Facets of a Muse

Examining the guiding genius of writers everywhere


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A retreat, a garden, and an upcoming launch

L to R: Potatoes, onions, beets

I’m back from my three-day writing retreat. It was hot, humid, a little rainy, but quiet, peaceful, and productive. Well, to a point. I’m still struggling with the story, and now with the upcoming release of Deadly Secrets in Plane Sight, I’m focused more on marketing and promo and less on the story.

I did, however, manage to get a few chapters written. They’re still more “draft” than “beta reader ready”, but I feel comfortable submitting them to my Writing Sisters for our retreat. And, despite the heat and humidity, I did get a few walks in each day.

purple prairie clover

When I got back home, I knew I’d have to spend time in the garden. We’ve been getting rain, nice amounts (almost too much by now, but the plants like it), and with the hot and humid weather, they’ve been growing well (and so have the weeds!). The mulch is a huge factor in keeping the weeds down.

L to R: beets/onions, cucumbers (brussels sprouts at far end), tomatoes

Everything seems to be doing okay. The onions look great, and so do the brussels sprouts. The potatoes are hit and miss: some are looking good, others have been attacked by a vine borer. We’ll see what happens. The cilantro is beautiful, and the cucumbers are doing well.

This year’s been a bust, though, for zucchini and pumpkins. I’ve replanted both 4 times, and still nothing. I’ll have to break the bad news about the pumpkins to my SIL. She always asks me to grow pumpkins for her so she can use them as decor in the fall. I had a bumper crop of pumpkins last year (three plants will do that!), so this year’s bust is just part of the balance, I suppose.

The tomatoes are also looking great. I do have to keep an eye on them for disease, whether it’s blight or whatever else. But so far, I’ve got some little green tomatoes.

tomatoes tied to cattle panels

The upcoming book launch is the next thing on the agenda (besides a book fair next weekend). It’s been a while since the last one (2019!!!) but I’ve learned a lot in the years since, and doing events for the collaboration has refreshed my memory. Now it’s a news release, newsletter, and finding a local bakery to make aviation-themed treats 🙂 .

So, today’s post is short, and my mission this weekend is to work through my pre-launch to-do list. For those in the US, enjoy the holiday weekend! Stay cool!


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Summer’s here, and a writing retreat

The past week or so it’s been nice and comfortable, weather-wise. Mid-seventies during the day, fifties at night. Perfect temps, at least in my mind. The weather wonks are predicting this will end, and the tropics will move in over the next week. Highs in the mid- to upper nineties with heat indices around 100. Kinda like France these days, apparently.

Ugh. On the bright side, we got some nice rain this past week, close to 2 inches according to the amount of rain in the dog dish on the deck. So, the garden is happy. I managed to collect a bunch of grass for mulch as well, so that helps. What doesn’t help are all those little white and yellow butterflies all over. Cabbage worms and cabbage loopers are the caterpillar forms of those butterflies. And of course I didn’t get the floating row cover applied to the brussels sprouts. I’ve been policing the brussels sprouts, wiping off the tiny eggs and mashing the few teeny caterpillars I’ve found. I just broke out the organic caterpillar deterrent Bt spray, so hopefully that’ll give the sprouts a chance to ward off those munchers.

Especially since I’ll be gone for a few days this upcoming week on a personal writing retreat. Yay! I’m going back to that place an hour away, this time during the week (as opposed to part of the weekend). What’s nice is I can work that first day (my regular shift) and head out after work, and still get there long before dark. With the Shire, it’s a ~3hr drive (and I usually stop and visit my dad on the way) so I take the day off.

Yes, it’ll be hot and sticky this week, but it’s right by a lake, and if I walk right away in the morning, and maybe in the evening, I won’t have to deal as much with the heat/humidity.

I find I really miss my walks. I haven’t been walking as much since we’ve gotten the dogs. I have started running in the mornings again (sporadically), but I have to leash the dog and tether her to the power line pole at the end of the driveway so she doesn’t follow me onto the road (the little one stays in the house, and she’s good with that). I figure eventually she’ll get the routine down and stay on the driveway, which is what she does when I go to check the mail. I don’t leash her anymore, and she stays where she’s supposed to. A run or walk down the road is something different in the routine, so she’ll have to learn that.

