Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Free Kindle books!

It's my birthday week and everyone's invited! I'm giving away two free Kindle books April 8th-12th. Hurry over and download yours on Amazon today. Enjoy!


Deadly Fate - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GC6DT65/


Quest for Freedom - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BO9857U/

Friday, March 29, 2019

Life and writing and stuff

We finally got settled after the big move and we're now in the middle of kitchen upgrades. This home is much newer than our previous mid-century home, which I loved but couldn't find in our new location. This newer home came with a dark and gloomy 1990's brown kitchen, so it was definitely due for an update.

In addition, we recently learned that a close family member is terminally ill. No fun for anyone involved but nothing anyone can do at this point, except support the ill person and see her to the end. It just plain sucks, especially now that we're in a different state and have to fly home periodically to see her.

Our elderly dog is having cognitive problems off and on, which is also stressful and sad. We're doing our best to hang out with her as much as possible and keep her calm during renovations. I think her hearing loss is helping her cope with the noise. It's a short reno, just a week, so things will get back to normal for her soon.

I'm working on my latest book in between all the chaos and looking forward to summer, when the weather is a bit warmer. We're also expecting company in our new digs, now that we have a proper guest room. I'm just grateful the kitchen will be finished before then.

I'll say this, life is never boring, at least not for long.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Our first snow in Oregon!

We've had our first snow at the Oregon coast! If you missed the previous blog, we moved from Los Angeles to the Oregon coast last fall and have been adjusting to our new, small town lifestyle. The locals, who have been wonderful, have told us that it snows here about every ten years. This is exciting because in SoCal we always had to go to Big Bear, Palm Springs, or other mountain resorts to see snow. Now, imagine our excitement when we woke up yesterday morning to this:



Thursday, January 3, 2019

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a great holiday. We're learning a lot about Oregon coast property maintenance, which is quite different than back home in Southern California due to all the rain and wind. Today, we're in the middle of yet another windstorm. You need permission to remove and plant trees here on the coast so we had to wait about two months for approval. The arborist was finally able to remove the damaged and rotten trees yesterday, and this morning they trimmed most of the remaining ones. Once the winds die down, they'll be back to finish up. We really wish the sellers had done this maintenance, because it's not cheap and that money would have paid for some of the kitchen remodel. Our arborist said that these trees hadn't been cared for in about 10 years, and while it's no guarantee a tree won't fall at some point, maintenance at least it minimizes the chance of that happening. And we have very tall pines here that can do a lot of damage if they fall on someone's house or car. Had we known, we would've taken the price off our offer. Live and learn. One neighbor even stopped by to thank us for doing it.

At least now, we've completed the repairs and maintenance items we inherited when we purchased the house. Next up will be the fun stuff, like the kitchen remodel and landscaping the backyard. Thanks to the equity from our California home, we can live the rest of our lives mortgage-free, and that's the best part of living here. Well, that and the peekaboo ocean views. We're taking a break until spring and I'm back to writing full-time now that we're pretty much settled in. Hard to believe we've been here 3 1/2 months already. It's still surreal and feels very much like we're on vacation.

Wishing all of you a prosperous and healthy 2019!


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Beyond the Gate

Beyond the Gate
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Award-winning fantasy novel

Quest for Freedom

Quest for Freedom
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