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Come into the garden with me, and we can talk of what might be…

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I took this photo on a hike on Sunday. It made me think of so many things. We got in over our heads in a couple spots. At one time I thought we may be lost. Yeah. Srsly lost. In. The. Middle. Of. Nowhere. But what do they say? All that wander are not lost? We came upon an outcropping among the rocks of a ridge where Tibetan Flags, all torn and weathered, had been hung. It was breath-taking to sit there and appreciate this place, even though we hadn’t set out to see it, even though it wasn’t our destination for the day, it somehow ended up being exactly where I needed to be.

When was the last time you wandered? When was the last time you got lost? When was the last time you took the road less-traveled?

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Hubby, Oso and I went to a great BBQ potluck on the 4th. We love the mountains and hubby’s family has been going up there for generations. So, there were a lot of new and old friends at the BBQ. Not only did we celebrate the country’s birthday, but a few actual birthdays too Anyway, during most of the party there was this girl in purple pants sitting  far away from everyone on her rock. She went and got her food (oh, man was there some AMAZING food!) and went back on her rock to eat by herself. When her brother came and sat beside her, she didn’t really get mad, but she didn’t want anyone to sit with her on her rock either

Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July. Any good potluck recipes you shared/ate this weekend? Here’s the recipe for the salad I brought, it’s one of my favorites

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Whew! What a fabulous weekend…hung out with some old friends and made some new ones. Thanks to all the wonderful folks who stopped by to say hi!

A big shout out to Angela, Sydney & Kate, Carly and Vivian too

Hanging with my booth buddies!

And WHAT would San Francisco be without a little seafood and some awesome live music (& lots and lots of stories ) We were joined by the amazing Kris Kendall, Angela Orlowski-Pert, & Diana Murdock too!

As much fun as all that was…the party continues now, because I came away with some FABULOUS reads I never knew about before and I’m dying to share my SFINE TBR list with you!

Squeeee! I’m devouring these books as fast as I can! You should check them out too

The Consequences Series [ADULT TITLE NOT YA OR NA!!!!!!!] by Aleatha Romig
Thirty Seconds to Die by S. G. Holster
Entangled by Nikki Jefford
Nissa by Bethany Lopez
Forged by Greed by Angela Orlowski-Pert
Again by Diana Murdock
12.21.12 by Killian McRae
Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts [This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence]

I hope you find a great read on this list for your own TBR What a great way to kick off the summer! And I’m so excited to have all this swag that I thought I’d share a little with you too So, if you want some SFINE swag, let me know in a comment here.

More about the book signing this week…until then, what’s been inspiring you lately? I am constantly inspired by a book I read called You Are Your Choices by Alexandra Stoddard. Among the many things Alexandra talks about in the book, she suggests making choices based on Aristotle’s triangle which has three points of consideration: The Good, The Beautiful & The Truth. I’ve been really focused on making my choices being mindful of these three things. It’s really helped me over the past few months. Have a great week! I’ll see you on Wordless Wednesday

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What is SFINE, you say? Well, I’ll be a total fan girl in five days when I get to sign books at The Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco! Get all the deets here: http://www.sfine.net/

I’ve been so blessed to visit schools and do book signings for the past two years with some incredible authors like Michelle Leighton, Fisher Amelie, Courtney Cole, Tiffany King, Nichole Chase, & Carol & Adam Kunz…just to name a few! But this time, I’m staying closer to home, which is a big thrill for me. Last year I stayed close to home too and was blessed to meet the amazing Killian McRea at the San Rosa Book Festival last September. The amazing Ms. M is the brains behind SFINE and I’m thrilled to be a part of it. So this Saturday will find me in fan girl mode as I sign books, chat with readers, eat lots of clam chowder at pier 39, buy an outrageous amount of cheese and bread and olive oil at the Ferry Building, and well…maybe I’ll have time to sip a little bit of wine. Be sure to swing by my booth if you’re attending and let me know you read my love letter, I’ll have something special for you

It seems everyone has a tale about falling in love with or in San Francisco. As I’m packing up my books and swag to go to SFINE, I thought I’d share mine with you.

My love letter to San Francisco:

I flew to California for the first time and landed at SFO nearly thirty years ago. My boyfriend, my husband now, picked me up at the airport and couldn’t wait to show me the city. We would eventually wind our way down the coast to make our way to meet his parents in his small hometown in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the settings of Winnemucca, a small-town fairy tale. Not before doing San Francisco, Napa, Bodega Bay & San Simeon first The city was something of a dream for me. I’d heard about San Francisco all my life growing up in Chicago. And of course I’d seen its unique vistas in movies. My family were big travelers, but the furthest west we’d gotten was Colorado on Boy Scout camping trips–I was the little sister of two eagle scouts, so I went on a lot of camping trips My brother would attend Berkeley on a full fellowship, but it was too expensive for me to travel to see him while he got his masters. The mythology continued in the stories he’d tell about living in a turret and about Muir Woods. Mom and Dad were equally enchanted. It was after Christmas that I left the gray, snowy world of The Windy City and landed in paradise. Everything was so incredibly green in San Francisco and the bay was the kind of gorgeous it can only be when you see it for the first time in full sun when sailboats hug Alcatraz and tack toward the Golden Gate into the great beyond. Joe would buy me the most romantic present I’d ever received until then. The most expensive gift I’d ever received until then. It was a jewelry box and I felt so incredibly cherished when he bought it for me. The extravagance took my breath away as did our whirlwind romance with each other in the city. I will always love San Francisco. It was where my husband and I became sweethearts.

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Hey all. I procrastinated ALL WEEKEND when I have a huge deadline this week. And now that I’m sitting down to work and realizing that at last count my new novel The Storytellers..the one I should have been editing all weekend has…wait for it…50 CHARACTERS! Egads!

