Uncategorized – Spinning Romance

DOWN THE TECHNOLOGY RABBIT HOLE

Last month I told you my internet access troubles and ended with my printer dying. After some research and fervent hoping it wasn’t true, I realized that to replace my printer/fax/copier I would have to replace my whole PC. No new printers were compatible with a non-upgradeable Windows 7 PC. So…

New printer. New PC/Monitor/Keyboard. Had to buy peripheral CD drive since PC didn’t have one and expansion slots to have room for my external disk drive. And you have to go online to load all the software and activate all the features of your new stuff. The new device comes loaded with nothing but the ability to find the internet. Oh joy! Thankful my internet access was restored I plunged into cyberspace installation mode.

In the middle of moving everything to the new equipment, my editor sent back my next book for further work so I had to go back and hook up my old machine to recover some stuff I forgot to copy over to the new PC. Can you say “Things that make Kim very, very cranky”? My husband claimed none of the adventure was improving my disposition in any way. It didn’t improve his either because instead of watching him from the deck as he mowed the steep backyard, I was running in and out checking on the software load. I was inside when he hit a nest of yellow jackets and didn’t hear him screaming from inside the house. Not good.

Some of you are shaking your heads saying “How can someone who was once a CIO have so much dislike and so many struggles with technology?” Easy. My forte was the applications side and ferreting out what people needed to do their jobs. Not the blasted technical/hardware side of the IT world. I told my spouse that I had minions who dealt very well with the technical side of things.

My husband gave me these minions the year I retired (has it really been more than ten years ago?). He did that to make certain I still had minions to help me…although other than to keep smiling when I could not they were not much assistance on the hardware migration.

I survived all of it (my husband did too). Everything kinda works but I’m still tweaking things and arguing with the AI that wants me to auto back up everything to the cloud and wants to get Hollywood news alerts about people I have no idea why they are celebrities.

Then when that hurdle was successfully leaped, I went to the phone store to switch two prepay flip phones into a plan with my tablet. Being a glutton for punishment, I switched my dumb phone to a smart phone. What was I thinking? Next stop, the bookstore to get an android smart phone for senior dummies book—yes that’s a real thing. I’m working through the book and figuring out how to use this new piece of technology.

Unfortunately, things happen on a regular basis that presume you have a smart phone…so now I do. And I confess I was a little excited when I could pull up the Piggly Wiggly app at the store last week and show them my rewards card on my new phone. And I finally got the spam filter to work on all those Medicare scam calls! It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

I hope to go into fall without further technology foibles to pull me farther down the rabbit hole. Enjoy!!!!

TECHNOLOGY TURMOIL

This summer brought a series of technology issues along with the incredible heat. For six weeks sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 each morning my internet would go down. It would come back up on its own between 12:30 and 1:30. My peak usage time is morning. When it was down it also effected the TV. Calling or texting the carrier put you in touch with a not too bright AI and you had to beg to talk to a real blood-in-their-veins human being. When I finally got a person who seemed to understand me, they gave me a twenty-dollar credit and recommended I take my gateway into their store and have it replaced with the newest model. All at no cost to me…except for my time to trek down to the store and impatiently wait my turn to be helped.

I picked the new gateway up the Friday before the Fourth of July and installed it. Instructions were: unplug the old one, plug the new one in. Presto. Only now I had no internet at all. Then the holiday. Then scheduling a technician visit when we were first on the list. Wednesday after the Fourth we had the 8 – 10 AM appointment. Remarkably, the young man was here at 7:45. He walked in with his phone in hand, confirmed what I had named my gateway, tapped something into his phone, hit the reset button on the gateway and it came up. The experts in the store had not configured it appropriately. Hooray!

My jubilation was short lived because the internet took its regular morning break thirty minutes after he left. The AI could find no outages in our area. The following Monday, a truck from the carrier was in our cul-de-sac. Since the internet had just gone down, I walked out in the eighty-eight degree temperature to talk to the guy. I startled him when I rapped on the truck window. He was sitting there all sealed in with the AC blowing full tilt looking at a monitor. I told him what had been happening daily. He said there’d been a lightning strike two weeks earlier one street over that had been repaired but he was still getting noise in the line. He said they were tracking it now and hoped to fix it that day. My husband was skeptical that the lightning was the culprit since my problem predated it by weeks. He was apparently correct because nothing changed. Not that day or several days later.

