Soothsayer Now Available

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Pleased to announce Soothsayer, a Paranormal Journeys Story is now available.  Second in the Port Gallatan series this is the story of Fiona whose attempt to walk away from the paranormal brings her up close and personal to the fact we can’t walk away from who and what we are.

I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed creating it.

At Times Everyone Needs Help

Though appreciative of their love and guidance, abuse survivor Fiona Gladstone is tired of living in the shadow of her elder siblings who always seem to have the answers.

Everyone Needs a Break

Burnt out from the havoc the paranormal has wrought in her life she’s more than ready for a little peace and quiet so she can figure out what’s next.

Everyone Needs a Plan

When sexy rocker Clint Maverick offers to help her figure that out, Fiona jumps at the chance, unaware that finding a new start will bring her face to face with a past she’s desperately trying to walk away from.

New Fiction: Project Update

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Hope everyone is doing well.  I’m excited to announce after years in which I never thought I’d be able to write again…

Thank you post-Covid burnout.

I’m about to release a work of fiction and already at work on the follow-up.

Soothsayer – a Port Gallatan novel – was released some years ago.  I was never satisfied with it so I pulled it, set it aside.

Never thought I’d touch it again – just assumed I’d work on the follow-on which will launch into a sub-series I’m really excited about.

The Idea That Won’t Die

The same challenge that haunted me years ago has been eating up mental cycles in recent months.  I wanted to move on to this very cool sub-series but there was another book that had to happen first and for that to happen – I had to release the follow-on to Port In a Storm.

Any other way would be a betrayal to the series and my vision for it.

Digging deep I pulled together the same energy that put me on this path in 2011 when I published Riding the Waves.

Courage to face the unknown.

I edited the manuscript, updated it with an eye to how the winds of fiction shift.

In terms of manuscript this translates to grammar as well as the potential for an oversaturated market.

I’m proud to say Soothsayer will be available soon.

With Gimme Shelter in the works.

Release dates TBD.

I’m also determined to make Podcast 4 work.

Stay tuned.

Ice Cream Man: We Need to Tell our Stories

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I volunteer to help kids with literacy.  I showed up on a recent day and was asked if I’d be willing to work with a special needs child because the specialist had to call out.  Happy to do so I soon found myself in a secluded part of a hallway listening to a little boy read about a tour of an ice cream factory.

The nature of the program means the volunteers and students find places to sit together which may be in an overcrowded room with a cacophany of voices or in a hall where students changing classes walk by.

At one point he looked at me and asked “Why so many screams?”

This was after watching him struggle with the fact he was trying to form the thought.  Telling him to take his time seemed to help him relax and articulate what was on his mind.

Why So Many Screams?

I immediately picked up his concern over the word scream but also knew he lacked context.  I quickly explained it was a childhood rhyme.

I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream.

I suspected my explanation didn’t fly because he wasn’t familiar with the rhyme so I quickly explained it was something kids would call out when chasing the ice cream man.  This necessitated I explain what the ice cream man was.

And why kids would be chasing him.

I admit – I have not seen or heard an ice cream man in all the years I’ve lived in this region of the country but that didn’t stop me from telling this sweet boy

“I’m old.  When I was little in Michigan my friends and me would chase the ice cream man – you could hear him coming by the music in his truck – yelling “I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream.”

I watched him think over the honest explanation then slowly nod.  And then he smiled.

A beautiful smile that lit up his features.

He said “I can’t wait to tell my mom.”

I don’t know if his mom is a translplant from another part of the country – maybe a place where she grew up hearing the telltale sound of an ice cream truck coming in her direction – but it reinforces my belief that we need to share stories with our kids

and grandkids …

I saw first hand how the lack of knowledge confused and alarmed.

We need to tell our stories

To share wisdom and give context.

And to reassure.

Manifesting 101: Wouldn’t it Be Cool?

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Happy New Year readers and visitors!  I hope 2025 brings joy and wonder.  

And good health!

Given many of us are thinking of what we want – or don’t – for the coming year I thought I’d share a holiday manifesting story.

On Christmas Eve I received a gift that included a hand-written note providing special information about each piece that was part of the gift.  Unfortunately in my haste to clean up wrapping paper the note was lost.  When I couldn’t find it I assumed it was accidentally thrown away.

