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My favorite place to visit is the . I average a trip there once a week. It’s a relaxing place to walk, and the exhibits are so much fun to see. I suppose it was only a matter of time before some of the exhibits would influence my writing. I thought it would be fun to share some pictures that provided me the settings for which I planned my books.

But first, I want to share two pictures of owls that are in the desert dome of the zoo. I couldn’t resist. I am in the process of writing Anyone But the Marquess where the statue of an owl plays a role in the course of the story.

I don’t want to spoil how the owl plays a role in this particular story. But let’s just say that Guy Milton (Lord Quinton) has a panic attack over an owl statue in this book. If you read Midnight Wedding, you know why.

So anyway, I saw a couple of owls and decided to take these pictures in honor of Guy.

Alright, now for the setting part of this post�

The reason I decided to set Tagalong Bride in Arizona was because of the Desert Dome at the zoo. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how varied the terrain in Arizona is, and I picked a location that is full of trees, rather than the desert environment that inspired me at the dome. I’ll be rectifying this situation in Book 2 in the Love Under Desert Skies Series, The Hero Least Likely.

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Here are some pictures from the Desert Dome that inspired the creation of this series:

and

Another exhibit at the zoo that I fell in love with is for the sea lions, and the setting is the Northwest Pacific. After walking through this exhibit for a year and a half, I finally decided I had to write a book that took place in this setting. That is how The Wilderness Bride was born.

I took a story idea I had a couple of years ago and placed the heroine and hero in Oregon. Here are some pictures from this exhibit at the zoo:

and

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Every time I go to the zoo, I go through these exhibits and think of different scenes that might make up the stories as I’m writing them. It makes writing even more enjoyable.

I’m talking about my current works in progress, and the changes I’m making are minor.

I adjusted the text that I used in the covers in my Love Under Desert Skies Series.

I think I finally got the look that will work. *fingers crossed*

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I used on these. If any author is looking for a cover creator program that will remove a background from a model, let you try out different fonts that are royalty free, and is pretty easy to use, I would recommend checking it out. It doesn’t change a person’s hair color or dress color. But it does enough stuff that makes it worth me having a subscription to it.

Usually, I will buy a pre-made cover on and use BookBrush to add the text. (I did this for The Earl’s Jilted Bride, Worth the Risk, and Anyone But the Marquess.)

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Sometimes I go to The Book Cover Designer. Now, in this case, you purchase the cover and tell the cover artist what to use for the text. I did this on Secret Admirer and Midnight Wedding.

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There are times I do go direct with a cover artist. Unfortunately, some no longer to be in business. I did some searching. One’s LLC is now dissolved. Another doesn’t seem to be active. The website and blog are gone. There are only three that seem to still be around. This is why I try to stick with pre-made covers or do them myself. If I ever want to add to a series, it’s easier to keep the “look� of the series if I did the books myself. Otherwise, I have to get as close to the “look� as possible.

Okay, so this wasn’t supposed to be a post on my covers. Let’s get to the other tweak.

I modified a couple of parts in Anyone But the Marquess.Due out October!

I was going to use a subplot that I thought would play out well for the main plot, but it fell apart 3/4s of the way into this story. I was going to have Lydia experience a falling out with her two friends, Rachel and Carol. Then she was supposed to become friends with the main character, Elizabeth. And somehow, Elizabeth was supposed to help bridge the gap between the friends. But the story never went in that direction, and to make it go there would have felt wrong to the flow of the story. I spent last weekend revising this subplot so that it’s no longer there. Now I’m back on track with where I need to be. The story is better now because of it.

I made changes to the personality of one of the characters in The Hero Least Likely.

I don’t want to say too much about this one since Tagalong Bride isn’t out yet. Let’s just say that I had a couple of people read over Tagalong Bride, and one of them really did not like a particular secondary character. Since I am bringing the full cast of characters into The Hero Least Likely, I need to work on the character that she didn’t like. Thankfully, I wasn’t too far into this one. I just got three chapters in.

Last weekend and partly into the beginning of last week, I rewrote key parts of this one. It took more time than I expected. I figured it would be easier since I wasn’t far into the story, but it took me longer to decide who this character needed to be in order to be more likeable. I know the character now, so this story is where it needs to be. I like this direction much better.

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So anyway, those are the tweaks I’ve made. I’m hoping that everything in these stories will go smoothly now.

I know I’ve done posts about AI in the past. If you’re bored of this topic, please disregard this post.

