October 2026

Spooky season is here!

Ghosts and goblins galore with the occasional werewolf and vampire.

Then there’s the kids. 🙂

Halloween is my favorite time of the year, even though as an adult I don’t get to trick or treat here in the middle of nowhere. No parties, nothin’ but the early darkness. Faushing or however the Europeans spell it is the right Idea. Sort of a Halloween/marti gras type of thing in February for adults to dress up like vampires and human werewolves and party around the whole city. Happened in Germany while I was in the Army there and it spilled out into the streets between houses and other places. At least that was what I was told was happening. 12 hour shifts didn’t leave much time to socialize after sleep and meals. But it sure looked like fun partying and the costumes were beautiful and varied from century to century for the vampires and various garments for the weres. I enjoyed the little I saw.

We’ve had a bit of cool weather these last few days. Dad had to put on a coat, he thought it was too cold. 50 is cold when you’re used to 100. I just slipped on a long sleeved shirt. It does feel cold but I’m enjoying it for now. We’ll be back in the 70’s by Tuesday according to the weatherman.

The cats are down. Only 7 have been showing up at mealtimes. But Dad hasn’t been seeing any coons, Raccoons, on the trail camera. However he did see a coyote.

Still on the last chapter of the WIP, Deadly Sea. I’m also working on the next one, Dragon Mistress. I also pulled out my short story Museum 1944. I might add to it and get it out as well as a short collection. It fits spooky season but I might not be done with it and pubbed by Halloween. So I just may work on it anyway since it is the season. Maybe I can pub it in February as a Faushing thing. 🙂

Oh, Hootin an Hollarin was a bust. 3 books sold($15each) and 12 tiny dragons(2for$5). Of course I didn’t have any new books out so that made a difference. That’s why I need to get at least 2 books out before the end of this year. Triple Treasure was a bust too, but that I expected as there was competing events that weekend. I didn’t break even on either event. I paid for my food but not the booths. Next year with new books out I should at least break even, depending on participation.

Catch you on the flipside. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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September 2026

Hootin an Hollarin will be happening this month. Third Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of September.Craft festival of my hometown Gainesville, MO. There will be crafts of all kinds with demos for some things. I have my usual booth, but I didn’t get out any new books yet so it will just be my regular fare, books, bookmarks, and necklaces. Everything has to be made by the person one way or another. I order parts from Amazon for the bookmarks and necklaces and put them together. The books obviously are written by me, though printed by Amz. I also do some beaded things. If I’m not writing I’m fiddling with things like beads and jewelry parts. My fingers have got to be busy unless I’m reading.

We’re supposed to have this year’s American Idol winner this year at the festival. Which I hope means a lot of people showing up. It would be nice to sell out of every thing for once. We shall see.

The cats have been laying in the shade near the treeline and along side the house where the trees shade and the wind blows through the leaves. I’ve been keeping the water pans at least half full if not full during the day and we gave them some milk a few times. They don’t stir much during mid-day. As soon as the sun hits the horizon they start moving a bit though. Still only seven show up. I don’t know if the others are okay or not. They could be out in the woods where it is cooler. None of them have been chasing the few birds or squirrels that show up, they don’t even look at them. Though they have flicked an ear at them.

On the last chapter of my WIP and have decided the next WIP is going to be one of the Fallborn novellas. I wanted to get one book out before September but my muse did not co-operate. So I’m gonna finish Deadly Sea then do Dragon Mistress. Deadly Sea is third novella in the Elemental Voice Companion series which chronicles the busman holidays the characters take during the main series. The Fallborn series is separate, standalone books about strong women that have draconic support. Two are already out and Dragon Mistress is gonna be the third. I have other WIP open and started because my muse is fickle and doesn’t always stay on one story. How many you ask? There are about 40 on my computer, bits and pieces written on paper that are uncountable, and about 2 journals full of scribbles. Were I a vampire or immortal I still wouldn’t have time to write all of them. And every night I dream another scene that I am lucky if I remember even a third of by morning. I don’t think even a team of ghostwriters would or could help. My muse is just that fickle.

Catch you on the flipside. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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August 2026

Hot! Hot! Hot! Over a 100 in the sun here and 90 in the shade. It only cools down to the latter 70’s at night so it’s not cool at night when I turn off my A/C. Trailer A/C is not made to run 24/7 for months at a time. I can hear the compressor running rough so I turn it off for a few hours at night. And the humidity…

The cats lay under the back part of my trailer where there’s a bit of breeze or by the side of the house with its breeze and shade. Only seven cats have been showing up. One still has little ones. I worry about them in this heat. There’s plenty of water and mama still milks them though.