I felt very bad as the gift giver made a point to tell me the note provided unique details about each piece.

Over the next days as I took my morning walk I considered the lost paper with no small regret.

I felt guilty I hadn’t slowed down to look at the paper when the gift giver mentioned it.

I did something else.  I visualized the paper in my mind and thought how cool it would be if it somehow turned up somewhere.  

As in maybe it didn’t get thrown out with the trash!

When I returned from my walks I would check various places thinking it might have wound up under a piece of furniture or in some other out of the way place.

No luck.

I continued to visualize the paper while I walked and casually thought how cool it would be if it turned up.

Randomly.  

I’d like to point out I did not consider what I was doing a manifestation attempt.

It wasn’t done with intent.

A few days ago I decided instead of taking down the Christmas tree I would go to the garage and break down boxes.

Which Aaron and I would take to the recycle center later this week.  

Normally I do this type of activity with Aaron but he was on a work call so I waded into the cardboard on my own.

Along with bubble wrap and styrofoam peanuts.

I was about 2/3 through sorting recycle from trash – organizing it for further disposal when I reached into a small box and pulled out the mesh bag that had held the gift.  Setting it aside – it too had gone missing – I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if I found that paper in some box?”  

Drum Roll

I reached into the same box seconds later and withdrew the paper I thought lost!

What makes this pretty cool from the Manifesting 101 side

  • Though I was unhappy about losing the paper I didn’t do the visualization with the intent to find it.

It was one of a number of thoughts that went through my mind while walking on a chilly morning.

  • The Wouldn’t it be Cool? was not a heart-rending level of emotion tied to it all.

In spite of my disappointment at losing the paper.

  • Something told me to break down the cardboard boxes rather than take down the Christmas tree in spite of knowing I’d be doing it myself.

It’s an activity Aaron and I enjoy doing together.

  • If Aaron had been helping me chances are the paper would have been tossed into a recycle bag and lost for good.

I didn’t tell anyone I’d lost the paper so Aaron wouldn’t have known to keep an eye out for it.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

I want to circle back to what I feel is an important point when it comes to manifesting.

Pun intended.

The concept of releasing/letting go of attachment to an outcome is considered an important step in manifesting.  It’s also one of the steps I’ve had the biggest challenge with.

How the heck can you not feel emotion about something you want?

Some part of me must have been working in the background over the years to give me the key to this step because I’ve come to see that whenever I’ve manifested something it went with the following

Wouldn’t It Be Cool?

Or Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

I don’t know if this will work for others but for me when I feel that phrase?  The emotion attached is pretty low level.

Caveat

This isn’t to say it means I don’t care if I get it or not or that I’m not prepared to accept what goes along with having it.  It’s just that I recognize my life won’t be ruined if it doesn’t happen.

I had a plan B – to talk with the individual who designed the piece so I could get the information.

Knowing this, I can frame future efforts in such a way as to lower emotional noise that would interfere with its coming to be.

The Science in the Fiction

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I’m thrilled to announce a project months in the making.

Visitors will note a new link on my front page.

Above Choose a Path.

This takes visitors to a page with a number of scientific principles found throughout my novels.  Clicking on each principle will take readers to the story behind how it wound up in my work.

This project – that I’m very proud of – gives readers a glimpse into me as the author.

An author who draws from imagination, education, and experience.

Enjoy!

Manifesting 101: Pursue Your Dream and the Universe Responds

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Though I’ve been passionate about walking for decades** I’d gotten away from it after a move left me in a place where it was it was a challenge.

Not to mention I was working on publishing the Metatron’s Army and Dragon Core series.

Life Intervenes

Thanks to Covid and biting off more than I could chew in terms of writing and consulting I hit a giant brick wall.

And wall thy name is Burnout.

When this hilarity landed me in the ER I knew I needed to get back to basics.

Live what I write about – a holistic healthy approach to life.

Those first steps out the door in the middle of a Pacific Northwest Rainy Season were tough.

I would come home soaked through.

Not a Choice

I knew from experience that walking is therapeutic on an incredible scale.

For body mind and spirit.

I also knew if I was going to recover I had to keep at it.

Regardless of the weather.

I’d done it before.

Walked in snow and freezing rain and sleet in Michigan while working in a high-stress industry.