Artificial Intelligence is going to be disruptive in many ways, and one of the ways it is going to be disruptive is in the writing industry. Don’t get me wrong. AI has a good side. For example, I am grateful to the advancement of technology to create digitally narrated books because when an author has almost 100 books published, it’s not easy to pay a human narrator to do all of them. I also think technology will be helpful in successfully translating books to different languages. One thing that would be fun is to see technology advance to the point where authors can make “movies� or a “tv series� off of their books. AI would be beneficial in all of this. There are some exciting uses of AI.

But I don’t like the idea of using AI to write the actual stories. Maybe it’s my age. I’ll be 50 in October. (That sounds older than I actually feel. I feel like I’m 32.) I still think AI might be helpful in brainstorming when stuck in a book, and it can probably be helpful with creating book descriptions. I tried to do that a couple of years ago, but I ended up just talking to writer friends instead. The almost ‘half a century old� girl in me prefers the old fashioned way, I guess. And that part of me thinks a human being is best suited to create and write the book. I realize a lot of writers argue that they create the idea for the story but let AI do the writing for them. Then they go through and clean things up. In my thinking, if you’re having to go through and clean it up anyway, then you might as well write the first draft yourself. But I know that sitting down and writing the first draft does takes considerable time to do. It’s not something you can spit out in a few seconds like AI can. So there is the time factor to consider. It’s easier to edit something than it is to create it.

And I wonder if this makes me a dinosaur in the writing arena. I know what happened to the dinosaurs. They became extinct. Maybe AI will get so good that the books will be on par with what a human writer can do. Maybe, in some cases, AI will be even better. It’s hard to say when the technology is still new. But there is one thing AI will never do, and that’s create a something that comes from the heart.

There’s something to be said for having a human being create the story. When a human being is writing the story, there is an intimate connection between the characters and the storyteller. The writer is with those characters every step of the way. The writer feels everything the characters do. (At least they do if they’re doing it right.) There’s magic in that. And I believe that magic reaches out and connects the author with the readers. I can’t explain it, but there seems to be a bond that develops between an author and the reader through the story. When I communicate with readers who enjoy my vision for my work, I feel like I’m with a friend. Is that corny? Probably. But I love that connection. It’s one of the best things about being an author. I don’t see how that same kind of connection can happen when AI gets involved in the writing process.

Also, AI takes away the joy of creating new stories. I’m here because I want to write. I’ve been through burnout, and yes, it really is hard to write when you’re in that phase. But once you push through that phase, the creativity flows again. In going through burnout, I learned you need to take breaks, do non-writing stuff you love, go at a pace that fits your lifestyle, and set boundaries with others (and yourself) so that you don’t end up exhausted. I wonder if a lot of authors who are using AI to write their books are doing it because they’re in burnout, and they have to keep paying the bills with their writing income. AI doing the writing is a shortcut, and shortcuts are convenient. Treating writing like a business does put pressure on the author to produce content. It’s not like writing for a hobby where you can write when the muse shows up. Sometimes that muse takes a vacation, and there’s no telling when the muse will come back. In a business, you write whether you feel “inspired� or not.

I am all for treating writing like a business. I would like to make money at this as much as anyone else, but I don’t want to do it at the expense of not writing my books. Books are as valuable for emotional reasons as they are for financial reasons. There’s nothing better about being a writer than escaping into the world you created. I love my writing days again. During burnout, I lost that joy. When you have that joy back, you no longer take it for granted. AI can’t give you that kind of joy. AI might produce a book, but there will be something missing.

I’ll end this post with a final note. We don’t need to make “six figures� a year to make it with our writing. If we lower our expenses and learn to manage our money well, we can easily do it on less than the golden “six figures� that gets lauded all over the writing community. My advice, for what it’s worth, is to take inventory of how much you actually need to make in order to pay your bills and have about 10-20% to save aside. Obviously, you need an emergency fund. Three to six months is the general advice. Some even say to set aside a year’s worth of expenses. This also depends on whether someone else is bringing in some money into the household, if there are any dependents (children or elderly parents), or if there’s something else you need to pay for, such as medical bills. Oh, and don’t forget taxes. You have no option but to pay that bill. Sit down and create a plan to address how much money you need each month in order to check all of those boxes. My guess is that a good majority of people don’t need “six figures�. I know I don’t. That’s good news. It means we don’t have to feel so rushed to get books out all the time. That takes the pressure off from being tempted to let AI do the writing for us. I think what readers value most is the connection with their favorite authors. It’s a slow growth strategy, but it’s one that will last.

