​Hello, blog friends!

I've another poem to share with you. It's different from my usual poem, in that it focuses on a local tribute.

This weekend the memorial to the Granite Mountain Hotshots was revealed. It stands near the entrance to the Prescott Courthouse.

This isn't the only memorial to the nineteen firemen who lost their lives, but this one is in the center of Prescott where all can read about the brave young men who tried to stop the Yarnell Hill Fire. 
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Below is a photo of the plaque which is next to the memorial. It explains what occurred that fateful day, as does the movie, Only The Brave.

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This week Colleen Chesebro​ invites us to create a kimo poem, stanzas of 10-7-6 syllables.

My three-stanza poem uses these seasonal words: weather dry, winds strong, fires roared, lightning, and inferno.  They are words familiar to anyone who experiences summer in the high desert. I hope you like it.​

Have a wonderful week -- hopefully with sunshine and cool breezes. 

Hello, blog friends!

I hope you've had a wonderful week. In the high desert of Northern Arizona where I live, radiant signs of summer abound. The trails are busy with large and little creatures. I spotted a wolf running across the path, but he was gone before I could pull out my cell phone. Instead, I've included a lizard. He waited patiently for me to take my photo. 😊

Colleen Chesebro invites us to reflect on our local experience of the season through poetry. I've created two tanka with pictures of some of the sights along my daily hike. And I've used expressions such as 'the desert's awakening' and 'a summer's feast' to capture the change of season. I hope you enjoy them. 

Have a wonderful week, dear friends! 

Hello blog friends,

Today I'm sharing the backstory of my first two novels: THE CONTRACT between heaven and earth and its sequel, THE CHOICE, the unexpected heroes. 

Reaching back through time and into the early mornings of 2017, a series of images haunted my sleep. These unexpected messengers focused on heavenly beings helping the human family. I glimpsed battlefields and leaders, and also, everyday folks like you and me. As one scene after another unfolded, an idea for a thriller evolved.

At the time, I belonged to a book club and one of the members was thriller writer John W. Howell. Though we had never met, we had worked together virtually on club projects. One day I shared my concept with him and asked if he'd partner with me to write the story. To my surprise, he said yes. Our agreement became The Contract between heaven and earth.

John and I collaborated on the story itself but divided other tasks. For example, I traveled to northern California and took photos and videos of areas frequented in the novel. John focused on all the tasks related to publishing. I suspect I had more fun.  😊 

I hope you've enjoyed reading the backstory of each of my novels. If you wonder why I do much of my creative thinking in the very early morning, I'll explain. My father was a farmer, and he was always in the fields by the first hint of light. He planned his day while it was still dark. Most of my sibs and I take after our father. We awaken in the wee hours and plan our days - or write our books.

Have a wonderful weekend and find time to laugh about your lessons learned.  😊

Hello, blog friends. 

I've another tanka to share, inspired by poet Colleen Chesebro. She invites bloggers to focus on the beginning of summer as it manifests in our home area. I live in Northern Arizona, and the area is alive with signs of new life. My poem attempts to capture that magic. 

The hedge of Lady Banks roses in the photo below lines the path where I walk every day. The surprise this weekend was spotting the Poplar Sphinx moth. She heralds summer and new beginnings - and for me hope. It's been a trying week with family emergencies, but the sun is shining now. All will be well. And, because of that, I'll have time to visit your sites. 

I hope you have a wonderful week. Stay well and laugh much! 😊

 Hello blog friends,

I've another backstory to share. This one is for The Culmination, a new beginning. You may recall that last week I focused on Redemption, A Father's Fatal Decision and also mentioned The Gift. And before these two, I talked about The Soul Whisperer's Decision. With each, I tried to explain my motivation for writing the story. 

The Culmination is a little different, because it is the result of a journey - one that is difficult to revisit. While watching network news one night, I heard a suffering Syrian woman say to a reporter, "Just take the oil and leave us alone." Her painful tears prompted my quest. Oil?

To understand international tensions, there was much I needed to learn. My long-standing aversion to all-things-political had to be set aside. First, I focused on geography. I affixed detailed maps of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States on my wall - where they remain today. I then tried to track U.S. military deployments and the locations of U.S. Navy carrier strike groups on the maps. And I included the locations of the Level IV Bio-Defense Labs. Diving deeper, I subscribed to five newspapers and multiple military YouTube stations and websites. I also watched or listened to the BBC and Al Jazeera English for international perspectives. Through this immersion experience, I found myself in a world I did not recognize, and it changed my life - permanently. 

On a whim, I looked into the U.S. Senate Committees, particularly Appropriations and its Subcommittee on Defense. I noted how members voted and examined their investments in the large defense contractors and in oil. What I found left me with even more questions. 

Every day for hours at a time, I studied the unfolding global events. When I finally began writing, I tried to craft a path that I believed might lead to a new beginning. 

The Culmination was published in November of 2020. In February of 2020, I awakened from surgery to the news of a deadly virus spreading across the planet. The reporter claimed the origin was a wet market in Wuhan, China. I turned to my husband and said, "This is a lab leak." Then I learned that those who concluded the same were conspiracy theorists. I said no more.

I rarely discuss my findings, and I don't consider myself an expert on anything. But a question emerged from my research that remains, "Who profits?"

The Culmination, a new beginning is a book that changed my life. Though fictional, it is not just a story for me. Perhaps you've written a novel that altered your way of seeing the world. I'd love to know about your experience, I suspect others would as well. Won't you share? 

On a final note, fiction writers often create alternate worlds to express complicated truths. Most of these truths are either personal or interpersonal. But I suggest to you that these dynamics are at the root of international conflict.  

Have a wonderful week, dear friends, with plenty of time for writing your next best seller. I look forward to turning those precious pages.