Hold Your Head Up

2 miles turned into 6 turned into 8

Every day 7 days a week

I found myself feeling better.

Slowly but surely.

Um – Have You Noticed?

Not really no.  

Too  busy watching my feet as I put them one in front of the other.

I would come home from the morning walk and kick off shoes soaked through, peel off soaked socks and do what I could to warm up.

I was so sick at that point I couldn’t handle coffee.

When I pushed myself out the door for the midday walk those dry socks became wet as I put on shoes still damp from the earlier walk.

And head out in the rain with an umbrella woefully inadequate for the task of a PNW Rainy Season.

Turn Turn Turn

Eventually the seasons changed.

I made a vow that by the time PNW Rainy Season came back around the following year I would be prepared.**

I began to see the same faces day after day.

A number of them told me seeing me slog through the inclement weather inspired them to start walking.***

I introduced myself to them.

So we could do more than smile and say Good Morning/Afternoon

A Fun and Funny Thing Happened

Weeks of putting one foot in front of the other turned into months and Good Morning/Afternoon turned into small talk that evolved.

I came to see that I’d attracted like-minded souls because I’d pursued something incredibly important to me.

Health in mind body and spirit.

Not The First Time

While out walking recently considering how I’d attracted such wonderful souls into my life I realized it wasn’t the first time.  Decades earlier while working for a Fortune 500 company going down in flames I found myself hitting the pavement of Kensington and/or Maybury.

It started with random conversations with colleagues during which we would discuss our plans for after work – usually working on one proposal or another – and/or the weekend.

Conversations during which a number of us said we would be walking at one of the local parks.

Within a short time those of us of like-mindedness were agreeing to meet to walk together.

No Geek Fest

These were never b*tch sessions.  

We were all so done with the stress and chaos of a career that ever seemed like we were Wylie Coyote to the Discrete Manufacturing Road Runner life.

Start Slow and Go From There

Great philosophy for manifesting dreams.

It started where we would talk about what we were doing after we were done with the walk.

Some talked about going out with their spouse or going to a sports game of their kids.  Some of us talked about our hobbies.  Mine was writing – had a dream of doing it full-time – learned some of my colleagues were on the same path.  One colleague played in a band.  Another entered marathons.

As trust between us grew we began sharing life philosophies.

And talking about dreams we wanted to achieve.

We offered advice to help each other realize those dreams.

We Liked Each Other!

Yeah But

We may have come to trust and like each other but walking 8 miles and discussing the meaning of life was a far cry from spending 80 plus hours a week in a cubicle.

We went to the mat against each other if necessary but once we were one with Mother Nature?  The gloves came off.

The Take Away?

Ah yes – corporate speak.

When you pursue what you love you will attract like-minded souls who can help you on your path to manifesting your goals.

** I invested in waterproof shoes and other gear that will get me through this year.

Aaron gave me an aawesome new umbrella for Christmas.

*** I discovered walking as a wonderful way to strengthen after being paralyzed by a brain bleed when I was 10.

Nine months after the incident that caused it – falling off a diving board – I walked 26 miles to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy.

Walking story from Nashville…

Link to Jamf Nation User Conference

Knowing: The 4th Component

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I’ve written that my work is drawn from imagination experience and education.  In an upcoming project I explore how a 4th component – Knowing – has influenced my writing.

Fiction and Nonfiction both.

Fiction

I share how decades of following the trail of something I couldn’t prove was ultimately validated years after publishing fiction works with the themes and information.

Included are stories of how conversations with various experts in the field played into my research efforts.

Nonfiction

“I know something’s wrong.”

I elaborate on how this solid belief allowed me to continue to dig for answers in the face of apparent evidence to the contrary.

And how doing so was ultimately the right course of action.

Never Give Up.

Never Give In.

I share how falling back on knowing helped through some of the toughest challenges.

And ultimately led to success.

Details to Follow…

Note: As I searched through my library of images for this post I was taken aback by how they beautifully illustrated my evolution as a writer.

A pictorial walk down memory lane.

Validating.

The perfect example of better late than never.

Be well!

Author Notes: Funny Experience

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Note:  Will be short and sweet

I draw from education, imagination, and experience when creating.  As I was working on a scene from Messenger of the Gods I remembered an experience that had me shaking my head.