Finally got my website updated. Whew! The toughest part, I think, is the actual design. The relatively easy part is making it work. Now to finish up my sell sheet for the new book and get the whole marketing/promo thing going.

Ugh. As a writer, the marketing stuff is the most (?) important (after writing a great story, of course), but the least enjoyable (when compared to actually writing). I’ll end up doing some of that during my retreat, I imagine.

I am so looking forward to my retreat. The plan is to work on Book 3, to get at least the first few chapters written and the timeline/plot sorted out. A good chunk of that is fuzzy for me right now, but I’ll be with my Writing Sisters in about a month, and I know they’ll help me work out the missing pieces. There’s nothing like a gathering of writers to help you work out a plot!

Stay cool, everyone!

Sophie and Maggie


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Happy Solstice! Welcome (?) Summer!

Well, the longest day (of daylight hours) is here. I’m not sure if I should be happy or not. Sure, it’s the beginning of summer, but after the solstice, we start losing minutes of daylight every day. I mean, it’s kinda nice to be able to work outside until sunset, and realize that you’ve actually been out for three hours (figuring going out after supper).

Then again, summer means hot. It’s been very pleasant the past couple of weeks here in MN, with daytime highs in the 70s, nighttime lows in the 50s. Love being able to leave the windows open pretty much all day. I listen to the birds in our grove during work, and it’s just, well, nice.

Cover Reveal for Deadly Secrets in Plane Sight!

And this week I shared the cover for Book 2, the new Sierra Bauer mystery. Voila!

Release date: July 14, 2026

Woot! It feels great to have a new book coming out (especially one I wasn’t sure was going to get published). Except for all the other marketing stuff … ugh. I’ve got some stuff lined up, including a launch party at our local library, which is where I had the launch party for the first book. Now to delve into the world of paid promotions. I learned there’s only so much an author can do (for free) if they don’t have connections far and wide. I have more connections than I did when the first book was released, but not as many as, say, one of my co-authors for the collaboration. He’s the marketing guy; he seems to know everyone.

You can pre-order at Courier & Quill at this point. I’m not sure when my publisher will have the book available anywhere else. I’ll have to ask him if he can set up pre-orders for the ebook on Amazon or wherever. Stay tuned!

After she survived a near-fatal attack, her mentor and his family saved her. Now he’s dead and she must save those he left behind from the secrets he took to his grave.

In this next adventure, Sierra returns to a place she once swore she’d never go back to, the place where she almost died. The place she endured a trauma that haunted her for years. Why would she go back? To support her found family, if only because they came to support her when her brother died. And, like all good mysteries, questions surface that compel our intrepid amateur sleuth to stick around and solve the puzzle. And, of course, danger follows.

And yes, don’t worry, Quinn is involved as well 🙂

Now, I imagine someone somewhere is going to ask about Book 3. I turned in my police procedural (again), and I really, really want to work on the next book in that series, especially since it’s already drafted (needs work, but what draft doesn’t?). I suspect, though, that my publisher will ask about book 3 (since he asked to include the first chapter of it at the end of DSiPS and I had to tell him it wasn’t drafted yet (actually, I’ve written a version of it, but it needs major work)) sooner rather than later.

I mean, I have a rough idea of what book 3 will be, but right now it isn’t a solid idea of the plot. For that, I think I’ll need the help of my Writing Sisters, who actually gave me the initial idea for the crime. And I’ll be sending the first few chapters of Book 3 to them for our retreat in about a month and a half.

Which gave me a perfect excuse to schedule another personal writing retreat at that Airbnb I found a mere hour away. Yay! I’m so glad I found that place. I can’t wait to go back! Hubs suggests I try out another Airbnb in the area, so I’ve got that on my to-do list. It’s not that I don’t like the Shire anymore. It’s just that an hour’s drive is so much closer than ~3hrs. And I can head there after work vs having to take the entire day off (of course that also includes a visit with my dad, who right now is on a cruise to Iceland with my uncle (his brother)).

Anyway, enjoy the warm-but-not-hot temps, sunshine, and start to summer!