I recently came across this neat tool from author Joe Solari. It helps you factor in writing expenses and how much you need to write in order to make a profit. I thought it was a neat tool so wanted to pass it along since I am wrapping this post up with a talk about money.

Thanks to an author who contacted me last night, I became aware of two scammers on Facebook who are pretending to be me. I have a huge favor to ask of those of you who are on FB. Will you please report these as fake accounts?

Here are the fake accounts:

and

Apparently, these scammers are sending messages on FB and trying to use my name to phish for personal information and/or purchase marketing services. The author who told me about this didn’t let the scam go far, which is a relief. I would hate for anyone to be duped into doing something that is not in their best interest.

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I have created a FB account to help counteract this nonsense.

Now, I have decided to go ahead and create a FB account to help counteract this. I remember years ago that an author had the hardest time getting a fake account removed. She had to get on FB, too. So I am trying to stop these scammers, too.

I have not been on FB for years, so I wasn’t able to create a username. My profile doesn’t have a neat username after the �.com/� part. It has a series of numbers and symbols. But this one is my legitimate profile.

I used a newer picture of myself for the profile picture.

I am with my husband and kids, but I focused in on my face. So look for the short person on the right with the black hat.

And I used this cover photo:

If you see those two things, you know you’re on the right profile.

I’m not too happy with that cover photo, but it’s the best I could come up with on short notice.

I wanted something to quickly help let you know you can trust the profile, and to do that, I had to use pictures I have never used before on any social media platform.

Here is the link to my legitimate profile page:

I feel so out of touch with how FB works. I’m not sure if they will allow self-promotion, but I will use this profile to let people know about my books. I don’t have much of an exciting life personally. My books and the characters are real interesting parts.

If you want to friend me on FB, please send me an invite. I’m afraid to extend an invite right now since these scammers have already gathered quite a few “friends�. Once this all settles down, I’ll start extending invites myself.

I hope that all makes sense. I’m writing this late for me. I should have been in bed two hours ago. But I wanted to alert everyone on what’s happening before the scammers are able to reach anyone else.

Today I wrote a scene that, quite frankly, surprised me. I didn’t see it coming until I was writing it. (This often happens when I’m writing because the story evolves as I’m creating it.)

Remember Felix and Oscar from Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)?

They got into a fight today. This happened in Chapter 20 of Anyone But the Marquess. (I’m over 3/4 of the way into this book now, so the fight shows up later in the book.) However, now that I see how things have been going between Felix and Oscar throughout this book, I suppose the fight was to be expected.

Usually, these two will have a difference of opinion and let it go, but they didn’t do that today. Today Felix told Oscar that Oscar can’t keep doing his lab experiments in the townhouse. To be fair to Felix, Oscar did just admit that some of his chemical solutions have the potential to explode.

Oscar was really upset that Felix doesn’t want the lab in the townhouse. He accused Felix of using him to fix things so he doesn’t have to pay a servant to do the handyman work. (Oscar did serve as the handyman in Midnight Wedding.) Oscar also accused Felix of not seeing the value in his experiments. The specific thing Oscar is currently trying to create is a love potion. (So you can see why Felix is skeptical about it.) I’d been wanting to feature a character who was working on a love potion since about 2012, and I’m happy I can finally address this now.

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This fight came at the perfect time. I was struggling with what to do about Oscar. I was afraid that I was going to be stuck with making Oscar a bachelor forever. But now I don’t have to. Oscar is so mad at Felix that he has decided to pack his things and leave. He’s also taking the lab with him.

I can’t end the series with things hanging in the air like this. I had been debating whether to wrap this series up with Anyone But the Marquess or to let it continue. I typically don’t write more than 4 or 5 books in a series, but this one needs to go on. Oscar’s book will be next in the series. I only have a vague idea of what to do for him, but it will involve some kind of scandal because that is the only way a lady is going to marry him since he’s so messy. Also, Oscar isn’t interest in marrying anyone, either. So a scandal is the only way this romance is going to happen.

I’m sending Oscar to Lord Dayton’s residence. Lord Dayton is a character I introduced toward the end of The Earl’s Jilted Bride. He’s Lord Wright’s friend who likes to put on different disguises, and he uses these disguises to do the work others pay him to do. I brought Lord Dayton into Anyone But the Marquess in order to set the stage for his romance, which is later in this series. He might be a good character for Oscar to try the love potion on. (The attempt will fail, but we’ll end up giving Lord Dayton a wife out of it somehow.)