It’s pretty funny I think.

The Scene.

Mine not the book.

A tech consultant for a Fortune 500 Company I was in Corvallis, OR for a business trip.

Training.

I joined a group of classmates interested in checking out the very cool college town for lunch. 

There were about ten of us.

We found a cool place.

Few things create mealtime agreement as quickly as pizza.

We hadn’t been sitting long when a group of college students walked in.

Scoping the place out.

Our table was near the door so we were the first customers they saw.  

We Can’t Eat Here!

Someone in the group of young adult males said “Aw we can’t eat here.  This is an old person’s place!”

Who US?

Startled by the implication we erupted in laughter.

To give perspective I was 29 years old and being carded regularly.

What -?

What brought on this fun memory?  I have a series character – Seattle vice detective Lug/Lucas Drake.

Who when it comes to beer likes reds.

Aesop’s Cove is in Seattle so wanted to source a PNW beer.

I use various beers from throughout the country in my Dragon Core books.

For this scene I used Mosaic Red from Oregon Trail Brewery.

Located in Corvallis, OR.

Cheers!

New Book Excerpt: Messenger of the Gods

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I am proud to share an excerpt from the first project in over a year

Thank you Covid induced burnout.

Messenger of the Gods

Excerpt

Warehouse Square Seattle

Rowan Cahill came up the stairs to see her neighbor fiddling with a set of keys while struggling to hang onto a paper bag overstuffed with cans and boxes.

“Here let me help with that.”  Setting her portfolio down she stepped forward and reached for the bag.

In more pain than he wanted to admit Jake McLachlan waved off the offer barely managing to avoid dropping his keys as he did so.

“Don’t be silly,” she replied and tried to get a better grip on the bag.

“Really,” he insisted, “I got this.”

“Stubborn pride.”

The words proved prophetic as a bottom weakened by heavy cans ripped sending cans rolling away from the doorway and boxes dropping in front of it.

Jake watched in irritation as several cans and other items rolled down the stairs and his keys disappeared beneath a pile of boxes.  With a sigh of the aggrieved he bent over intending to get the keys only to crack heads with his would-be Samaritan who was also reaching for them.

Rowan stumbled and would have fallen had her neighbor not reached out to steady her.  Unfortunately he overbalanced and ended up going head-first into the wall behind her.

Seeing stars from hitting his head twice in succession Jake blindly slapped at whoever was trying to – what he didn’t know.  What he did know was instincts honed by centuries of defending against one foe or another had him hitting out with more force than he would have had he been thinking clearly.  Blinding pain made that an impossibility.

All the air went out of Rowan’s lungs as her chest made hard contact with knees.  A cry of agony snapped her out of panic brought on by having the wind knocked out of her.

“Oh my God, do you need an ambulance?” she gasped scrambling to get off her would-be knight.  She felt awful that in trying to keep her from falling he was hurt.

“Would you please -?”

“Do you need an ambulance?” she repeated.

“I do not need an ambulance!” he snarled.

“At least let me get you some ice.”  Grateful to be breathing easy she dug for keys she saw disappear beneath a box of rigatoni and hurried to get the one that looked like it was a house key into the lock.

Jake considered how lucky the pretty red-head dashing into his home without his permission was that the throbbing in his leg kept him from being able to shout.  Before he could decide on next actions she was back with a dish towel he recognized.

“Where does it hurt?”

When her handsome neighbor closed his eyes and shook his head Rowan looked down hoping to get an idea.  Zeroing in on his right thigh she brushed his hand away and placed the dish towel filled with ice.  “I feel terrible.”

Jake supposed he should be grateful burning pain was robbing him of speech.  It kept him from admitting she had nothing to feel terrible about.  If he’d accepted her help at the outset none of this would have happened.  “Who are you?” he managed.

It took a minute for the words to process but Rowan looked into eyes of grey.  “I’m your new neighbor.”

Jake couldn’t help but laugh.  “I know that.  What’s your name?”

“How did you know?”

“What?”

She hoped keeping the guy talking would keep his mind off the pain.

“How did you know I was your new neighbor?”  She didn’t think he could know given she moved in while he was out of town – a different neighbor shared that tidbit – and she had been ever since.  Until getting in at midnight the night before that is.

