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Boone Park receives Honourable Mention

Boone Park is a short story I wrote a few years ago. I’m thrilled to announce that it recently won Honourable Mention in the fiction category from the Victoria Writers Society. It will be published in the Victoria Writers’ Magazine this December.

I wrote Boone Park on the heels of visiting elderly relatives as they lived out their final years in residential care homes. It’s a powerful story because it reflects some of our fears about aging and the institutions we’ll count on when our inevitable turn comes.

**Get Boone Park for free**

You can read Boone Park for free when you sign up for my newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. In fact, if you want to sign up, download, and unsubscribe, that’s perfectly fine. But I hope you stick around. VIP Readers get a short monthly update on what’s happening in my writing world including new-release news, insider scoop, and free short stories.

Speaking of updates, the latest news on my Christmas short-story project isn’t award-winning. Quite the opposite. I’m afraid neither of the two stories I’ve started writing will be complete this year. I guess that means two lumps of coal in my stocking.

But if you’d like to treat yourself to a decidedly not-short, not-Christmas story, Secret Sky is just a click away. Get your copy from Kindle with one click right here. And if kindle or ebooks aren’t your preference, click on the bookstore tab for other purchase options (or just click on the covers below).

The Crazy Train has Left the Station

It’s been a whirlwind around here amidst the launch of my second book, Revelation. I sent out my first newsletter; revealed the book cover; wrote and distributed a press release; prepared the “about” material for the website; uploaded Revelation‘s book details into Goodreads; prepared a media kit; updated my blog; and posted the new book cover to Facebook. Then I took a breath.

The Crazy Train called writing

The tornado of activity reminded me of the concept of balance. It’s a concept I’ve been working on since I hopped on the Crazy Train called writing. A train pushed by a caboose called publishing.

Balance is important, and though I have difficulty with it at times, deep in my heart I know it’s not just a concept. It feeds my sanity, grounds me. It’s why I made time to get into the garden last week and why I made the trip to Vancouver to help a friend celebrate her birthday on the weekend. It’s why I went to lunch with the girls the other day and enjoyed a super-sonic gin and tonic in the shade of the garden umbrella with my husband last night.

If I let it, this writing thing would consume every moment of my life. At times, it does. And because I’m an indie writer, all of the marketing and promo falls on my shoulders, so if I want to get the word out, it’s up to me…and it’s a lot of work.

Work/Life Balance

But the “work” has to be balanced with other things. Things that make me smile. Things that energize me and fire me up: like friends, family, fine food and great wine. And writing.

Writing you say? Isn’t that what got you in trouble in the first place? I know…you think I’m talking in circles. But I’m not.

The writing I refer to—the writing that energizes me—is creative writing. Not the sometimes tedious chore of writing promo material or editing manuscripts. Creative writing is what happens when I open the throttle on my imagination and run it on all cylinders. Suddenly new characters are running loose through new settings wreaking all kinds of havoc. Exercising my imagination is as important as physical exercise. It reminds me why I do all the other less-fun stuff. It makes the necessary, but tedious stuff, worthwhile.

It’s a crazy ride, and I need to keep injecting balance, but the circuit is oddly addictive: write, publish, promote, balance, fuel-up, rinse and repeat. Better than work-eat-sleep repeat. No?

Has your Crazy Train left the station?

Train Photo by Denis Chick on Unsplash