Here you’ll find progress on current books, behind-the-scenes insight and story inspiration, as well peeks at my life on rural, (usually) rainy East Hawaii Island.
The Blog Menu Dropdown highlights three categories, Hawaii Life(pretty self-explanatory), Stories I Love (also pretty self-explanatory, but includes books, movies, and TV), and Magpie Moments (bits I snatched from real life and incorporated, magpie-like, into my fiction).
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Ah, yes, another New Year is hard upon us. If you’re not going out to celebrate, I hope you have all of your entertainment and dining options standing by, as well as any appropriate medications for your pets (and perhaps for you, to deal with them). Today my husband is picking up more Valium for our dog Fred, who—thanks to a few neighbors with more guns and fireworks than sense—has been working his way slowly but surely through the bottle and possibly toward doggie rehab. With the exception of sleep-disrupting dog anxiety, I’m not really feeling the New Year’s thing Read more…
Well, I’m back in rainy Hawaii this week. My jet-lagged brain is still struggling to make complete sentences, but my sloughing skin has never been happier. 😉 I’ll be sharing more about my visit to West Virginia soon, along with whatever pictures I can filch from my husband and mom (my position in the back seat, along with my tendency to forget my phone/camera, left me photo-less). For now, I’ll just say it was cold (high temperatures in the teens) and dry. Did I mention the d-r-y? Traveling anywhere from the islands is always… let’s just say involved. But the Read more…
This is a “pre-recorded” blog post because I’m currently in the midst of a quick visit back to my hometown in West-by-God-Virginia. (Not to mention, mostly without internet.) You may recall that my upcoming new series, the Dead Hollow Trilogy, is set in a fictional Appalachian town, so this visit isn’t just about potato candy and apple butter. (Mmm… potato candy. Apple butter.) As much as I’m looking forward to spending quality time with friends and family, I’m also looking forward to grilling them. Interrogating them. Picking their brains about all the random bits and bobs that have come up for Read more…
Today, I’m sharing the pictures my internet couldn’t handle last week, but first, thank you for the commiseration with the last post’s kvetching. Good news—the rain has finally abated to occasional showers, although with heavy vog (volcanic fog) and cloud cover, nothing is drying out in a hurry. I’ve mentioned before that with 150 inches of rain a year (380 cm), unless we’re in the middle of a drought, it’s always wet here. That’s why any opened food packages (chips, cereal, etc.) go in a sealed plastic bag with a desiccant pack. A few days ago, I tried to pour Read more…
I almost took my dog’s Valium this morning. It wasn’t intentional (at the time). It’s just that one little green pill bottle looks much like every other little green pill bottle. But it might not have been a bad idea. It’s been one of those mornings that could use a little mellow. Actually, one of those weeks. We’ve been under various flood advisories here in East Hawaii (plus the occasional gale, winter storm, and thunderstorm) all week. Rain isn’t unusual for us, but it’s dumping, the way that makes you thankful you don’t have any soil to slow the water Read more…