“You have to be otherwise you couldn’t have gotten in.”  Not because of any key but because protective wards had been cast over the entirety of Warehouse Square, an area where four turn of the century warehouses wrapped around a beautiful small patch of lawn the city called a park.  For tax purposes of course.

“Oh, well I suppose that’s true.  How’s the ice?  Is it helping? Not too cold?”

“It’s fine.”

“Good,” she said then zipped down the stairs to retrieve cans and other goods strewn about.

“What are you doing?”

Jet-lagged more than she’d admit Rowan shot a derisive look over her shoulder.  “You’re kidding, right?”  Without another word she disappeared inside.

Not about to let a perfect stranger no matter how pretty put her energy in his kitchen Jake grit his teeth against the pain and pushed up the wall before hobbling into his loft.

Clare’s loft.

The thought came from nowhere, sent him staggering.

“You are not okay,” Rowan snapped and grabbing the closest chair tried to force her good-looking neighbor into it.

“I’m not a bairn damn it!” Jake howled after again cracking heads with his neighbor.

“For the love of God you prideful man sit your ass in that chair and be thankful someone cares about you!”

The throbbing in his thigh did the talking and Jake was soon watching his neighbor open cupboard after cupboard as she put his groceries away.  He could have told her where things should go but she was right he was being prideful.  May as well revel in it while he could because as the gods were his witness his damn chivalry was bound to rear its ugly head sooner or later.

Coming to Peace With Oneself As a Writer

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It’s only because I’m a holistic doctor I believe I could better explain what to expect to an aspiring writer than how it was explained to me when I attended my first Writer’s Conference.

Sixteen, a classmate and fellow aspiring writer gave me The Writer’s Market for Chrismas and took me to my first Writer’s Conference at Oakland University.  Thank you, Eric H (Hoho).

Though my intention had been to be a novelist life intervened and I started out with nonfiction. 

Beginning in 2011 I released works, interspersing fiction and nonfiction.

I didn’t have any trouble bouncing between the two genres.  My problem circled back to one I’d been facing from the time I was 13 and wrote my first novel.

In a spiral notebook in blue ink.

The dilemma

If I wrote for an audience – to sell – I would be compromising my voice.

How did I get to this awful fork in the road?  Research.

Personal Research

Though I enjoyed reading fiction there was a single genre that put me off even as the stories and characters were fun if not cool.

Especially historical.

Fluff

From the first time someone put a romance novel in my hands …

I was 12 living with my mom and brother in a basement because my parents split and we had no money.

This well-meaning soul thought I might enjoy a break from life

And a break from what I what I was reading at the time – Kane and Abel and other awesome works…

I don’t think this kind woman understood I WAS getting a break by reading this stuff.

And that I’d been reading college level since I was 6.

While I enjoyed the story plots of the romance novels she gave me it was the characters I had issues with.

Like the stupid bodice ripping covers of the era, the characters were cardboard cutouts of reality.

A Turning Point

I remember how this lovely woman reacted when, after asking how I liked the stories, I responded

“When I become a writer I’m not going to write women as brainless twits.”

She laughed.

She also tried to explain the stuff I was reading was escapism.

Key Word:  Tried.

I told her all fiction is escapism and I preferred stories that painted characters – especially women – more realistically.

 The Cabinet

Instead of telling me I was too young to understand or trying to tell me why I was wrong

Or trying to dissuade me from my dreams of being a novelist

This woman took me to a room in her basement

Stage left: Irony

This lovely woman was a close family friend of the neighbor whose basement we were living in.

She opened a rather tall cabinet containing a lot of romance novels.

She suggested I might like what was in there.

In other words, keep reading – if not keep living and don’t give up on your dreams because your young life was yet again pushed off the rails.

I went through the entire cabinet in a period of 3 or so months (all the while living in that basement) and weirdly enough decided if this was what was published it must be what people wanted to read.

So Here We Are

“…in the backwater overflow…” – Catch and Release, Silversun Pickups

The genre has evolved but what never changed was my desire to balance what I want to give readers with my view of how characters – especially females – should be.

Strong, independependent and educated either by life or some formal way such as military or secondary/higher education.

As I’m working through my Dragon Core project I’m reminded of this battle of wills.

A battle I can finally – having come into myself as a writer – address.

To my satisfaction. As a writer.

Stay tuned