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Do You Hear What I Hear? #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

September 14, 2026

Setting music aside, describe some of your favorite sounds.

We could debate all week which genre of music is the best

But the lady who developed the prompt wisely excluded that discussion. So, what are my favorite sounds?

That’s easy. It came with retirement and my newly discovered interest in bird-watching. We are on several migratory routes, and I spot a variety of birds each spring. Not the same ones each year, but always a thrill to spot a new variety. What comes with that are bird calls.

So, bird calls are my second choice for my favorite sound. It’s fascinating to be outdoors and listen to the various calls and whistles. Have you ever heard the sound of hummingbirds? It’s more than the high-speed of the flapping of their wings. Then there are the blue jays, cardinals, wrens, even crows and ravens. I think those are my favorites. It’s challenging to figure out which is which based only on their distant calls.

Sadly, I’ve started to lose my hearing. Well, start is a inadequate description. I injured my ear in a bicycle accident back in the 1970s. Over the years, I’ve lost small portions of the upper and lower ranges of sound in that ear. As I get older, the loss is accelerated. (But the hearing in the other ear  is still hanging in there.)

But that’s not my favorite sound.

The one thing I like to hear more than anything is the words “I love you,” when spoken by my husband. After fifty-plus years, it still makes my heart flutter. Call it sappy, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.

What do the other authors in this hop like to hear? Find out by following the links below.

As always, please stay safe until the next time. (Which should be soon, because I should have a cover design soon and I’m in the final edits of The Donovan files.)

September 14, 2026

Setting music aside, describe some of your favorite sounds.

 

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You Put Your Right Foot In #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

September 7, 2026

Do you ever act out your scenes to immerse yourself and test them out, to be sure they really work?

I did that.

Once. I was trying to figure out a fight scene. That was over a decade ago, and I can’t remember which book it was for. But I was worried the space I’d chosen for the scene wasn’t big enough for the fight to happen in. (There was a big wooden desk in the way.) In the end, I gave it up. Decided it wouldn’t work.

Not that I’m much of a fighter. But I’ve watched lots of YouTube videos trying to figure out martial arts moves for various characters. Especially for Harmony Duprie. She had a way of getting herself into trouble.

Because I’m afraid my days of being athletic are over. My knees aren’t in prime form anymore. I can’t move the way I envision my characters moving. Except in my mind, of course, where I will walk through each step in a major scene. I don’t know how many aches I’d end up with if I tried rolling from one aisle in a convenience store to another.

Can I be sure they work?

I can’t guarantee it. I can only do what I can do. And hope that the videos I’ve watched and not AI  and can be done in real life.

Do our other authors act out scenes from their stories? You know what to do—follow the links below to find out. 

As always, please stay safe until next time.

Goal update – remember those? My story has come back from my 2nd editor. I need to set a new goal – for getting this through formatting and to a printer.

“Annie held the Bible over her head, unwrapped and opened to show off the discs before placing it on the ground. Awkwardly, she gathered the child into her arms and stood. It was harder than she’d anticipated, and she stumbled on her way back to her end of the alley. When she heard footsteps behind her, she didn’t turn to look, assuming Shorty was retrieving his prize.”

September 7, 2026 Do you ever act out your scenes to immerse yourself and test them out, to be sure they really work? Rules: 1. Link your blog to this hop. 2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop. 3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants' blogs. 4. Tweet/or share each person's blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting. 5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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September 7, 2026

Do you ever act out your scenes to immerse yourself and test them out, to be sure they really work?

 

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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?

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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