Creative Writing with the Crimson League

November 1, 2023

UPDATE ON BOOK TWO: We have an editor, people! This is not a drill!

Since my editor for book one is not available, I needed to find someone else for book two. I’ve found a great someone, and I think we’ll be a great fit. I believe she will available for the manuscript in December, which is awesome, unless something has changed since I sent her the sample edit…

October 31, 2023

Tuesday Tunes: “Keep Holding On” by Avril Lavigne

This song was written for and featured in the film version of Christopher Paolini’s “Eragon.” I never saw the movie. I read the book, and liked the story, but I’ll be honest–I thought it was so poorly written that I couldn’t bring myself to continue the series. Despite all that, I have ALWAYS loved this…

October 30, 2023

Mondays are new opportunities

Mondays are ROUGH. I dread them. Everyone is tired and grumpy, including me. Work seems to have piled up over the weekend. No one is ready to leave the weekend behind. So, today I wanted to reflect that if each new day is a new opportunity, which it is, each Monday is in a sense…

October 29, 2023

Sunday Reflection: The rule of first things, and “You shall love the Lord your God”

In today’s Gospel at Mass, Jesus sets priorities straight. The says the first commandment is to love the Lord, our God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength. The second commandment, He says, is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is a reason…

October 28, 2023

From languages to football, 10 random facts about me . . .

I thought it would be fun to give you ten random facts about me today, so here goes!

October 27, 2023

Flashback Friday: The Books That Kept Me Up

There aren’t many books that I’ve stayed up late to finish, but the ones I have include: The only reason The Lord of the Rings is not on this list is that I saw the movies first, so I knew the basic story when I read them. Yes, Harry Potter was my introduction to fantasy,…

October 26, 2023

Thankful Thursday: thankful for second chances

Earlier this year, I got back to working out. I had a good run of using my resistance bands pretty much every other day. Then I discovered Pilates, and started doing Pilates videos from Youtube (for beginners). Then a Church program I volunteer with picked up again. I got asked to help out at a…

October 25, 2023

My villain is . . . right?

I now have two reviews that explicitly mention my villain–certainly my favorite of any of my villains–Zalski Forzythe. He’s the sorcerer who’s killed the royal family of Herezoth and taken over. He’s witty, intelligent, courageous, and . . . intense. He’s also RIGHT, in the sense that he has a deep understanding of the kingdom…

October 24, 2023

Tuesday Tunes: “Heaven” by Better Than Ezra and “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope”

For a couple of years now, I have realized that Better Than Ezra’s “Heaven” is a perfect fit for a particular climactic kind of scene at the end of book one of my Herezoth trilogy: “The Crimson League: The Fight for Hope.” Without spoilers, the chapter is titled “The Price of Victory” You can listen…

October 23, 2023

My to do list for today is actually an update: here it is!!!

I took today off work because I worked a mini-retreat of sorts this weekend with the Alpha course at my Church parish. I always take Monday off after an Alpha weekend. So, here’s what is on my to-do list for today: And there we go! Book two is almost ready for my editor. I’m excited…