I got groceries and took out the trash and then . . . I read. I suck at working.

What did you do this week?

Brenda Margriet’s latest novel in her TIMELESS Seasoned Romance Collection, Richly Deserved, is on sale now at a special price until April 1.

More than twenty years ago, Claudia Aronson escaped an abusive marriage. She built a secure, stable life, and is now only weeks away from realizing a long-held dream—opening her own art gallery. But her well-ordered world is threatened by the compelling, abrasive man essential to bringing her new venture into the spotlight.

Artist Titus Wilcox is reclusive, nomadic, and passionate. His solitary, drifting habits have fed his creative soul, but played hell with his love life. Soon after he meets the statuesque, seemingly-serene Claudia, however, he feels a compulsion to paint a new reality—with her.

When an antique painting reveals mysterious documents concealed behind its frame, Titus and Claudia unite in a hunt for lost riches—a pursuit that takes them into the remote hills surrounding the fabled gold rush town of Barkerville.

To these two skeptics, true love is as phony as fool’s gold. But this improbable search for buried treasure could lead to their hearts’ hidden desires.

Richly Deserved‘s Ebook Price $2.99 (will go up to $4.99 on April 1)
Now Available on Amazon, Kobo, B&N and Apple (Also Available in Print from Amazon)

My current fascination is the Ever Given, the huge ship stuck sideways in the Suez. For one, it’s such an apt metaphor for my life, especially with Nita in front of me, sideways, on my laptop. For another, the memes are hysterical. (I’d have used this for the happiness post, but it seems mean since the Big Boat is blocking 12% of the world’s shipping, which somehow makes the world seem smaller and more understandable but still hard luck on shipping and anybody expecting anything from China.) I can’t pick a favorite. There’s the “Steal His Look” meme which is a great visual joke, there’s the “This is the most action Cape Horn of Good Hope has gotten since 1850″ which makes me feel smart because I get it (I like a low bar), and there’s the Evil of Sauron and two hobbits . . . I love them all.

I think the world just needed a big boat stuck in the Suez Canal right now.

(Note: Right before I posted this, the Big Boat became partially unstuck. Still funny.)

The World Happiness Report is out, and the news is … cheerful. In spite of one of the most stressful years of our lives globally, people’s assessment of their own happiness didn’t change much. It’s not so much that all is well, one researcher says in the Washington Post, it’s that people aren’t giving up, our belief in the future remains optimistic. The takeaway? We are really, really adaptive.

How were you adaptive and optimistic this week?

I’ve been re-reading Georgette Heyer’s mysteries.

What are you reading?

I’m reading drafts from two other writers and staring at Nita in disgust. Maybe I’ll be a painter instead. It’s all art.

What did you do this week?

Yale has a course in happiness that’s been getting rave reviews for years. It’s available on Coursera (see link below) for those who want to study happy. I’m at the point where I don’t want to study anything but comic book art and the ceiling, but for those of you who still get up in the morning with a need for a song in your heart:

Coursera: The Science of Well Being

So I have this friend, let’s call him “Bob,” and on St. Patrick’s Day he sent this picture which has now been haunting my dreams for three days, and not in a good way. Anybody here know where it came from?

Continue reading →

Okay, I bought a lot of Art Deco china for Fast Women, and I own all of Liz’s t-shirts and all of Nita’s socks, and . . . the POINT is that I understand getting the details right. But even I never wrote an anthem for an imaginary city state. Hat’s off to Terry Pratchett for “We Can Rule You Wholesale,” the anthem of Ankh-Morpork.

(I particularly like the second verse, which (Pratchett explains) was written by a non-Ankh-Morporkian vampire who had noticed that the world over, people faked the second verse off their anthems because they couldn’t remember the words (I have no idea what the second verse of the Star-Spangled Banner” is) and therefore tend to sing “ner, ner, hner” until they hit a bit they remember. The soprano singing this does a really good job on the “ner”s.)