Category: Open Book

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Black Hole Ads #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

August 31, 2026

From a writing perspective, how do you view advertisements for products or services (on TV, in magazines, online)?

I don’t “do” ads.

In fact, that’s the primary reason I don’t watch TV anymore. I can’t stand ads. I can’t help but tear them apart and find the flaws. Makes the experience irritating for my husband. And ads online? Truth is, I don’t “see” them. My eyes and brain ignore them. Even the ads that Facebook pushes as posts from people you might know do nothing but irritate me. They don’t make to want their product, quite the opposte. The ones in the margins don’t exist as far as I’m concerned. I can’t be anonymous online, but I can be as boring as possible to advertisers. A black hole.

Word of mouth is different. That’s what I pay attention to. When a fellow author sings the praises of a program, or an editor, or a particular service, I’m listening.

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/firmbee-663163/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=793034">Firmbee</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=793034">Pixabay</a>

 

What does that mean for my writing?

Well, especially as I am retired, I miss out on a lot of current cultural references. I can’t tell you the names of the newest TV shows or the hottest movies. They aren’t important to my stories, so they don’t get included.

How about the other authors on this hop?  How do they view advertisements? Find out by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until the next time.

August 31, 2026

From a writing perspective, how do you view advertisements for products or services (on TV, in magazines, online)?

 

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None Of It Is Trash … Well, Almost #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

August 24, 2026

Name one thing that a writer should never do.

I’m going to skip the obvious.

You’ve heard it before. Never stop writing. There’s a lot of truth in the statement, but you’ve heard it before. I won’t bore you with repeating it.

Here’s a close second. Never throw away your discarded drafts. You never know when some part of them may come in useful. I’ve repeated the story about how The Rimer Files was derived from a story I wrote over a decade ago. And—hurrah!—the second book in the series, The Donovan File, went to the editor this past week. Now, I’m not suggesting that every word that spills from your pen onto a piece of paper is a New York Times bestseller. I can’t count how many times I’ve started and stopped trying to write another book in the Free Wolves series. Four? Five? Well, I’m trying again, and finding the scattering of other starts is making me crazy. (It’s been since 2018 that I wrote a book in that series.)

Shoot, tucked away in an envelope in a cardboard box, I have a draft of a story I wrote back in 1975. It’ll stay there, likely for the rest of my life, but I get a measure of joy from the reminder of what I accomplished.

I also have binders and files of poems that have never been published.

And won’t be. Some exist only as files on old computer flash drives. I’m okay with that.

The point is, I won’t know if I want to reference some small phrase of past writing until I actually need it. And I don’t have to wonder if it ended up in the trash somewhere, sometime. Oh, there are things that ended in a garbage can. I’m not totally delusional, and capable of writing trash.

Here’s an example of keeping discarded writing: I wrote a scene about a kidnapped girl as the opening scene for The Donovan’s File. When it was finished, I loved it, but I knew it wasn’t right. I set it aside and kept trying to figure out how to include it. I was halfway thru the story before I found a spot.

So, here’s my advice: hold on to those scraps of writing. If they are kept as computer files, no one will know you have them and can’t accuse you of hoarding.

What do the other authors advise? Find out by following the links below.

And, as always, please stay safe until the next time.

August 24, 2026

Name one thing that a writer should never do.

 

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To Change My World #OpenBook Bog Hop

  By Open Book

August 17, 2026

What’s one thing about your writing that you would change if you could do it easily?

What would I change?

Oh man, this is a tough one. I don’t know what I would change. The only thing I came up with is writing faster.

I’ve never been a book-a-month writer. Yes, I finished a first draft for NaNoWriMo several times, but they were never “good.” Back then, most of my books took around nine months to get ready for outside eyes.

