Pursuing the Pandemic Productivity Delusion
I’m feeling pretty scattered lately. We all are, right? Checking our latest local Covid numbers, or forecasts for the Gulf of Mexico, or wildfires, or… asteroids. <Sigh> I feel like I need some dude with a light saber (and preferably decent sentence structure) to teach me how to F-o-c-u-s. I’ve read so many books and articles and blog posts about productivity and how to best start your day, blah-de-blah-de-blah. Not that I don’t think there isn’t value in their advice. (Was that too many negatives? I’ve been doing Russian on Duolingo, and that language’s approach to negation blows my mind Read more…
During the Dark Days, a Bittersweet Smile Will Do
It’s rough out there, folks. At least, I think it is. With the exception of snatched “retail window” moments (post office, library window, grocery checkout), I rarely interact with any non-spouse humans. But I see it in my Inbox and on social media and podcasts—many of us are just hanging on to the non-committed side of the mental health line by the skin of our skinless teeth. [Random digression: I did not know skin of my teeth is a phrase of Biblical origin. Random Digression P.S.: how many of you thought I was going to rant about about pathetic mental Read more…
Thank You! And Last Chance for a Buck Box Set
Didn’t I just post something last week? Why, yes, I did. But I have something to share that can’t wait. Thank you. Thank you, Reader Peeps (and BookBub and other awesome advertisers) for helping make the first Sydney Brennan Box Set an Amazon Bestseller in PI Mysteries this week. 😱 I know! I didn’t expect it, either. But I am very grateful. And if you need to add any of the first three Sydney Brennan books to your ereader (Back to Lazarus, Secrets in Stockbridge, and The Perils of Panacea), you can still grab the Box Set for a buck today. It goes Read more…
How is Your Covid Roller Coaster? Trying to Level out the Track
A few days ago, my husband came in from checking the rain gauge to report, “It’s raining lizards. What’s the next sign of the apocalypse?” To clarify, our moldy, plastic rain gauge is on its last legs. The sun has done its best to break down the structure on a molecular level, including the screen that keeps the floaty disc from flying out the top when you empty the water. That morning, an anole had crawled/fallen into the long, clear tube and had to be poured out. Fortunately it hadn’t rained the night before, since I doubt treading water was Read more…
Writer’s Little Dino Helper, or When “The Outside” Comes to You
Happy Good Friday, Christian folks! And happy end-of-another-week-you-survived to everyone else! I know many of you haven’t left the house in a VERY. LONG. TIME. I feel you. Quarantine sucks. But it beats the alternative. As I mentioned to my newsletter folks, I’ve been fighting a little something for a while. (Something flu-like, not grizzly-like.) That’s means, in an abundance of caution, the only time I’ve seen paved road in weeks is when we took our poor dog Travis for The Final Vet Visit. (He passed in the car on the way, so I barely set foot in the parking Read more…
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