Top Five Most Viewed Posts for 2018

5) "The Unwinding Cable Car" (posted 4/2/2018)

This was the first blog post to go up this year. I admit, I got a little philosophical with things as I talked about what had been going on in my head and with one of the craft projects I've been working on.

That project still isn't finished, in case you've read that one and were wondering.

4) Slice of Life: That One Good Transit Story (posted 8/16/2018)

In case the title didn't tip you off, this post was a quick story from everyday life about an incident involving something good that I experienced while I was using public transit this past summer.

3) My Writer's Toolbox: Thesauruses I Love (posted 8/23/2018)

For this one, I created a list of thesauruses I love and use all of the time when I'm working on my works-in-progress. I fan-girled a bit about the Descriptive Thesaurus Collection put out by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi in this one. Then Angela Ackerman started following me on Twitter, and I may have had a bigger fan-girl moment over that than I did here on the blog.

2) Book Review: The Hands We're Given (Posted on 10/25/2018)

In October, I reviewed the first in fellow science fiction indie author O.E. Tearmann's Aces High, Jokers Wild series. It was a fun read, and I'm happy to see a book review near the top of the most viewed list this year.

And coming in at #1 - *drum roll please*

1) Sneak Peek: Overload Stories (Posted on 5/22/2018)

This post went up in advance of the short story collection I released over the summer. I do feel the need to stress that this is not a science fiction collection - just a few stories I had been working on for years in other genres that I felt like I needed to put out there.

Did you have a favorite blog post this year? Let me know which one in the comments, whether it was one I wrote here or something someone else wrote that you just could not help but share.

That's a wrap for 2018 here on the blog. See you in 2019 for the next one!

Metaphors: Candles

I've recently fallen in love with candles. Since coming home from the World Race , I've bought at least one a month. My favorite candles are the ones that come in glass jars - because when they burn out, I can clean the remaining wax out and put the jars to other uses. Right now, that means they get cleaned out and packed away in anticipation of my move to Flagstaff. But as I was lighting one tonight (vanilla spice... Thanksgiving smells? Yes, please!), I saw a metaphor for writing flickering away in the flame licking at the wick and melting the wax. I suppose it could be a metaphor for life in general, but since the theme of this blog is writing... Well, you do the math.

[Five Minute Friday] Purpose

Fiber bars, strewn along the side of the road. There had to be at least a dozen of them, still in their wrappers and completely unopened. No box in sight. Really? That's about the reaction my younger sister and I had when we stumbled on them on our early morning run. Really? along with disgusted sighs about the wastefulness of it. These were the expensive ones, not a generic store brand that kind of tastes and kind of looks the same sometimes. So, when we weren't keeping an eye out for their box, we speculated about what had happened. And wondered how many more we were going to see before the end of our run. "Maybe they took one bite and thought they were gross," my sister said. "So they threw them out because they didn't want them anymore." I let out one of those disgusted sighs and nodded along with her theory. "Yeah, or they got in a huge fight, and threw them out in a fit of rage." "That's a possibility." And

How to Make Sure Your Book Review Request Does NOT Get Deleted

I've been hesitant to write this post. That is due, in large part, to how angry I get some days after reading book review requests. I curse, I rant, I snark. My cat will tell you it's not a pretty sight. But I also feel like this is a good opportunity to talk about what it is that makes me feel those feelings AND how to not stir them up. I'm not the only reviewer that gets frustrated when I see certain things in my emails from authors looking for a review. And I know I'm not the only one who gets triggered enough to ignore or delete those messages. I never feel good about doing it. It's just that I'm hitting the proverbial wall here and I want to hit it a little less often. So if you're an author looking for loving advice on how to approach reviewers (especially this one), read on. Review Requests I Always Delete Before I get into what to do, I wanted to take a minute to look at what not to do (and how I handle it). Want to know what immedi

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