But I’ve slowed down. It take longer to complete a story than it used to. It’s hard for me to give a good estimate, because I interrupted working on my last two books to write short stories for charitable anthologies. I’m getting ready to send my latest version of The Donovan Files to my editor after over a year of work. I checked my records, but I’m not sure exactly when I started the first draft.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I could make up a myriad of excuses for why that happened. Truth is, I’m just finding it harder to concentrate. So, what would I change? Easy answer, I’d regain my powers of ignoring the world around me and write faster. I have several stories bouncing around in my brain. I want to write a third book in the Edwards Investigations series and a fourth one in the Free Wolves books. (That’s a story I’ve started three times and never made it past the first chapter. Over the weekend, in between customers at the local community festival, I started a fourth version. We’ll wait and see what happens.)

First, I need to write the blurb for my WIP. I’ve been putting it off too long. Now to story is finished, I have no excuse.

What would other authors change? Find out by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until the next time.

 

August 17, 2026

What’s one thing about your writing that you would change if you could do it easily?

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Is It Clutter Or Pleasure? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

August 10, 2026

Do you collect anything in particular?

I’m going to assume that books don’t count here.

Sadly, I don’t have as many as I used to because I needed to pare down when we moved after I retired. But I’ve been adding new books to be bookshelf.

At heart, I am a minimalist. Unlike my husband, who would buy many collectibles if we had an unlimited amount of spare money. We’ve learned to compromise.

I have allowed myself to gather fake flowers and put them all over the house. No fancy arrangements, just flowers stuck in a variety of containers. They make me happy even in the dreary days of winter.

I do have a weakness.

I admit to harboring far too much outdated computer equipment during my years working in IT. And technology changed rapidly. I ended up with outdated RAM, old motherboards, graphics cards that no longer meet current standards. That’s not mentioning peripherals – old mice, cables of all sorts, even used battery backups. I also ended up with old but updated computers. But my pride is a Windows 3.1 laptop that still worked the last time I checked.

My stash proved useful more than once at work. When maintaining legacy equipment, it’s handy to have old equipment around. But when I retired and moved, I had most of the equipment recycled rather than hauling it across country.

There is one thing more I kept. (Besides the old laptop.) I have an almost complete collection of Windows installation media. Yep, even Windows 3.1 on computer discs. Windows 11 is on a USB stick. The rest are on CD. The one I don’t remember collecting is Windows ME.

 

Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay

That’s my collection. It may be weird, but it brings me joy.

What do the others on this hop collect? Join me in exploring their answers by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until the next time.

 

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August 10, 2026

Do you collect anything in particular?

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Writing My Life Story #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

August 3, 2026

Have you included any of your major life events in your stories?

The easy answer is no.

I consider my life to be fairly boring, but other people are amazed by the variety of places I’ve lived and the number of jobs I held. Still, I don’t write about them. Not in my fiction, anyway. My poetry from twenty years ago is different. Even then, I fictionalized the moments being memorialized.

Still, there are hints of my life in my stories. There’s truth to the advice “write what you know.” That’s how I ended up with wolf shifters who were computer programmers and technicians. It’s your guess which of those I’ve known.

Then there’s Harmony, my librarian turned internet researcher. I’d considered being a librarian as my career, but life sent me a different direction. I don’t have any experience to explain Jake Hennessey’s experience in stealth. Not that I’d admit to, but the internet is a fine tool for research. 

 

So, although my books don’t portray any major event from my life, bits and pieces of the stories reflect moments of real life.

How about our other authors? Find out by following the links below.

As always, I hope y’all remain safe until the next time.

 

Have you included any of your major life events into your stories?

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Are You In My Stories? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 27, 2026

Have you modeled any of your characters on a real person?

How do you disguise them (if needed?)

I’ve been tempted. A few people out there have irritated me to the point of earning my eternal wrath. I won’t mention any names. Or tell you where I lived when the incident happened. Or what the person in question did. It’s fun to make that person a model for a villain.

Of course, I always change the name. And the color of their hair. Or if they have hair or are bald. And if my characters have anything to say about it, their personalities will change, too. (My characters ALWAYS have something to say about it.) They end up being nothing like the people I originally wanted to insult.

I’ve also honored a few people in my writing. A good boss. A coworker who went above and beyond. Someone I admired for whatever reason. I may give their first name to a minor character who helps the protagonist.