These are the books currently in this series:

I’m hoping to get Anyone But the Marquess out in October. *fingers crossed*

I am thinking there will be three more books to this series. I don’t have titles for those yet, but I do have two covers in the waiting. I’ll keep you updated as I figure out more.

Coming August 2024

This is the first book I completed in over a year, so this is a huge deal for me. There were moments when I thought I’d never finish another book again. I guess burnout led to doubt, and doubt led to depression. But I had some people encouraging me along the way (thank you!). When I finished this book, I realized that I still have books left in me to write. So this is one of those books that has a special meaning to me.

Shotgun Groom (Joel Larson’s story in the Nebraska Series) was another book that marked a special occasion for me. I finished that one after I first dealt with someone stealing my books. I was so discouraged and wanted to quit. But (again thanks to the encouragement I received), I kept going. Completing Shotgun Groom after a month of battling with Amazon to get the stolen books removed renewed my energy for writing.

So these books that give me a renewed sense of purpose don’t come along often. Tagalong Bride is the second one since I started self-publishing ebooks in 2009. (I did some vanity presses before then, but I don’t count them because those books never went anywhere.)

I’m excited to be writing again. I feel like I’ve taken a new turn in this venture. I don’t really know how to explain it except that I’m finally having fun again.

This book will be out in August. I haven’t set up a date yet. I am planning to put this on pre-order so I have time to get links and posts made in advance. I’ll keep you updated on this in the weeks to come.

I used to think that business plans were for writers who were more focused on writing to market. I didn’t realize that even writers who write for passion can benefit from them. This realization came to me when I sat down to evaluate what I’ve been doing for the past two years. I was going through burnout, and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I knew I still loved to write. I was just having trouble getting excited about writing, and I didn’t know how to get that joy back. (Quite side note: I came across this article today that I think can help authors who may be struggling with burnout. I recommend reading it.)

Back to this post�

Why create a business plan?

If you’re writing what you love, then that takes a big chunk out of the pain of writing. I still think there’s nothing worse than writing something you hate. If what you love lines up with what’s popular in the market, you have the best of both worlds, and there’s nothing wrong with looking for an angle within your preferred genre where you can pick a trope or two to make your book more appealing to more people. I don’t believe that you need to choose between writing to market or writing for passion. I do think you can overlap the two. You just don’t want to go so far off into the market that you lose the passion for what you’re doing.

I think a business plan helps, regardless of why you’re writing. It’s not enough to wait for the muse to show up. You need to be intentional about beginning and finishing your books, and you have to be smart about it. You can’t push yourself so hard that you burn yourself out. You also can’t be so lax that you barely make any progress. You need to find the middle ground.

A business plan should help you complete the stories you start, and it should give you plenty of breaks so you can keep going for the long haul. It should be flexible. This plan, however, should have a deadline. The deadline is your goal, and you need one for every step of the way in order to stay on track. Deadlines are necessary to stay focused. You need a deadline for the first draft. A deadline for the cover. A deadline for the edits. A deadline for when you will publish the book. You can even set deadlines on when to promote your book.

The key to making deadlines you can stick to is to make them doable. They have to be ones you can reach. No two writers are alike. We all have different paces that we can write books. So I encourage people to look at what their sweet spot is. Every writer has a sweet spot. This sweet spot is the number of books you can comfortably write in the course of a year.

The sweet spot will give you a realistic plan for your own writing goals.

To get an idea of what your sweet spot it, I suggest looking at a couple of things. Over the years, how many books have you published? What is the average word count of those books? The longer you’ve been writing and publishing, the clearer this sweet spot is to see. If you’re just starting out, then start tracking these things down until you notice a pattern.

Once you know how many books you tend to publish in a year and how long those books are, you can start your plan. If you’re happy with the number of books you typically put out in a year, stick with that goal. If you would like to get more out, why not raise the bar higher? If you’re burned out and need a break, maybe it’s best to pull back and publish less books for the next year.

An example of how to create a business plan:

Here’s an example of what I did to give you an idea of what you can do to create your own plan:

I tend to publish six books a year. My average word count per book is 60,000 words. (I haven’t done this for the past couple of years due to burnout, but before then, I was pretty stable with that number.) I sat down and multiplied how many words total I tend to write.

60,000 words X 6 books = 360,000 words

Then I took 360,000 words and divided it by 52 weeks (since there are 52 weeks in the year).

360,000 words/52 = 6,923.07

I rounded up that up to 6,924.

So to reach my goal of 360,000 words a year, I need to write 6,924 words a week. Now I want to have three days off a week to give myself a break. So I decided to take 6,924 and divide it by 4.