I made another technician appointment. The kid who fixed the gateway came fifteen minutes after the daily down time started. He didn’t come to the door. He went straight to the box. My husband believed the problem was actually up at our neighbor’s box. Some of you will recall three years ago we had six months of internet malarkey when a competitor cut through our lines at the neighbor’s junction box. We ran internet on a temporary line running along the gutter waiting all that time for the carrier to bury it. My husband went outside and told the technician about it. The technician took pictures of inside our box, took pictures in the neighbor’s box, and said he couldn’t fix it but would get the right person here to do it today. Where had we heard that before?

However, this kid was the right person to make it all happen. Within less than an hour after he left, we had another technician at our door asking if everything was up. IT WAS! He replaced a repeater in the neighbor’s box. My husband was right about where the problem was. We are the only people on the line past their house so no one else had been complaining. AI to the contrary, there had been a problem in our area.

And there was much rejoicing! Until a week later when my long-time, heavily-used printer/copier/fax lost its mind and could no longer print at all. Any new printers require Windows 10 or 11, not my lowly, but still working and not upgradable Windows 7 PC. But that is a story for another day. I don’t want to give you the headache I’ve been nursing all summer.

May you never have to deal with the AI that insists there is no problem in your area. They aren’t smart enough to have a battle of wits with!! Enjoy!

DULL WOMEN

I created the little picture years ago during my cross stitch period. Truth be told, probably when I was crafting instead of doing the much dreaded housework. I am fortunate to have married a man who wants to have his “stuff” left alone. He is delighted when I leave all his projects spread across the dining room table or books stacked in multiple places in the living room. Since I also have several “projects in progress” areas, I totally understand the feeling.

My mother was a cleaning fiend–both personally and directing her minions (i.e. children). She not only dusted, vacuumed, mopped and de-cluttered. She washed walls and repainted even with an inexplicable frequency. I did not get any of those genes. My husband is truly thankful for that. So am I because it is easy for me to ignore it all. I have so many other things I’d rather do. Writing. Spinning. Weaving. Building model railroad buildings. Lunching with friends.

I clean the bathrooms and kitchen regularly. After all, we’re not animals. However, the pull-out-all-the-stops cleaning is only done when we are having company. Then, my sweet husband helps with the dreaded chores. I think this behavior is a holdover from before I retired. I barely had time to do the essential cleaning each weekend and have overnight visitors for Alabama football games which forced the deeper cleaning.

This spring when we were having dinner guests and later in the month overnight company, I realized I’d ignored things a little too long. There was such a lot to be done to be ready for visitors. My husband thought I should just point to the little plaque above and let it go. That was a bridge too far even for me—the woman who never met a dust bunny she didn’t like. So we de-cluttered–that always takes the longest–then we dusted, vacuumed, mopped, made beds, fixed meals, and welcomed our guests with everything done in the nick of time.

After our little spate of visitors left, it took almost a day to put our “Projects in Progress” (i.e. clutter) back in its normal places. My husband pronounced we were done “until next year.”

I stitched the little plaque to assuage any guilt feelings on my part about not being my mother’s level of housekeeper, not to disparage any of my sweet friends and relatives who some how manage to keep everything clean all the time. I can truthfully say, no one has ever accused me of being dull–at least not based on my house being immaculate! Hope you have the time to keep house the way you want it and live with those whose standards match your own. Enjoy!

RETURN TO LANSDALE

At age twenty-five, Janet Marshall returns to the small town where she lived as a foster child. There, she reconnects with childhood friends and has a job she enjoys. But something is missing. After Abby, Janet’s college roommate, calls to arrange a weekend visit, Janet soon discovers her old friend is frightened and running from something—or someone. Without warning, Abby is gone as suddenly as she appeared but leaves something for her trusted friend. Can Janet find it in her heart to reconstruct her life and embrace this gift?