But mostly, my characters create themselves. And it may take time for me to figure them out. For example, it took until book 4 of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries to understand why Harmony drove everywhere. That didn’t come from anyone I knew. (No, I’m not going to tell you. You have to read the books to find out.)

So, I mostly don’t base my characters on real people. How about our other authors? Follow the links below to read their responses.

As always, please stay safe until the next time.

July 27, 2026

Have you modeled any of your characters on a real person? How do you disguise them (if needed?)

 

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The Way It Is #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 20, 2026

What are you working on right now? (as far as writing goes)

What’s going right? What’s going wrong?

I haven’t done much writing this weekend. Instead, I had a booth at the Waterford Heritage Festival, pushing my books. It wasn’t a great time. On Friday, we were under a cover of smoke from the Canadian fires. Saturday provided us with threats of thunderstorms, hail, and potential tornadoes. Obviously, we closed up early. All my books were returned to their plastic storage containers and stored under my table and several layers of tarp. Good thing, because the high winds and heavy rain broke the frame of my canopy. So, now it’s time to go shopping. (The old canopy was probably close to ten years old, and wearing out, anyway. The part that broke isn’t replaceable.)

As far as writing goes, I am deep in edits for my new book, The Edwards Investigations: The Donovan File. It’s my second or third edit, depending on how you want to count. I pulled 500 words out of a chapter a few days ago. It was the setup for scene that never happened. Maybe a different book in the future. I don’t have a cover or a blurb  yet, but they are on the agenda. Here’s a quick excerpt:

It wasn’t the first time that Annie sat on a curb waiting for the cops to interview her, but at least this time she didn’t wear handcuffs. In fact, she’d tucked her hands into her coat sleeves, keeping them warm from the January chill. A pile of crumbled tissues lay on the sidewalk beside her; she’d used them to scrub as much blood as possible from them.

I’m trading edits with Cornelia Amari, as she works on her own new book. We’ve been trading edits for years now. I don’t want to reveal her premise, but it’s a challenging project.

In the meantime, I’m trying to figure out what my next story will be. One of these days, I need to find the plot for another of the Free Wolves books. I’ve only started and rejected three beginnings. And I need at least one more addition to the Edwards Investigations series.

How about the other authors on this hop? What are you writing? Readers can find out by following the links below.

As always, until next we meet, please stay safe.

 

 

July 20, 2026

What are you working on right now? (as far as writing goes) What’s going right? What’s going wrong?

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A Tiny Symbol #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 13, 2026

Is there a childhood toy or book or item that you wish you still had?

How about two?

The first is a 1964 Kennedy Silver half dollar. For those of you who don’t know, that’s a United States coin that was issued to honor John F. Kennedy, the assassinated president of the US. I don’t remember where I got mine – it may have been gifted to me by a customer at the small diner I waitressed at during high school. Or it may have been a birthday gift. I wasn’t into coin collecting, but I recognized it as something special, and kept it in my desk and not with the rest of my money.

When I left for college, the coin stayed home, tucked away in my desk drawer. Sadly, when I returned home at the end of the semester, the coin was gone. Vanished. Poofed.

Now, I can’t guess which of my younger siblings confiscated it for their own use. Or if they recognized its significance. But I’d like to have it back.

I can’t blame the second item’s disappearance on anyone but myself.

It was a mustard seed necklace, popular back then as a symbol of faith. I believe it was a Christmas gift. Or maybe it was for my confirmation. About the only time I wore it was to go to church. And not every Sunday. (Even back then, I didn’t wear a lot of jewelry.) I don’t know when or how it disappeared. Knowing me, I took it off and laid it where it didn’t belong. And by the time I looked for it again, it had been sucked into a black hole.

The necklace wasn’t valuable; similar ones are still available. But I remember how special I felt receiving and wearing mine. (I may be wearing it in this picture.)

 

What item from your childhood do you wish you still had? Tell us about it in the comments. And to find out what our authors wish for, follow the links below.

And, as always, until next time, please stay safe.

FYI – I got looking at the picture of me, and that’s not my mustard seed necklace. 

