Alternate Universes, a Novel, and Spending Time in My Own Head - Erin Zarro

Crazy title, but it's appropriate.

This will make sense, I swear. ;)

I have been experiencing memories of things that never happened.

Yeah, it's freaky.

The first time it happened, it was after I had surgery on my foot. I'd remembered writing an email to a client and putting together an invoice. Vividly. Turns out, I'd never sent it, nor did any such invoice exist. And it wasn't hiding in my Drafts folder, either. I thought, hmm, general anesthetic screws with your brain for a bit...maybe it's that, and went along my merry way.

Until it happened a few more times, well past the time the anesthetic would have left my body.

So I did what I usually do in this situation. I researched it.

I found out some interesting things. For one, which blew my mind completely, is that your brain cannot tell the difference between a true memory and a false one. Let that sink in for a moment. There are cases where eyewitnesses to crimes had actually confabulated memories when prompted. They suddenly thought they saw a man walking a dog when they actually saw no dog if asked in a leading manner, for example. That's why eyewitnesses and memories are so complicated in law enforcement.

Introducing Myself—Diana Pharaoh Francis

Hello everyone!

I'm so delighted to meet you! I'm new here to Urban Fantasy Fiends, so I figure I'd better tell you some things you should know about me.

1. I am a dog person. Kind of a rabid corgi person, really, plus I have a heeler. I have an 11 year old corgi boy named Voodoo, a 1.5 year old corgi boy names Crowley, and a 1.5 year old blue heeler named Merlin. (Are you sensing a naming theme)?

2. I am that dog person who takes tons of pictures of them, talks to them, obeys them, and generally spoils them rotten. Incidentally, I do love kitties, too, but my husband is more allergic to them than doggies, and since he's got allergy-induced asthma, we avoid that. I have to get a kitty fix when I go to other people's houses.

3. I knit. Ish. I'm pretty good at some things, and have just now had to rip out the beginnings of one project about six times. Somehow I'm doing something wrong. But to quote Colin Firth, I will conquer this. Pardon me if I don't open my shirt and dive into a lake at this juncture. No one wants to see that. Tonight I try again. But this time I'm going to do the smart thing and put in a life line like I should have before but decided that this time I wouldn't need it. Famous last words.

4.  I write Urban Fantasy, traditional fantasy, and I'm working up some romantic suspense. You can read chapters and see more on my website if you are so inclined. I would be delighted if you did. Watch out, though, the puppies leave toys everywhere.

5. I'm married with a HS kid and a college kid. My entire family are smartasses. We like to play tabletop games, and lately have been playing Dominion and Splendor, both of which are very fun.

6. I grew up on a cattle ranch, and I've lived in CA, IA, IN, MT, and OR. Of them all I like OR the best. MT was great, but winter was looooooong.

7. I used to be a tenured professor in Montana, but dropped the golden handcuffs and moved to OR. I now write full time, with a part-time gig teaching in the SNHU MFA program. I love to teach and mentor and etc., so it give me joy.

8. I love to bake bread. I grind my own wheat, which probably makes me super weird, but you should know that's not really what makes me super weird. I've got so much more weird going on than that.

9. I have a super morbid sense of humor. Gallows humor. This comes out a lot in my books. They tend to be snarky, gritty, romantic, and fun. Sometime I cackle madly when I write. Be warned.

10. I love chai. Starbucks chai, not most others. My order is venti chai tea latte, seven pumps, non fat, no water, no foam, super extra extra hot. However, I've discovered I can make a better one at home with milk, Extra Spicy Oregon Chai concentrate, and Tazo skinny chai concentrate. It's soooooo good. Also, I have never been able to like coffee, but have been making mochas at home with a stovetop esspresso maker, and I'm liking those. Maybe one day I can drink actual coffee.

I don't know if those are the top 10 things to know, but they are certainly 10 things to know. And now, I want to include pictures.