6,924/4 = 1,731 words

That means I need to write 1,731 words on the days I write.

But then I wanted to make sure I’m hitting my goal of 360,000, so I reversed the formula. (I learned long ago to double check the math, especially since math isn’t my strong suit.) I multiplied 1731 by 4, I came up with 6,924 words a week, which checks out. So then I multiplied 6,924 by 52 and got 360,048. Since I rounded up the word count from 6,923 to 6,924, this discrepancy makes sense.

So anyway, that calculation helped me develop my own business writing plan to produce six books a year.

This is a very doable goal for me. I can write 1731 words in about 2-3 hours, and that factors in the breaks I take to give my eyes a rest. (I don’t want to strain my eyes doing this.) Allowing myself three days off every week will give me time to rest my mind, and hopefully, avoid any burnout in the future.

Time will tell if this strategy will work for the long term, but already, it makes the task of writing six books a year less daunting. Let me know if you give something like this a try or if you have a business plan that works for you.

I’m very excited about the stories I’m working on and where the series is headed for these books.

I’m almost done with Tagalong Bride.

Love Under Desert Skies Series: Book 1

(In case you’re wondering why I’m not using the updated cover, I went back to this one because I like the look of it.)

The sister has been rescued, so here’s not much more to go. Currently, I’m wrapping things up for the main couple in this story. As you probably know by now, I like to make Book 1 the foundation for the rest of the books in any series I write. I had a request to feature a hero or heroine who was older than average. I think the request was for a character to be in the last 30s or in the 40s. In this series, I will do that. I wasn’t sure if it was going to work for Book 2 or 3.

That’s why I spent some time setting up the foundation for both of those books. I had to figure out the framework for Books 2 and 3. The hero of this book is Lucas. His sister is Bernadette. Bernadette’s book will be Book 2. In order to figure out which man to fix her up with, I had to give a few scenes in her point of view. Now, I have it figured out. I will be going with a heroine in her late 30s in Book 3. I couldn’t get too much older than that since the hero of Book 3 will be in his late 20s. I have never done a setup like this before and am looking forward to doing it. But first, I have to get to Book 2.

The Hero Least Likely

Love Under Desert Skies: Book 2

This is Bernadette’s book. I wanted to take my characters across actual desert terrain in Tagalong Bride but was unable to since Flagstaff doing north is mostly trees. (I have been learning so much about Arizona while writing this series.) So I did some research and picked out an area to send these characters that will actually take me to the desert. Long story short, one of my favorite attractions at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha is the Desert Dome. Before starting this series, I thought it’d be fun to write a series that took place in an environment similar to the dome. I picked Arizona because I went to a writer’s conference in Phoenix years ago. (Good memories from that one.) I picked Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon at random. As I was looking over the terrain while sending my characters to the Grand Canyon, I saw that there were a lot of trees and realized I had to change my scenery in the story to match it.

Anyway, this is the book where I can finally get in the desert. But I need a reason to send my group of characters there. So I decided to have them go after some outlaws who are on their way to get alleged treasure near Quartzsite, Arizona. During this journey, a romance will blossom. I don’t want to say who the hero is until after Tagalong Bride is out.

I will say, however, that I thought it would be fun to throw in some spooky legend to add some humor and suspense. (If you’ve read enough of my books, you know I like to throw in something a little “spooky� from time to time.) I stumbled across the legend of the Red Ghost that was big in the last 1800s and early 1900s in this area of Arizona. The creature is said to be a huge red camel that goes around carrying a human skeleton on its back. There are quite a few reports of it from the people in that area of the time that will be fun to add to the mix. (Fun fact: the military was bringing camels over here pre-Civil War to go across arid terrain. Hence why this beast is a camel, though there was speculation that this thing was 30-feet tall. But with legends, we often find the more sensational, the greater the stories tend to be.)

So anyway, that is the backdrop for this story. I’m looking forward to it.

I’m over halfway into Anyone But the Marquess

Marriage by Obligation: Book 5

I didn’t make as much progress in this one as I wanted. I got very little done last month. So I have little to report on it. I am at a turning point where the main characters are finally getting along, but the heroine isn’t ready to fall in love with the hero yet.

I have an announcement to make that has been over ten years in coming. This will be my 100th romance when it’s done! Back in 2010, my goal was to write 100 romances. It’s exciting to finally be reaching that goal.

I have started a new historical western series.

