My Muse's Musings

  Hello Dear Readers! I wanted to give all my readers a quick update and another short excerpt from Building Courage. This book has been a long journey for me. My husband was bedfast for eight months. During that time, he required a lot of care. He passed in February 2023.  It took me nearly eight months to regain my writing rhythm, but I've found my feet.  I finished Building Courage May 1st,  and it is currently in my editor's hands.    I want to give Delilah Devlin, editor extraordinaire and fellow author, a shout-out for taking on the editing of the book. She's truly a wonder.  And I want to acknowledge Tracy Hacker my cover artist, who is an amazing graphic artist. She has done all my covers.   And Paul Salvette, who always does a fantastic job formatting my manuscripts so you can read them in print and ebook.  We authors don't work in a bubble, though sometimes it feels that way. None of us could produce a quality product without a...

 It's been a long time since I've posted anything. It's taken longer for me to fight my way back from a year of grief, upheaval, and injury, and it's still a work in progress, but I'm working my way back.  I'm 53,000 words into my next book, and I've finally hit my stride.   I'm posting a short excerpt of my next book Building Courage.  I've tweaked the blurb a tiny bit.  Here it is: Photographer Brynn Barrington spent two years on the road. taking pictures, podcasting about survival, and working through a personal trauma by embracing life. She's taken up surfing, sky diving, and now wants to learn to scuba dive. But when she meets Tucker Giles, she's wary. The handsome SEAL triggers desires she long ago buried deep and never thought to feel again.  Navy SEAL Tucker Giles has been a certified diver for years. After a dangerous encounter with a bull shark during a mission, he decides teaching Brynn to dive is just the ticket to shake off the l...

I thought I could write through anything. I used to turn to my writing to work through anger, frustration, and sadness. I wrote through disappointment, exhaustion, and loneliness. I wrote to remove myself from physical and emotional situations I couldn't escape. I had a very stressful job when I was first published, and my writing was my haven. But I couldn't write through the grief, anxiety, and financial chaos that followed my husband's passing.  It's been a journey to get to the point where I can put my fingers on the computer keys and write a sentence. I had started a book in October before his passing. But at the time, his illness had progressed to the point he needed me 24 hours a day.  I never left the house without my daughter or mother being there. And if I did, it was while he was asleep to go to the grocery store before he ever woke for the day.  I'm now trying to return to my past schedule of writing. But it's still difficult to sustain the schedule ...