Almost finished with my WIP. I’m on the last few chapters where the confrontations happen. Added a bit of different supernatural to this story. All the stories lead up to a different confrontation and special ending. One more novella and one novel to go in this set of series and it will be done.

I have 5 other WIPs with chapter one done and most of the book bible completed. For my next to be pubbed book I don’t know which to do. Of course completed covers have to be taken into account. I haven’t gotten many done, especially recently. Money’s been tight and I have so many covers I want to get done that I have a hard time prioritizing, especially with how many books are in my head waiting to get out. I can never understand when a writer says they can’t write or don’t have anything on the burner. I get writer’s block but usually because too much wants to come out from different storylines that I can’t work on just one book. My muse has gotten stubborn a few times and wouldn’t let me work on anything but one book no matter that I wanted to work on a different one. OCD. There are just soo many books in my head that I can’t even sleep without dreaming about one of my storylines. I don’t relive my life I relive multiple lives from my characters. Interesting dreams for sure.

Catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment of Days of my life. LOL.

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July 2026

Rain is coming down and I didn’t get to give the ferals their lunch. They don’t like getting wet and just sit there staring at me if I put anything out while it rains. But I’m sure they’re hungry since I fed them a bit early this morning as I had to get blood drawn at 830am. Just my yearly blood draw for checking my levels for my meds but it meant I had to feed them a bit early and not all of them were there. I feel a little bad about that. I don’t like them to be hungry. They’re my adopted kids I guess you could say.

I got music playing, just above the sound of the rain on my metal roof. I like to listen to something when I write. Helps with my ADD. Bon Jovi, slippery when wet album. I like all the songs on that one. Upbeat and fast. Needed something to combat the hum drums.

When I lived in Springfield I went to book clubs Saturdays every month. Here in th middle of nowhere just the same old, same old, day in, day out. Nothing. Doing to town twice a week breaks the monotony but still town is not a big city like Springfield and there is nothing really to do. I miss the write-in in January (Jano) and the weekly meetings with fellow writers. I even miss riding the bus. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy alone time but here there is too much of it. I spend time with my parents of course but you can have too much of that too. I need to be able to spend time with people who share my interests. Emails and facebook groups Are great but I guess I’m old-fashioned. I want to spend time face to face with people, in the same room. I also prefer letters and postcards to emails. They don’t even teach cursive in a lot of schools anymore. Penpals are a thing of the past. I want to talk to people about my characters, my plots, dialog. My parents don’t understand my writng. They haven’t read a single one of my books. Dad doesn’t like to even read unless it’s a manual. It’s hard to keep plugging away when there’s no creative juice around you. I think that’s part of why my muse is so fickle with her time. But I’m a stubborn person and I won’t give up. I really can’t. So much in my head. I have to get it out one way or another.

Anyone want to be a penpal with me? Ask me questions or write a note and I send you a p/c or note with the answer.

My muse/brain showed me a few plot bunnies that are sort of reverse harem style, though the scenes themselves didn’t have any sex per se. But there were multiple males and one female. That’s usually not my scene but what my muse showed me piqued my interest so I wrote them down. I may do one of those after this WIP. I’m open to something new, but that just adds to how much is in my head.

Well, I guess I’ll catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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June 2026

Well, Summer is here. Took the skirting off my trailer, well most of it anyway. Let the wind whip under and cool the cats that are now lounging under there. Been running the A/C for a while now since it gets over 80 and the sun hits my trailer all day. During the winter that’s nice as I don’t have to run the furnace as much but during the summer it’s bad.

The male ferals have stopped chasing the females as much since it’s hotter now and the females have been clawing them up. Some of the kittens are now eating cat food along side Mama. A few haven’t shown up. The mamas are weaning their babies off milk and leaving the kittens at the feeding boards for a while before leading them off again. Most of the kittens still run for cover when I approach but they don’t go far. Big eyes watch me.

Still working on my WIP. Gotta little work done on it but it’s slow going right now. I keep getting distracted by other things. Other plot bunnies hop in for a bit before novella 3’s bunny kicks them away. Soo many ideas in my head. I need to be immortal to get everything written and to read all the books on my TBR list. That is if my muse lets me work. Fickleness is a state of being for her.