My sixth novel, the fifth one set in the small town of Lansdale, Wisconsin comes out on Monday, May 18th. It may be read as a standalone novel, but you’ll recognize several of the characters from Landing On Her Feet and other Lansdale stories.

My book signing for this novel–and my other five–is scheduled for Saturday, May 23rd from Noon to 4 P.M. at the Tuscaloosa Midtown Barnes and Noble. I hope you can find time to pop in for my latest book and an in person hug from the author.

Thank you for all of your support and encouragement as I continue my author’s journey. I certainly never expected it to extend to six novels. This story is one that insisted on being told. When characters appear in my dreams, the only way I’ll get any sleep is if I write what they are demanding I tell you.

I owe an extra debt of gratitude to my sweet husband who read what I believed was the final draft and told me Janet Marshall, my heroine, would never make it to the state line before she would be arrested for kidnapping. I was devastated and didn’t have any vision for how to fix my story. Several days later, he came to me with a solution that allowed me to salvage large portions of the original story, but keep Janet on the straight and narrow. He declined the opportunity to be co-author, but he should be. It was surprising since every minute I spend writing, is one minute less that I have to build structures on his model railroad layout. Guess that’s why we’re still married after almost fifty-one years.

Thank you for reading my stories, for reviewing them, and for asking for more. It brings me so much joy to share them with you. I couldn’t do this without you. Enjoy!

THE EMPTY TOMB

My very favorite Easter hymn is Robert Lowry’s “Up From The Grave (He Arose)”which was written in 1874. I think I like it because not only are the lyrics jubilant and joyous, the music is invigorating. As you sing it or listen to it you can see the rock rolling away from the grave and the Savior glowing in radiant white robes.

The Chorus is:
Up from the grave He Arose
With a mighty triumph o’er his foes
He arose a Victor from the dark domain
And He lives forever with His saints to reign
He arose! (He arose)
He arose! (He arose)
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Down the road from us a local church puts up a display every Easter of the three crosses, the open tomb, and a giant heart. By the crosses and the open tomb a sign says He is not here. By the giant heart the sign says Is He here? The song echoes through my mind each time I pass the display.

The world today needs a risen Savior more than ever. Wishing you and yours all the blessings of this holy season. Happy Easter!

THE BRONZE ANNIVERSARY

Today is the eighth anniversary of the birth of this blog to track my author journey. If it were a marriage, the traditional gift is bronze for strength and durability in blending two lives. The symbolism is also appropriate for the blending of my life in retirement from my first career in healthcare technology with my second journey as an author. When I started on this path eight years ago, I wasn’t certain where it would lead—if it would lead anywhere.

The path has had some bumps and unexpected curves as most of them do. But, for the most part, it has been remarkably smooth and extremely satisfying. Yes, I’ve had some dreams that I had to rush to get on paper so my characters would let me enjoy some nocturnal peace. I’ve had some epic rewrites and do-overs to resolve the legal peril I inadvertently put my heroine in or to be more succinct for my weary editor.

I’ve learned so much about publishing and the hundreds of things—big and little—that have to be just right for your story to see the light of day sitting on a bookshelf. I’ve become a more appreciative reader since I know how the sausage is made.

I have been blessed with early readers who help me work out the kinks before my editor ever sees the first page. My sweet, patient husband is on the top of the list of those pre-editors. And I love to see old friends and make new ones at my book signings. Thank you for making the effort to come out for my events.

There is nothing like the adrenalin rush of reading the email saying “yes, we’d like to see more” until you get the one with your book contract attached, then finally, the over-the-top-pinch-me-I’m-dreaming feeling of getting your world wide release date. I’m still delighted when I walk in the Barnes and Noble and see my books on the rack or the table of mysteries or Christmas books. I love it when Amazon sends me a notice of my new book based on prior reading.

My sixth book “Abby’s Gift”—another Lansdale cozy mystery with a happy-ever-after and laced with faith—will be published by The Wild Rose Press on May 18, 2026. I’ll provide more information when it is available for pre-order. If you are in the Tuscaloosa area, my book signing is tentatively set for the afternoon of Saturday, May 23^rd. Please mark your calendars.

