Escaped from Behind the Desk: Postcards from the Pacific Northwest

BE ADVISED: This is a photo-heavy post, in case you want to switch out your viewing device to avoid frustration. 😉 Me here, back at my desk. Shh… I think the ants are under control, at least so far as my laptop goes. (Did I mention I put Vaseline on the power cord?) I am up to my eyeballs in the complexities of Dead Hollow Book 2, but I thought I’d take a quick break to share some photos from the off-island adventures that enabled the buggers to become entrenched in our absence. Off one island anyway… where do you Read more…

Welcomed Home by the Other Red Army

Ah, home again, after a two week, multi-location odyssey (Hilo to Austin to New Orleans to Seattle to San Juan Island and back to Hilo, if you’re keeping track). There was relatively little pet drama while we were gone, although Fred did shred his Thunder Shirt at the kennel. And there were no rats squatting in our house, as happened the last time we visited Sydney’s home state (see Vacation Interlopers). However, there were other squatters, or at least a change of behavior in the pre-existing residents. Which is why I just put Vaseline on my laptop. Not directly. I Read more…

My First Podcast Interview: Babbling, but Thankfully No Bad Canadian Jokes

Happy Friday! I was going to go blogless this week (sounds like missing a support garment) but then something came up that I had to share. Drum roll… Last summer, I did my very first podcast interview, and it’s just gone live. Seriously–me with talky words! I didn’t remember a thing I said during the whole thing until I read the transcript five minutes ago. But here’s what I do remember, for a little peek behind the curtain on the realities of getting a podcast to air. The internet was not our friend. Living in the East Hawaii boonies, I Read more…

I’m Still Here, Still Hanging with the Dogs and Skynet

This is just a quick check-in to let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or, Facebook post to the contrary, curled up in a corner to binge-watch Hanna-Barbera cartoons and eat cereal. I have a real blog post for you that’s nearly finished—a Stories I Love no less—but I wanted to spend a little time polishing it first. Who was it that observed, it takes so much longer to write short than to write long? (Apparently, the origins of, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” are a matter of Read more…

Save the Villagers! There’s a — Wait, Wrong Dragon

This is a brief blog post, for reasons you’ll soon understand. It’s been an experimental week here in the Myth Lab. (I borrowed that title from Chuck Wendig until I can think of something better; he’d decided not to use it anyway for obvious pronunciation/law enforcement reasons.) I got my Prodigal manuscript off to the copy editor successfully over the weekend – woo hoo! This week, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my writing business infrastructure. I’m tweaking my website, upgrading my email function, learning a new book formatting program (which I LOVE—Vellum rocks!), updating old book files and links, etc. Read more…