Did You Pick A Hobby? Or Did A Hobby Pick You? by Laura Hunsaker

 I saw a meme online that said: Now that you're over 40, choose a hobby or one will be assigned to you.

Then it offered: 

Plants

Bird Watching

Hiking

Sourdough

Knitting/Crocheting

How true is this?

Birds. I seriously pay attention to birds now. Why? I never asked for this! And I enjoy it! I've been sitting in my backyard watching hummingbirds, doves, yellow finches, even a hawk! And today...boy are we in for a treat. Today I saw this cool looking bird (maybe a robin with that orangey-red chest?). I went to take a pic of him, and, well...I don't even know. Did he jump? 

I have no words for the silliness of this bird. But tomorrow morning when my dog and I sit outside after our jog, I'll have to see if this guy comes back. I've been doing my DuoLingo outside, maybe he's been listening in? I'll have to try speaking to the bird in Korean to see if he's been paying attention ;)


Tell me your hobbies! Did you pick up a new one recently? Or do you have a long-running one you'd like to share?


In my book Dangerous Past, Lark's hobby is her bullet journal, and I think she'd get a kick out of my bird buddy.

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She’s running from her past…

Lark Seawell is the daughter of a serial killer. His reputation has long been a shadow looming over her since his arrest when she was a child. Especially since she’s the one who called the police. She has spent her entire life trying to live as anonymously and quietly as possible. She is not her father’s legacy.

He wants to be her future...

FBI agent Jay Sutherland is visiting a friend in a small mountain town when free spirit Lark asks for help with her injured dog. He is instantly enamored with her, and their one night stand stays with him far into the next morning, though Lark is long gone. When his partner realizes that she is the daughter of The Highwayman, Jay refuses to believe Lark is anything like her father.

What happens when she stops running…

When a trail of dead bodies follows Lark on her cross-country drive, the FBI believes she’s the killer. How can the sweet woman who rescues injured animals and makes him feel things he hasn’t felt in years be a murderer? The bodies don’t lie. Jay knows there’s more at play. If he’s wrong, and Lark is as much a monster as her father, he may be the next target…

*Author's Note: This book contains a sunshiney heroine, a gruff hero, a couple of goofy dogs, some intense action, and begins when a one night stand leads to more...

PRODUCTIVITY IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR HAPPINESS

    Have you recently discovered that having a stress ball isn't for throwing at people who stress you out? 

Everyone has stress. It's a response to challenges in life. And let's face it, a life without challenges would be dreary and boring.

If you’re a writer, stress manifests itself when you write and when you don’t. If the writing flows, we say we’re in the zone. When it stops, we agonize over how to kick-start ourselves. When we end a piece, we fuss over the editing process. And when we’re finally finished with it, we ponder whether our creation is worthy enough, then lapse into the insecurity of “what will we write next”?

I’ve decided, after a half-dozen books, there is no happy medium to getting the right balance in life that will completely relieve stress levels. But there are small things that everyone who is stressed can do to ease  anxieties.

We all know we have to eat healthy and exercise, but there are other things to consider. One is to stay as organized as possible, and simplify routines, commitments, and clutter. A messy desk doesn’t cause us stress. Not finding the papers we need which are buried in a chaotic heap on our desks causes us to stress.

We also need to let go of multi-tasking constantly and slow down. We’re in a society that says we can do it all. We want to accomplish a task, but not upset our family’s routine or our commitments to others, so we rush, rush, rush. Maybe it’s time to go back to the single task philosophy our parents used. Maybe it’s time to streamline our time and eliminate unnecessary commitments. Instead of the mental “to do” list which stretches for miles in our mind, it’s time to write down a realistic “to do” list and only put down five essential tasks we want to complete in a given time.                                                                                             

And lastly, here is my favorite de-stress idea. I’m giving myself permission to have free time for myself—whether it’s to do a hobby, read, travel, or just take time off from writing without guilt. Life doesn’t have to be about always accomplishing things—always placing the next word on the page or doing the next to-do chore. After all, productivity has never been a synonym for happiness.

            NEW RELEASE - Finding Love in Pine Valley  

 

 

FINDING LOVE IN PINE VALLEY  

 

New Release:  

eBook/Digital - Now Only $2.99

Print - 6.99

 

One More Time by Liz Flaherty

A couple of years ago, a book of my heart was released by a publisher that closed its doors only a few months in. The book had good reviews and good sales (by my standards), but it just didn't work out. So, in February, I released Pieces of Blue myself, as Singing Tree Publishing. 

It's still a book of my heart, it has a lovely new cover, and it's now Book 1 of Colors, the Harper Loch Trilogy. Book 2 will release in June. Because it's First in Series, Pieces of Blue is 99 cents. 

I am excited again, just as I was the first time. I'm re-using some blogs from then, too. I hope you won't mind seeing this one again. And if you missed Blue in 2024, I hope you'll give it a look in 2026. 

****

It was funny. Well, to me, anyway. I’ve lived in the same area my entire life. There were a few years of living in town when I was single and appreciated such things as convenient restaurants, movie theaters, and being able to walk to work because I didn’t have a car. Then a few more years in a subdivision because it was nice and had a good elementary school and the grocery store was just down the hill. Then—gasp—someone decided they’d build houses in the vacant lots behind us and my rural-upbringing mindset began to hyperventilate and we moved back to within five miles of my parents’ farm. We’re still here.

Oh, I forgot. I said it was funny. To me. A couple of years ago, someone mentioned Town Lake, saying it was less than 10 miles from here. But I’d never heard of it. Surely that was impossible, I insisted to anyone who would listen. I asked my sister about Town Lake. And she said, “Sure. It’s been there for as long as I can remember.”

Still fairly sure I was right and everyone else was wrong, we followed my sister’s directions. Off the highway onto the first road south of town…no, not that one, the other first one…then turn right…in, oh, a half mile or so. There might be a sign.”

There was. We had to back up to find it, but there it was. We turned right onto a little bitty road, drove back a ways praying we wouldn’t meet anyone, and voila! there was a lake! It was small and private with houses scattered on its periphery. There was a field across from it, a woods beside the road that led back to it.

By the time we turned around and headed toward home, I knew there was a story. Maybe not Town Lake’s story, but mine.

And Maggie North’s.

And Sam Eldridge’s.

A friend named the lake Harper Loch, and Pieces of Blue was born. I hope you like it.

Life comes in shades of blue...

Self-imposed loner, Maggie North, has worked for bestselling author Trilby Winterroad her entire adult life, starting as simply his assistant and ending up as his ghost writer. Through ups and downs--including a divorce from an abusive husband--he has been the one person on whom she could always rely. So when Trilby dies suddenly, Maggie finds herself adrift, not sure what she’ll do or where she belongs in the world any longer. And the confusion continues when she discovers he’s not only left her his beloved dachshund, Chloe, but a house she knew nothing about, on a lake she’s never heard of.

It only takes one visit for Maggie to fall in love with both the house and the small lakeside community. The longer she’s there, the safer she feels and the more her life begins to expand...as do her feelings toward her friend and Trilby’s attorney, Sam Eldridge.

But is she really safe? Or are the glistening pieces of her new life about to shatter as an old danger returns?

Amazon: https://a.co/d/0aPNgxNO

D2D: https://books2read.com/u/491qMp