My new CD player is nice. Plays better than the cheap one for sure. I don’t have many CDs as I don’t like every song on a lot of the CDs groups put out. Most of them are from singer/groups from the early to mid 80’s. I was a teenager then. Lots of good rock n roll and country. Though I wasn’t in to a lot of the ‘popular’ ones like KISS. Paula Abdul and Bon Jovi were my listening pleasures, along with Alabama. I wasn’t tied to just one type or group. The song itself was what grabbed me.

Same with books. The story had to grab me or I’d put the book back. The cover didn’t matter to me as much as the back cover with the story laid out. Which is why I hate some of the new books with reviews on the back instead of the storyline. Just because Jack liked it don’t mean I will and if I don’t know what the story’s about I ain’t gonna get the book anyway.

Time to feed the cats and make sure the water pans are full. Catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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May 2026

Spring is in full bloom here. Pollen everywhere. My Dad has to wear a mask. With me my eyes water and I sniffle but it hasn’t gotten that bad, yet. It’s raining right now, been all day, so the pollen isn’t as bad today. I plan to get some writing done.

Five of our female ferals have kittens. The males are still feeling frisky but the ladies ain’t havin’ it. Screetches and claws come out if the males get too close.

I did the Triple Treasure Market Place May 9th. Only sold a few things, 2 books and a few of the mystery bags. The $1 box was popular as well. Lots of people looked and talked. Hopefully some people go to KU and read. I will be doing TTMP again in October.

I’m still working on my WIP, the 3rd novella of the Elemental Voice Companion Series. By September I plan to have it and another story done so I have new books for Hootin An Hollarin. The second story is still TBA as I have four other WIPs started. Since EVCS is under my Tina name I may do one under the T.L. mantle. I have sooo many stories in my queue. What I have written down is just a fraction of what is in my head. That’s why it takes me so long to write a book I think because I have so much in my head that things get crossed. My muse doesn’t stay on one thing for very long. As I’ve said before she’s fickle. Or has ADHD.

I got myself a cute little CD player that looks like a miniature record player so I can listen to music while I write. When I work on my stories I have to have background noise, either music or dvd playing. I have ADD so my attention can drift. But if I play something part of my brain is on that and another part is on the story. I have a cheap little CD stereo with speakers but I didn’t like it much. Not very cute looking. 🙂 And the remote for it went missing years ago. Now I have a cute player with a remote. Hours of good listening ahead. If only I could write faster.

Gonna finish my email now. I get a lot of spam, mostly scammers who want to promote or publish my books. They get file13ed without a look, though I do open some to hear their nice comments about my book which most of them obviously didn’t read. But it’s still nice to hear wonderful comments.

Catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for next installment.

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April 2026

April is here but not showery. We didn’t have much rain so far, not like last year. Folks around here are saying we’re going to have a dry summer this year. It wasn’t very rainy last year during the summer either but they’re saying it’s gonna be worse this year. I hope not. It’s already bad enough with other things that we don’t need that added.

The tux female Ashley wasn’t the first to have her babies; it was little White-Nose, the small orange and white tabby that gets picked on by the others. She had two oranges. Ashley had her five misc. a few days later. A couple of the others are showing bellies so we may have a few more soon, though they don’t look that far along. Mama cats usually have their litters close to our feeding boards or the sheds then move them within a few days, some like to keep close to our area to keep the possibility of coyotes and other pests from finding the newborns right away. But they do keep moving them around. Some of the ferals haven’t been coming around any more. We used to have about 15 but I’ve only been seeing about 10 consistently now.

I cancelled the Nixa library in-person event. I decided that if I went I didn’t have enough time to restock my books before the May event a two weeks later. With my luck I’d sell at the April event and won’t have enough for the May. Since the May is a slightly bigger event I’d go for that. And I had to make an appointment that day anyway. Certain things come up and you have to do what you got to do.

Triple Treasures Marketplace May 9th at Hardenville, MO is still on. I’ll be there before the official opening time of course setting up. If you want to catch me live I’ll be there.

I’m still working on my WIP. My muse is starting to actually work on it now so it should be finished before September’s Hootin and Hollarin. Hopefully I will get at least two books done this year. I have soo many in my queue.

I got to head into town now. Catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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March 2026

March Madness is here. And I’m not talking about sports. 🙂

Time Change, Ides of March, and St. Paddy’s Day came and went so far. The month is half over and I didn’t get much done writing wise, about 200 words. Not a good start. I got to get a book out by the middle of April if I want it for May’s in-person event. But my muse is just being so fickle. She comes up with ideas for stories and scenes but she doesn’t want to spend much time doing the actual writing. I sit down and write out a bit and suddenly she’s on to another scene or idea. It’s frustrating. But I am going to get two books out this year even if I have to stage a riot with my muse. 🙂

The ferals are being frisky. Males are haunting the feeding boards, however most of the females are still having none of it. I have to chase away a few of the more eager males. Our alpha feral is injured. He had gotten into a fight and his paw got injured so he’s not been around much. The two young beta males that hang around have been posturing. But they ain’t going to get into fights, they don’t like getting their fur ripped off. Our female tux cat is visibly pregs so she will probably be the first to have kittens. The other ferals still have their winter fluff so I can tell. But if the males have their way, it won’t be long.