Flashback–when they both fit nicely in the chair 🙂


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Garden Update #1 – Looking good so far

L = Potatoes, R = onions

I promised a garden update, so here it is! It’s been a few weeks since planting, and things are looking pretty good so far, thanks to some nice rain this week. And the heat. Well, some of the plants (weeds?) like the heat.

The potatoes are coming up nicely, at least most of them are. I made the mistake of tossing mulch on the row, thinking the potatoes would be happy to grow through it. Except when I decided I should check on them, they weren’t as happy as I thought they’d be. I’ll have to push the mulch back into place once the potatoes get a bit bigger.

The onions are doing well. Nice and green, and most of them survived the planting. There’s always the few itty bitty ones that you’re never sure are going to make it. Next task: collect more grass to finish mulching them.

foreground: cukes and zukes

The cucumbers have sprouted, but the zucchini hasn’t. I’ve replanted the zucchini once already, but I think I’ll have to do it again. Along with the pumpkins. Those haven’t come up yet either. I planted bush cucumbers (yes, the packet said “bush”, so I’m crossing my fingers it’s accurate). I planted the bush cukes this year since we still have a stockpile of pickles from the last time I did pickles, I’m going to try and minimize just how many cucumbers I’ll get. OMG, last year I had boatloads from just 2 plants.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes are doing really well, thanks to the rain and the hot weather the past couple of weeks. It’s just about time to pull off the “buckets” (greenhouse pots with the bottoms cut off, a nice replacement for the old coffee cans we used to use back in the day) and train them to climb the cattle panels. I canned tomatoes last year, so this year I’m doing a “conservative” eight plants 😀

The peppers and eggplants (Hubs asked for eggplants. I warned him 😉 ) are also doing well, along with the kohlrabi and cilantro. I never worry about the cilantro. Or the dill, which I did plant even though I’m not planning to do pickles.

brussels sprouts

I started the brussels sprouts in the house this year with fresh seeds. They’re looking really good this year. I do have a floating row cover to protect them from those damn white and yellow butterflies (aka cabbage worms and cabbage loopers), but I need Hubs’s help to fasten the fabric to boards so it’s easier to manage and store at the end of the season. I do have Bt spray as a backup, but I’m hoping hubs will find the stuff I need so I can get the plants covered. I didn’t plant them last year, so maybe, just maybe the butterflies will have moved on and I’ll get a season of reprieve from their pestiness.

I’ve got some mulch in the garden, but I need more. We got a lawn vac that will help collect the grass from the lawn tractor, but the connection needs some adjusting for our particular lawn tractor. Until then, I might have to resort to raking by hand (since that neat rake implement isn’t on the tractor right now). It’s rained the past couple of days, so hopefully we’ll be able to cut some more grass this weekend. That is one thing I’ve learned over the years: MULCH is key to easier gardening. 100%.

Still chasing the weeding. We got some rain last night again, so the garden will be pretty wet today. Which is fine; I’ve got plenty of indoor chores to do (ugh!). Next week: Cover reveal for Book 2! Stay tuned!

Keep calm and Write on!

garden buddies


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Short and somewhat sweet

Photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.com

I know I promised more garden news this week, but there’s stuff going on today, namely a 2.5 hr road trip to my niece’s wedding. The garden, for those curious, is coming along nicely, along with a ton of purslane and a few scrappy pigweed seedlings. On the docket for the upcoming week: pulling the tiny weeds from around the onions and adding more mulch.

Last year I wasn’t able to collect as much mulch as I needed. This year is looking better, with better tools, namely a tractor with a sort-of rake implement that at least collects the grass into a pile I can easily rake. The latest tool, which I haven’t tried out yet, is a lawn vac for our small lawn tractor.

It has great potential, and I’m hoping it works well, because dang it, I don’t have the energy any more to rake grass in the summer heat that’s coming.

In any case, I promise a garden update next week.

On the writing side, I finally turned in (again) my police procedural revisions. Whew! Now on to Book 3 (I’d rather work on the second book in the police procedural series, but I have a feeling my publisher is going to ask about Book 3 sooner rather than later).

This week is forecast to be HOT and HUMID. Nothing like July/August weather in June. Ugh.

Have a great week! Happy Writing!

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