For this one, I decided to travel northwest to Oregon. The inspiration for this location comes from another Henry Doorly Zoo exhibit that features the northwest Pacific.

If you read Suitable for Marriage, you will remember the wedding scene between Erin and Alex. In this, I brought Amanda (Larson) and Ben (characters from The Imperfect Husband) into the story. Amanda and Ben were never able to conceive their own children, so they ended up adopting. One baby they had just adopted in Suitable for Marriage was a girl whose birth mother couldn’t keep. I always wondered what happened to the birth mother. I also wondered what her backstory was. Why was she unmarried and pregnant? Why did she head out to northwest? What happened to her? That is why I’m writing this book.

While writing the opening scene of this book, I bring in not only the birth mother (Lisa), but I have her come into Ocean City with a family. Specifically, this family is composed of an elderly mother and her two grown children, a son and a daughter. The son and daughter will probably be featured at some point in this series. It’s too early to tell yet. I have only finished one chapter. But I already know what situation with daughter is going through. Though the daughter is not the main character in this book, she will play a big role. Beyond that, I will have to find out how the brother and mother factor into the equation. All I know is that the brother is not a significant player in this story.

I really need to get back to writing. I find it helps me when I escape into the written word. There’s nothing better than being transported from where I’m sitting in front of the computer and slipping into a story I am creating. And though I am creating it, I swear the story takes on a life of its own. When I get into that deep of a level of writing, I feel like I’m just reporting what the characters are doing–rather than consciously coming up with it. I don’t know if that makes sense to people who aren’t writers. Maybe even the plotters have no idea what I mean. Have you ever watched a movie and got so engaged with it that you forgot you were watching it? That’s what writing is to me. I start out at the computer and am typing, but at some point, I forget I’m typing. I somehow get “transported� into the story. I become the character whose point of view I’m writing.

So anyway, today was the first day in a while that I finally had a chance to sit and write. I forgot how wonderful it was to be immersed in the stories. I know how difficult it is to separate the creative aspect of writing from the business side of it. The two are really different. The business side is the potential to either make money to pay bills (or to keep paying bills if you’ve reached that goal). It needs attention. Even writers who write for passion have to spend some time with the business angle in mind. It’s one of the frustrating parts of writing to me. If only there wasn’t a need to pay the mortgage or rent. If only there wasn’t a need to buy food to eat. If only there wasn’t the need to buy clothes and other necessities. But we live in the real world where these things matter, and there is no job on earth that I would rather have than this writing one. I get why authors want to make a living with this. It is stressful to worry about marketing, but I would rather go through that stress and be able to write. At the end of the day, writing is what defines me. It is the thing that gives me purpose. I bet the writers reading this understand what I mean by that. We can do something else, but this is the “job� that most fulfills us.

Anyway, I have missed getting immersed in my stories. I missed these characters. I missed spending time in the worlds I create. So I’m going to renew my efforts. I think the break I took was good. I think I needed to get away from writing since I was in burnout mode. But I feel like it’s time to get back to it. The creative side is screaming to come back out. And I’m looking forward to what the stories I’m working on will take me. I’ll post about them soon.

I figured one day this time would come. Writing income has been a roller coaster for years. Up to now, I’ve been able to manage it by adjusting the budget. This time, however, I can’t just tighten the spending. I need some more income to come into the house. Long story short, there was mold up in the attic, and the cost to resolve that problem depleted my savings. While the roofers were inspecting things, they found soft decking under the “new� roof the previous owner put in. The home inspector missed all of this. I have about five years to come up with $25,000 to $30,000 to replace the decking and roof. My husband works, but we need more money, and my writing income isn’t enough.

Needless to say, I’ve been stressed out. The way I work out stress is to walk. I am now averaging 6-10 miles each time I walk. Last year, I was doing 3-5 miles, so that’s a nice improvement. If it wasn’t for the walking, I don’t know what I’d do.

I do have a job interview lined up in two weeks. If this doesn’t work out, I will keep applying. I’ve made adjustments to my resume a couple of times and think I finally have a version I’m happy with. There is an online course I’m going to take starting in July on how to be an author assistant. This would be a side gig. I did consider being a Door Dash or Uber Eats driver. (I might still look into that.) But at the moment, my first choice would be in the author assistant department since I have always enjoyed helping authors out in the past.

Anyway, that’s why I haven’t been on here much. I’m trying to decide the best thing to do given the situation I’m in. For my next post, I’m thinking of sharing the new eating lifestyle I’m on that has yielded great results. Second to the walking, it has helped a lot to reduce my stress.