interest, but every now and then, she saw concern quickly hidden.

“Darcy’s extolled the virtues of Sydney, and Trevor’s told me all about the glory of the Cabot Trail, but you haven’t added much. Do you have a favorite spot they haven’t mentioned?”

Before he could answer, Trevor did. “Does he ever. I hope you like history.”

Danny shook his head. “Like it? She loves the stuff. Did a double major in English and History at university. She cleaned out the library when it came to historical novels, and she didn’t confine herself to any particular country or time, although I do recall a fascination with Ancient Greece and mythology.”

That’s it for B. Come back tomorrow for a Did You Know? featuring C

Read other blogs here: https://tinyurl.com/3we8aa84 

April 2! The sky is clear, the sun is shining, but it’s -7 Celsius (19 F), but thanks to the wind feels like -16 Celsius (3 F).

This week I want to highlight a scene from my romance, Wedding Bell Blues.

Romance, mermaids, cursed treasure, and more. MJ’s having a bad year. She’s canceled her wedding but refuses to give up the honeymoon. When she arrives on Paradise Island, she discovers her ex has changed the reservation.

Stranded, she has to rely on her first love, a man who sees her as his kid sister, for help. When Paul discovers the man behind her plight is the bully who made his own teen years hell, he gets MJ to agree to pretend to be his fiancée. Reluctantly, she agrees. Add in mermaids, treasure hunters, and Quimbois magic, and anything can happen—even falling in love.

MJ’s in for a wild ride! Read the free sample above. Have a great Sunday. Don’t forget to check back and follow my A to Z blogging this month.

Welcome to this year’s A to Z Blog Challenge. My theme this year is Did You Know? It’s a composite of things I’ve learned over the last ten years writing, researching, and editing. For each post I’ll publish, I’ll give the question and answer it, adding information on how I used it in my writing, and occasionally providing an excerpt from the book where it was used. I hope you’ll enjoy what essentially is a glimpse into my writing process.

This year, I’ve written two books in which I’ve used the same information but in a slightly different way. April first is for the letter A. Did You Know that Atavism occurs in humans as well as in plants and animals? In humans, atavism is often referred to as the throwback gene. When a man and a woman create a child, that child gets 50 percent of its DNA from each parent. But each child won’t necessarily get the same 50 percent from each parent. (More about this under the letter D.)

In biology, atavism is the modification of a biological structure. In humans, it refers to the reappearance of a trait that had been lost during evolution. Our genes do not determine who we are, but with atavism, they can sometimes serve as reminders of our evolutionary past. There are several common examples of atavism in humans which include: color blindness, extra nipples, extra fingers or toes, an elongated coccyx (“tail”), excess hair, third molars, sharpened eyeteeth, etc.

Scientists postulate that a person’s aggression may be described as atavistic because it supposedly goes back to the ancient days when humans had to fight to survive–think of cavemen battling their environment, barbarians fighting over food and land–come to think of it, we may not have evolved that much!

In “The Criminal Man”, first published in 1876, Lombroso postulated a theory to explain why some people committed crimes, while others didn’t. Essentially, Lombroso believed that some people were born with certain physical and psychological characteristics that made them prone to criminal behavior.

Nature versus nurture is nothing new and has been debated in both biology and society. It’s the argument about the competing factors which determine fate: genetics and environment. Even today, people are split on what has the greatest influence on a person’s life.

While I found the idea of a born criminal intriguing, I used the idea of physical traits and abilities’ aspect of atavism in my Paranormal Suspense/Psychic Romance novel Atonement as well as in my Romance Suspense Finding Melinda, both books to be released this spring.

In Atonement, my heroine Anca, has inherited abilities from long-lost ancestors. She’s more than a witch, and discovering what she can do, what her ancestor could do is both thrilling and frightening since the fate of those she loves hangs in the balance of her success or failure to recover certain artifacts and defeat a reincarnated god.

Although she was raised in an alleged haunted house by a Wiccan priestess, Anca Cole, a bartender with a degree in psychology, refuses to believe in magic, demons, ghosts, curses, or anything remotely supernatural. There’s a logical explanation for everything.
When her aunt has an accident, Anca rushes back to Salem, arriving home to realize that things aren’t what she expected. The family ghost exists and insists it’s time for Anca to accept and fulfill her destiny.
With help from Dr. Walt Tanner, the man who broke her heart, a couple of unusual cats, and an ancient parrot, Anca sets out to discover the truth about Cole Cottage and find the key to saving the future. This fight may have started more than three hundred and fifty years ago, but the war ends now.
Unless she and Walt can find what was lost, evil will prevail and destroy any chance they may have at a future together. Can their love overcome centuries of hatred, jealousy, envy, and greed, or will they be doomed to stay apart forever?

In Finding Melinda, the story revolves around a woman who’s always believed the fact that she doesn’t resemble her brother and sister who look like their mother is because she takes after ancestors on her father’s side. When she discovers she’s adopted, everything she knew about herself changes as she tries to identify who and what she is in light of this new information and find the family she never knew she had.

That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for a Did You Know ? about B.

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Welcome to the last post for the month of March and the first in my new Contemporary Romance, Finding Melinda. Have you ever taken one of the DNA tests they advertise? I did a few years ago as part of the research I was doing for a book I was working on at the time. The results were surprising, not Earth-shattering in any way, but they did lead me to discover aspects of my past that I hadn’t known. Finding Melinda is a purely fictitious story about what could happen if the results were completely unexpected.

Pierce’s eyebrows rose as he stared at the world map with its highlighted areas.

“Are you sure those are your results?” He leaned in closer.

“It’s my account, and this is my number,” Melinda confirmed, her lips pursed, her brow furrowed. “Is it possible they made a mistake? Mixed up the samples at the source?”

Pierce shook his head. “Anything is possible, but it’s unlikely. That particular company has a 97 percent accuracy rate.”

“Come on,” Mandy said, pouting. “Don’t keep us hanging.”

Melinda swallowed. “Well, according to this, I’m 68 percent French, 20 percent Basque, 7 percent Iberian Peninsula, 1 percent Greek, and a couple of other ethnicities each at less than 1 percent. What I’m definitely not is Irish. It’s as if I’m from a completely different family tree. Hell, I don’t even belong in the same orchard as you guys.”

“That’s got to be wrong,” Danny said, frowning. “Mandy and I have Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavia, and Western Europe, but none of what you have, and given we should have between 25 and 50 percent, they must’ve made a mistake. I’ll order another test when we get home, and you can try again. In the meantime, let’s put the bet on hold. The next drinks are on me. What’ll you have, ladies? Let’s not let this spoil our last day here.”

“Of course not,” Melinda said, her voice maybe a little too bright as she fought down her concern. “Mom did say I took after the Crites while you guys are Donners through and through. This is just a hiccough. Pierce, didn’t you say they were constantly updating results? You two have Western Europe. The last time I looked, that’s where France is.” She laughed. “Who’s to say the first Crites didn’t originate in France? Danny, I’ll have a Bahama Mama.”

Melinda stared at her results once more before shutting off her tablet, her fertile writer’s imagination coming up with one scenario after another before deciding on the most likely one. The hospital had made a mistake, and she and another child had been switched at birth. Hadn’t she always felt like the odd man out?

Her mother’s last words came back to her. You were my gift, our gift. A gift from whom? She looked out at the ocean, as silvery under the sun as the wrapping paper on the Christmas gift had been. If she wasn’t a Crites, who was she?

That’s it. Stay safe, and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.