Thank you for your love and encouragement along this journey; for buying, reading, and reviewing my books; for inviting me to your book clubs; and most of all, for providing a reason for the journey to continue by blessing each step of my author journey with joy. I couldn’t do this without you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Enjoy!

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’

I have daily reminders that I am getting older.

* Sometimes, I look at my husband while we are watching television and ask, “What was that a commercial for?” Neither of us has any idea what the product being advertised is. That must mean we don’t need it. Or the marketing is woefully off target.

* I can’t scan a bar code to make a reservation or make videos with my phone because it is a dumb-as-in-not-smart-flip phone that makes phone calls and gives me texting ability. My old one didn’t text.

* I abhor self-check out lines, especially when you have a lot to check out. I’d rather stand in a line and be checked out than do it myself.

* I already miss pennies. Their demise just seems like another reason to drive everyone away from cash and to a debit or credit card. How hard would it have been to make them from something cheaper?

* I write checks to pay my bills. You used to get books of fifty to one hundred checks. Now, they come in books of thirty. Very few of us must still be writing checks.

* I liked balancing my check book when you actually flipped through physical checks to do it. Some of my nieces and nephews wrote ‘Thank you’ over their endorsement on the back knowing I’d see the returned check and then they considered themselves off the hook for a thank you note. If they still do that, I don’t see the back of the check. But I do sometimes get a thank you e-mail.

* I detest trying to fix a problem through the AI generated customer service. It was hard enough when you got a live person on the phone who might be patient with the old woman on this end of the phone. I must not speak fluent AI…or they don’t learn very quickly because they keep asking me the same question and trying to pawn me off on their website–and that was where I started!

I had a long career in information systems so it probably seems strange that I don’t embrace all the new technologies—I refuse to say they are all advancements. Email communication and text messages are efficient and I use them in my author life. But no technology replaces a voice telephone call to really connect with the other person. Of course, the best is a face-to-face meeting where hugs are exchanged before anything else.

The older I get, the less I like much of the business world around me. I am becoming a modern age Luddite. You history majors will remember that Luddites were the English factory workers who smashed machines during the Industrial Revolution because they feared the machines were taking over their jobs. According to the Oxford dictionary, today it is a derogatory term meaning being opposed to new technology and ways of working.

I can live with that. I’ve been called worse. Enjoy!

EARLY CHRISTMAS GIFTS

Earlier this summer, I worked on adding new buildings to my husband’s model railroad in our basement. I paint and put together kits and create the decals for the signage. The decals are the way to make the buildings unique. One of the kits he wanted me to build next was a printing company. My husband said I could make it The Wild Rose Press if I wanted to. So I did. The result is in this picture.

I also made this billboard to put in the parking lot of the printing company.

At the time I didn’t have another book under review or even close to being reviewed. I wasn’t sure if another book was in my future at all, but shortly after I finished the building, my muse woke up and started demanding some attention. I submitted a synopsis and manuscript for another Lansdale, Wisconsin mystery with a splash of romance and faith to The Wild Rose Press.

A couple of weeks ago, I received the “Congratulations” email with a contract for my sixth novel, Abby’s Gift, attached to it and it was assigned to my editor from “Running to Daylight, Kaycee John. I am very excited to be working on this story, editing and polishing so, hopefully, it can be published next summer. Kaycee has already sent my first round of edits. As soon as the Christmas gift making is completed, I’ll be able to focus on tackling them.

On the 13^th, I had my sixth book signing at our local Barnes and Noble. The events manager and I were both delighted that I sold twenty-nine books and all but eight of them to people I didn’t know. I also got five new subscribers for this blog. It was a tiring, but rewarding afternoon.

I feel like Christmas has already come. My wish for you and your family is for you to fully enjoy all the blessings and deep joy of Christmas and that 2026 will be a year of peace, prosperity, and better health for each of you. Merry Christmas!

MANY BLESSINGS

This is the time of year when we look at the world with renewed gratitude for the blessings in our lives. I don’t know why we have to be reminded to be thankful when every day brings its own miracles and blessings. I think we spend so much time focusing our prayers on big blessings—like relief from pain, successful cancer treatment, healthy babies, the safety of our loved ones—that we forget to say thank you for all the mini blessings that we are surrounded by day in and day out.