50 is my new favorite number. It’s going to be my muse not only for this week but for the entire month of May.

I’m turning 50 soon–very, very soon. And I’m going to throw a little book birthday bash here. I can’t wait  Some awesome authors have joined in to celebrate with me which is so much fun. They’ll be some fun surprises and a great giveaway with lots of fabulous free ebooks. More on that later….

But, back to this Monday’s muse. In the face of the number 50 the  muse made me procrastinate. I SHOULD have been home swimming through my edits. Trying to stay afloat. But I didn’t, I did everything but. That’s SO 49 of me! I’ve done the opposite of everything that I probably should have done this year. And it’s been wonderful. So I went with my gut and did everything I wasn’t supposed to this weekend. Here’s three things my muse picked up on while I procrastinated.

1 & 2: I saw two amazing movies that I never heard of, and I’m kind of a movie freak, so this is rare. One was Winter’s Bones….egads! If you like it scary and horrifying and love Jennifer Lawrence this is for you. The other is The King of California…if you like it cooky and weird and love stories about outrageous quests and impossible relationships, this one is for you.

3: I love church for lots of reasons but one of them is because it’s so old fashioned hearing stories told aloud. This week’s story was about a man who couldn’t walk and had waited to be healed at a healing pool for 38 years. For 38 years every time the time was right for a miracle to occur he never was the first one to the healing pool. He always missed his chance. He was really caught up in the how of healing. Not in the who. This made my muse thankful and determined.

What’s inspired you this week?  What’s your muse up to?

Related articles

• Musing Mondays (May 6) (cynthia2729.wordpress.com)

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This Monday I’m inspired by the Sea Otter Classic bicycle races I went to over the weekend at Laguna Seca. There’s a motto FOX, a bicycle shock manufacturer, has––Redefine your limits it’s a fabulous way to start this week. Thinking about what’s beyond our limits. It’s something I like to write about. My characters try to redefine their limits. But, it’s not something I’ve really thought about lately in terms of myself.

What’s beyond your limits?

All of the riders were an inspiration, especially my daughter’s boyfriend, an enduro bike racer. The racers’ dedication and love of the sport is a joy. It’s fun to think about what lies beyond the things I think I can handle. That there might be something more I might try. Something more difficult than I ever thought I could ever pull off. I’m going to redefine my limits this week. I need the extra encouragement to meet deadlines, for sure. But creatively I think I’ll adjust my writing shocks so that I can navigate some steeper, gnarlier trails than I’m used to. Take more risks and thrill in the zesty downhill ride.

What’ a limit you want to redefine?

What I’m listening to as I edit this morning: Could I’ve been so blind by The Black Crowes

 

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I did a ton of research when I wrote SHADOW SLAYER (Shadow Series #2). Among the many things I researched were magic words. I wanted to create a magical world that felt and seemed real and had a feeling of history. What I discovered were magic words that had been used in literature for centuries. (Yes, this is when I spend way too much time reading cool stuff and not writing.) I do enjoy tangents. They are wonderful things and sometimes take me exactly where I need to be. And then again they sometimes lead me to wander off. And while deadlines and commitments and the real world are all fabulous things, I like to wander. I’m a fan.

Here’s a magic word that I found in my research and fell in love with––Ranokoli. It looks kind of odd in black and white, doesn’t it? For some reason it reminds me of pasta. I’d like some ranokoli with marinara sauce. Can’t you just see it on a menu? Ok, that aside, the real cool thing about this magic word is that it appeared in a story long ago written by Irving Bacheller (1859-1950) and he lived nearly 100 years. Back in the day, that was SO rare. So, that kinda got my attention. And then, I read this excerpt from Silas Strong by Irving Bacheller (1906):

The chief invited a great council and organized the Society of the Magic Word. Every member promised that whenever the greeting ‘Boneka’ were given him, he would smile and bow and answer, ‘Ranokoli.’ The greeting meant ‘Peace,’ and the answer, ‘I forgive.’ Then, one by one the law-giver called his councillors before him, and to each he said: ‘The Great Spirit is in this greeting. I defy you to hear it and keep a sober face.’ Then he said ‘Boneka,’ and the man would try to resist the influence of the spirit, but soon smiled in spite of himself, amid the laughter of the tring, and said ‘Ranokoli.’ Thereafter, when a quarrel arose between two people, and outsider, approaching, would greet them with the magic word, and immediately they would bow and smile and answer, ‘I forgive.’ 

This is the story behind one of the seven magic words in The Shadow Series. Roxie only gets to use the magic words one time. So, far in book 2 she’s used up four of the seven magic words. She still has to use Ranokoli : The Great Spirit of Forgiveness.

If you can comment here with Roxie’s worst fear at the beginning of 13 on Halloween, I’ll mail you Shadow Series Swag. (HINT: you’ll find it listed in the 13 on Halloween ebook which is free everywhere ) This giveaway is open for 1 week. 

You can purchase Shadow Slayer here, here, and here.

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Mondays are amazing. If you let them, they can be overwhelming as you look at the mountain of work to be accomplished during the upcoming week. I choose to use Monday as a planning day, to very carefully schedule the "need to happens" and the "want to happens." I have found if I will take the time to sit in a comfortable chair and mull the week over with my planner, I relieve the pressue and stress that could smother me. Mondays are now one of the most peacefull days of the week. Easy for me to say, since right now all of my children are either at work, or at school, and my sweetheart is at work. The morning chores are done, the wash is sorted and running. I have visited two of my dear friends. I have done the dishes, tidied the house, have dinner planned, and have the music room ready for my guitar student this afternoon. I will cut one son's hair as soon as he gets home from school, then another son's after that, then the stress, I mean fun begins! I almost have myself convinced that this will be a peacefull week. Mondays are amazing!

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