Goal update: I’ve finished the first of my edits and started the second. I’d hoped to have the book ready for release for the Waterford Festival but that’s next weekend, so I won’t make it. I won’t rush the editing process.

 

July 13, 2026

Is there a childhood toy or book or item that you wish you still had?

 

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Making The World A Better Place #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

July 6, 2026

Here’s a blast from the past – Feb. 2019 to be exact.

What have you done to make the world a better place?

That was 7 years ago. I had to go back to check if I’d even taken part in that hop, and I had. Back then,  I’d written about taking part in the first Earth Day and continuing environmental activities ever since.  That topic was the first one I planned to use this week until I checked the old files. Naturally, I feel compelled to pick a different topic.

Some of you may know that I’m working part time at a local convenience store. Luckily, most customers are wonderful to work with. Yes, we have our share of shoplifters, but they are discreet. And polite. And our senior population (which feels weird to write, since I’m older than some of them.) And our younger kids, who are counting out change to buy their candy bars and soda.

 

Sometimes, a customer comes up short of money to pay for their purchase. Maybe their card isn’t working. Or they miscalculated the total including tax. They’ll dig through the items to choose one to leave behind. Or run out to their vehicles to look for cash. I feel bad for them, but I can’t fix every one.

Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/theorivierenlaan-5288076/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2800436">TheoRivierenlaan</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2800436">Pixabay</a>

 

But I can help a few.

I’ve taken to carrying a small amount of change with me. If a customer is short, I’ll dig into my pocket and pull out a nickel or dime. It inevitably brings a smile to their faces. That’s all the reward I need. I’ll take their thanks, and tell them to pass it on.

The gesture is nothing big, certainly not world-changing. It’s about as important as picking up one piece of litter from beside the road. But it’s something I can do without thinking twice.

How have the others in this hop changed the world, or a part of it? Find out by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until next time.

Goal Update: I’m working on editing Chapter 22. It needed more than simple spellcheck; I’m redoing several scenes. 

July 6, 2026

Here’s a blast from the past – Feb. 2019 to be exact.

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If It’s A New Name, Is the Person Any Different? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

June 29 2026

If you had to choose a new author name, what would it be?

I started off as Bobbi Jo Aspen.

That was back when I was writing poetry. I even had a few poems published under that name. I still like it, but it doesn’t suit me anymore. Not in terms of my writing. There are non-writing occasions when it suits me perfectly.

My current pen name came from a failed snail-mail marketing campaign. The mail was misaddressed to the parents of ______ Mac Layne. Thus was born P.J. MacLayne. Having to change again would take more than a happy accident. There are so many factors to consider that I haven’t thought about before. Is the name already taken? (I am surprised by how many P.J.s there are when interacting with other authors. One who helped found this group.) How would the new name look on the cover of a book? Does the name carry a stigma?

How about an old-fashioned name?

I’ve always flirted with the name Gertrude. In fact, I wanted to use it for my Confirmation name (if you know, you know), but I was talked out of it. I don’t remember what I chose instead. Would it work as an author name? My fear is that potential readers would never take a second look, depending on the genre. Historical stories maybe, but science fiction or fantasy? As a side note, it’s likely too long to fit on a cover. 

Although I often slightly change characters’ names to avoid using an actual person’s name, I wouldn’t make a drastic change to a name to use as my pen name. Many people are put off by names that have too many vowels or no vowels at al. Again, the rules are different for fantasy and science fiction.

What would my new author name be?

Well, I can’t use Gertrude. Or Geraldine, my backup name.  What I can use is G.G.. And it isn’t against the rules, so I’ll retain the name MacLayne. That has a nice ring to it. G.G. MacLayne. Hmm. What genre should I write with it?

To find out what pen names the other authors would choose, please follow the links below.

And, as always, please stay safe until the next time.

Goal Update: I’m editing Chapter 20. I’m also fine-tuning some details of the story. There are 25 chapters, although I’m considering breaking the last one into two.

June 29 2026

If you had to choose a new author name, what would it be?

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