Silver Linings

My husband and I are going into week 3 of semi-isolation. My husband’s employer mandated that the casino and hotel where he works shut completely down on March 16^th.  Since then he’s been back twice to finish up a couple of unfinished tasks, but the place is basically abandoned. Only the security crew has to stay on property during the shut down. The Baer House, too has been pretty darn quiet. We’re not on lock down, but nobody’s traveling. We have been getting daily cancellations since the second week of March. We currently have no reservations at the inn until the very first part of June.

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Help – I’m Stuck In A Rut And I Can’t Get Out!

Okay, the title is a little misleading. I’m not really in a rut so much as I’ve been focusing on the same thing for too long that now I can’t see the forest for the trees. Have you ever been there? It’s kind of frustrating. Here’s my problem: I need to come up with a book cover for my next book and I’ve got nothing.

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The P Is Silent

Words are weird. I’m not sure who originally decided how a word should be spelled, but sometimes I just shake my head. Seems like very few words are actually spelled like they should be. I’ve always been a pretty good speller and my grammar is probably better than average, but there are still those stupid words that jam me up every time. I stumble over words that end in le or el. Angel is not the same thing as angle. And you can’t rely on spell check to catch those mistakes.

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Creative Space

I kind of have an office now. Sort of. For the past couple of years I’ve been writing either in the kitchen or the basement, neither of which are really conducive for writing. It’s been working, but it’s not comfortable. Or pretty. Sometimes you need pretty.

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What Is It About the 48th State?

The last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieved statehood on St. Valentine’s Day, 1912. It is part of both the western and the mountain states. It is the 6th largest and 14th most populous of the 50 states in the United States of America. The southern most part of the state is desert, with extreme high temperatures in the summer. The northern part of the state is mountainous and often sees significant snowfall in winter.

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Has It Been That Long?

While I was composing my blog for this week, I was having trouble coming up with a clever, cute, catchy title. I don’t know why because usually the title is the least of my blogging woes. But, for some reason I just could not decide on a title. So, I decided to scroll back through my previous posts and see if I could see a pattern or find an old post that I could resurrect or change the title a bit. And that’s when I found something I just couldn’t believe!

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Workshops, Webinars & Awards Oh My!

As a writer I’m always challenging myself to learn new things so that I can keep things fresh in my writing. I have this fear of running out of clever new ideas or that somewhere down the road my books might end up coming out looking suspiciously like some of the other books I’d previously written. Or worse yet, like someone else’s book. This popular saying come to mind, “There are no new stories, just new ways of telling them.” I’m not sure if that’s true or not, but most people in the business of writing tend to feel that way.

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Introverts, Extroverts and Know-It-Alls

I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we all know we should not discuss religion or politics when in the company of strangers. I also think it is safe to assume that most people are either somewhat introverted or somewhat extroverted if not completely so. We all know people who are one or the other or some mutant form of both. And, of course, we all know a know-it-all. You know, those people who have an opinion about EVERYTHING and usually express it loudly and in such a manner so as to sound like an authority on the subject. The people who make you eventually go:

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Free Stuff You Actually Want

Hello and thanks for visiting. I’m glad you’re here. My blog is on hiatus this week, but don’t click away without reading to the end because you have an opportunity to win a prize, just for leaving a comment. And, it’s something you’ll want and use.

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Diversity Is A Good Thing

Times they are a changin’ my friends. I can’t tell you how often I’ve had conversations with people about how things were so different when we were kids. I’m sure this is nothing new. I’m sure my parents probably had these same conversations with their friends and I’m pretty sure the next generation will have these conversations with their friends. And so on.

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