I am hugely grateful for the medical miracles showered on my friends and my family and equally thankful for those who are now pain-free and wrapped in the arms of Jesus. But I’m focusing now on the many mini blessings I am gifted with.

A day when the mail is delivered before dark and it is everything that was scanned on informed delivery saying it was expected today.
Waking up next to my sweet husband of more than fifty years.
Lunch al fresco with a friend whose white count would allow visitors.
I am thankful the local Barnes and Noble carries all five of my books. If you will be in the area, I am doing a book signing on Saturday, Dec 13 Noon- 4 p.m. at the Tuscaloosa Barnes and Noble in Midtown. Stop for one of my books or just stop for a hug! Hope to see you there.
The enthusiasm of my thirteen year old great niece who wants to be an author when she is older. She really already is. I’m reading her story as it is born.
The arthritis in my fingers remaining at bay for me to knit socks, crochet baby blankets, spin colorful yarn, weave warm scarves, do needlework, and paint and put together tiny pieces for the buildings on my husband’s model railroad.
A positive letter from an unexpected source that brought tears to my eyes.
Lunch with friends who make time for us to continue decades of friendship.
A text message just saying I’m loved. I confess, sometimes it makes me pick up the phone to talk to the sender because no text message can replace the sound of a voice of someone you love.
A wonderful cardiac calcium score (4) after going through a difficult test.
Celebrating making another orbit around the sun.
Scrapbooks and photo albums that let me relive so many of the wonderful moments of my life.
Good books to read including one my great nephew shared with me that he had been percolating for several years—a stirring sci-fi fantasy. Can’t wait to see how it ends.
My readers—veteran followers and new. I love seeing a new name pop up on a review or a new follower. It’s always great when longtime readers and followers leave comments on my blog.
I love that I have readers who want to be early recipients of my latest work. One of those early readers is my husband whose lawyer training keeps my characters from doing anything that would land them in jail. Thank you all!

I’m sure there are many more mini blessings, but these are top of mind today. Take a moment to be thankful for not only the major miracle blessings in your life, but for all the little moments when positives rain down on you and make you smile.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Enjoy!

The Family We Choose

Most of you know I am the oldest of ten children. My extended family is quite large and my in-laws are many as well. I’m blessed that we are for the most part a harmonious family with only minor skirmishes creating fleeting issues.

I am further blessed by the people that are not related to me by blood or marriage or any legal definition, but are nonetheless members of my chosen family. (Thanks for getting me thinking about this Kim G and Angela.) They are the people I love and who love me. They began as work colleagues or employees, friends of friends, people I met at a social gathering and we hit it off, authors with my publisher, college dorm mates, childhood neighbors, high school friends, or people who read my novels . I follow the ups and downs of their lives and, when possible, I try to make them a little smoother, slightly easier. I firmly believe it always helps to know you are loved—no matter what dire circumstances you find yourself in—and love triples the joy in happy times.

Years ago, our friends’ young daughter explained to me that even though she called me Aunt Kim, I really wasn’t her aunt. I think she believed that I didn’t know it was an honorary title. When I ask why I wasn’t, she patiently explained that since I wasn’t her poppi’s sister or mommy’s sister and Uncle Jim wasn’t their brother, I would never be her aunt. I asked her why she called me Aunt Kim if I wasn’t really related to her. She thought for a moment and said, “Because you’re someone we love.” I’ll gladly embrace that definition of aunthood.

One of my sisters-of-the-heart has been battling cancer and she recently sent me this definition of family: Family is not about blood. It’s about who is willing to hold your hand when you need it the most. I love this definition and I would add that hand holding can be done virtually through prayers, cards, letters, phone calls, text messages and emails, too. There are countless ways to let someone know you are there for them. Of course, nothing replaces an in person hug, if there is a way to make that happen.

I feel twice blessed because I have blood relatives and in-laws who I would happily want to include in both my traditional family and in my chosen family. Think about the people in your life who could use some encouragement, some love, some hope. Make the first step—choose them to join your family. Love your neighbor as yourself. You’ll be amazed how the love you give is returned to you tenfold. Enjoy!