Category: Life

• November 25, 2023

  Write every day?

  My thoughts on whether a writer really needs to write EVERY single day have evolved over the years. I think on one level that writing daily is a nice goal, but it’s not absolutely necessary. First, I think we have to recognize in a healthy manner that life is going to intervene sometimes, and that’s…
• November 15, 2023

  Decisions to make . . .

  I’ve recently been helping out with two programs at my local parish (Catholic Church), one on Mondays and one on Wednesdays. The one on Wednesdays has finished and has a hiatus until January, when a new course begins. The one on Monday has three sessions left. I feel tired and a bit burned out, and…
• November 11, 2023

  A new, forced rhythm to the week

  Lately, with multiple Church programs, this blog, and a day job during the week, I’ve been forced more than usual to set aside Friday night through Sunday for my writing (at the moment, revising book two of my trilogy), without much writing at all the rest of the week. In one way that’s not a…
• November 10, 2023

  What I love about being bilingual

  I’m so grateful to be fluent in Spanish. Here are some of my favorite things about being bilingual access to new cultures, literature, and art I’ve been blessed to be able to spend quite a bit of time in Spain, and Madrid is my happy place I happen to LOVE linguistics, and Spanish is my…
• November 9, 2023

  Thankful Thursday: Thankful that I had a real childhood

  I’m grateful that I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, when it was MUCH easier to have a real childhood–out playing in the yard or in the pool, reading books, or playing dolls, house, or school with my sisters. No social media. No smart phones. I cannot imagine being a kid with all that…
• November 4, 2023

  My authorpreneur/ small business goals for November

  Big goals for November here! We’ll see how they go. I’m hoping to: get manuscript of book two in shape for my editor, who can take it for December 1. That shouldn’t be a big problem. contact two local bookshops about getting book one in stock (even just a few copies) contact those stores or…
• 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 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! I have studied four foreign languages: Spanish most intensely (I’m fluent), also French (quite a bit of study there), and Portuguese and Latin (less so). When I was in my doctoral program for Spanish lit, I had…
• 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 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy The Phantom of the Opera Harry Potter 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…
• October 21, 2023

  Customer service is crazy

  As I write this, I’m watching the order details on the phone charger I ordered from Apple because it is shipping, apparently, to my old Chicago address. I chatted with a rep, and she can’t assist me as she can’t find the order in their system yet. She told me to check back in an…