The two in-person events are confirmed. April 25th at Christian county library, nixa branch and May 9th at Hardenville, MO. June is not happening as I’ll not have the funds. Things just don’t jive right now. Maybe if I win the lottery. 🙂

It’s getting hot in the trailer so I’m going to go outside and enjoy the fresh air. I think it’s too early to turn the A/C on but if it keeps getting hot in the trailer I may have to. See you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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February 2026

This is my birth month. Another year older. But not necessarily wiser.

I’ve been re-reading a mystery series that I just love. She hasn’t come out with a new book in that series in a while and her one website/blog has gone inactive. I hope she hasn’t stopped writing. I love the series and would love to see more.

Some writing did get done. I’m trying to slip back into my routine and get at least one book done by April. But social media is just so dang distracting. After I do my emails I just surf on in to FB and IG. I got 4 emails to look at, 2 are for book stuff, 1 for misc, and 1 is personal. Can take up a lot of time just on that, then I have 3 FB pages which I don’t even really update. I have hard enough time trying to stay current with IG. I think a lot of authors struggle with keeping up with social media. There are only so many hours in the day. We have daily activities/chores that we have to do. And a lot of authors still work a day job as well. I still think a brain to print interface needs to be invented, speech to print ain’t fast enough and can usually cause a lot of word errors.

We’ve been having some warm days, up in the 60’s. The cats are loving it of course. They’re being frisky. The males are chasing the females who are irritated with all that. Not time yet as far as they’re concerned. But you know males have only one thing on their minds when they think spring is here.

I signed up for two in-person events this spring. Author Expo in the Nixa Library is happening April 25 and Triple Treasures Marketplace in Hardenville, MO is May 9th. The TTMP is confirmed but I haven’t heard back from the Expo yet. But we have a while yet. I also signed up for the writer’s conference in June to save a place but I may not go as that one depends on several factors. More about them when it gets closer to time.

Dragon’s Heart has only sold a few copies and no one has rated it yet. I don’t know if that’s because it’s new or because people don’t think it’s worth a rating. My muse just wanted me to get it out of my head. It was taking up valuable real estate. It had been in my head a long time, sitting there like a stone. Other stories were bouncing off of it. I was having a hard time concentrating on other stories long enough to write. Some stories are like that. I promised myself that I would publish whatever I wrote, even if I considered them a ‘dud’. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure as they say. Each book still gets a going through for editing but no one’s perfect.

I got to feed the cats soon and I have to open a new bag. So I’ll catch you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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January 2026

This month has been busy. I had doctor and dentist appointments and I am still waiting on my mammogram appointment to get set up. That will probably happen in February. I am done for this month with appointments and can now get back to a routine. I’m going to try not to set a bunch of appointments in one month again.

I also got a couple of Amazon mystery boxes this month. Well more than a couple, about 5. Two I ordered and 3 gifted. I can see why it’s addictive and all over YouTube. It’s fun to see what you get in the box. I’ll be selling most of the stuff at the Triple Treasure Marketplace in May. I’m already signed up for that. Hopefully I will have at least one new book to sell then as well.

The weather has turned colder here in the 20’s and 30’s. But instead of writing anything I’ve been cuddling up on my bed with books. Well, when I’ve not been going to appointments. Though relaxing with a book after seeing the dentist is nice. The Season Disorder makes me really tired and I just didn’t have the gumption to do any writing, especially with the cold and going to appointments. However I did go through my WIPs and set them up. So I can access them better now.

We got a heated water bowl for the cats. During the day we leave it unplugged but around 5pm I plug it in. The sun keeps the water warm enough for the cats to drink but at night it freezes so we got the bowl. I also bought two new small metal water bowls to replace the ones near the feeding boards. Those will go out in the summer. The old bowls are dented from me hammering the ice out for 6 winters. They’ll last this winter but they are bad, bad to the bone. 🙂

I need to put away the groceries I bought today. Well the stuff I knew could wait until later. Was getting low on a few things. See you on the flip side. Stay tuned for the next installment.

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