On top, you have Voodoo. On the bottom, Merlin and Crowley. Voodoo hates the puppies and snaps and snarls at them. Except when they are outside.  Then they have fun together. This was a recent trip to the snow, the puppies' first time. Voodoo, of course, lived in Montana, so he's got snow experience.

I suppose I should maybe share a book cover or two, just so you can tell something about what I write.

Again, you can read chapters and learn more on my website, plus there are some free stories there for your enjoyment. Thanks for reading this far, folks!

Story beginnings

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of starting a brand new book in a brand new series – which is exactly where I am right at this moment. I’m a pantser rather than a plotter so I tend to begin with the germ of an idea and then see where it takes me, and it’s so much fun beginning a new idea and creating new characters and seeing where they go.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the idea of sculptures, particularly in generations gone past. You know, those ones who would begin chipping away at a block of marble until the sculpture revealed itself to them. It suggested that there was no choice for the stone to be anything other than what they eventually created and that the man or woman or angel or whatever underneath was just waiting to be brought out.

Writing is like that for me. I might think that the story is going to go in one direction and then it ends up heading in the complete opposite direction because that’s what the characters tell me. I’m not alone in this either. I read something Tolkien said about Lord of the Rings and that (I’m paraphrasing) “no-one was more surprised than me when Gandalf didn’t show up to the inn at Bree”.

I have a sneaking admiration for authors who know exactly where their story is going to take them and who have everything planned out. That will never be me but I think there’s something reassuring in the thought that we’re all different. One thing’s for sure – it’s certainly never boring when you don’t know what’s going to happen next any more than your readers do!

This is what my novel plan looks like!

Making Plans, Jotting Notes - Devon Monk

We made it! It’s officially 2020!

I hope you’ve had a good start to the new year! I began mine--just minutes after midnight--sneaking through the neighborhood with a bunch of silly people, a basket of pink yard flamingos, and a heart full of mischief.

You see, one of my family members didn’t make it to the annual family New Year's Eve bash, so we decided to flamingo their yard. Okay, mostly we did it because I had a basket full of unused pink flamingos burning a hole in my basement. I NEEDED to flamingo SOMEONE'S yard!

The Pink Flamingo-ing of 2020 falls smack-dab under one of my new year’s goals: Have More Ridiculous Fun. Good goal, right?

In the spirit of ridiculous fun, I’ve recently knit: Baba from Baba is You (a video game)

and rat hats. Um...because everyone needs a pack of rat hats? 

My other New Year’s goal is: Get More Stuff Done.

More writing, more reading, more family time, more knitting time, more down time (more ridiculous fun time). I’ve had mediocre results finding that work/life balance in years past, so this year I decided to try a new planner.

I like planners but I’m not one of those people who can run multiple planners and binders. I don’t bother to decorate them or delight in fancy dividers and cute clips. I tackle a planner like a hand-me-down pad of scrap paper. I scribble stuff out, change my mind, write grocery lists where daily tasks should be, jot down recipes, and leave behind coffee stains. Eventually, the planner falls to disuse and becomes a reminder of all the things I haven’t done.

Guilt in a three-ring binder.

Now, before you think I’m completely hopeless, I HAVE successfully used this Brilliant Weekly Scheduler for word counts and to-do lists for two years. I love the size and layout (and the grid paper) but needed something more.

https://shop.mochithings.com/products/18219

Enter the Good Busy Planner. It offers up some self-reflection, fits on my tiny desk, and has room for writing, publishing, and random life stuff I think up/need to keep track of on a daily, monthly and quarterly basis.

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Busy-Planner-Jan-Problem-Solve/dp/B07WC375R9

So far, I like it! Let’s see how long it lasts!

Oh, and if one of your new year's goals is: Read More Free Stuff, I got you covered. The completely free (fun and funny!) Ordinary Magic prequel is available for download right...here:

Download Dues and Don'ts

Happy New Year!!!