Influential

If you're a newsletter subscriber, you've already heard this story, but it's one that makes me smile, so I'm sharing it here, too.

I've talked over and over about how my characters come in and take over the story. I make one wrong move and they go on strike until I do it their way, not what I was planning on doing.

But it gets better.

When my characters come in, I acquire their interests. It's so weird the way it happens.

While I was writing Logan's book, I developed interest in classic muscle cars. Yeah, the person who doesn't care about cars at all, was into muscle cars for about eight months.

Then there was the character in an unpublished work who was into Polynesian dance. Guess who has an entire collection of DVDs with Hawaiian and Tahitian dance?

Now I have characters who play musical instruments and I suddenly have this burning desire to buy an electric guitar. I am not going to do it, even if I did price out the Fender Jazzmaster. Just long enough to see the prices and then I noped out of there.

Because I know the interest will die when the characters leave. Been there, done that, have the DVDs to prove it.

I also have a history with musical instruments that is lengthy and filled with fail, including acoustic guitar when I was in grade school (and piano and viola and drums and more!). I know better than to think this interest in electric guitar is mine.

So I will content myself with giving my characters awesome musical instruments and pass myself. 

Knitting Block

I haven't been knitting very much lately. Actually, not very much for probably a year or so. I was working on these little squares for a blanket, but I kind of got tired of that, and I just never picked anything else up.

But now I want to knit...something. I'm just not sure what.

There was a shawl that I had the pattern for and had bought the yarn for years and years ago, but I realized why I hadn't knit it when I tried to start it. The setup rows are tough knitting and I had issues. I ripped it out and started over so many times, I just gave up.

And then my search for something else to knit fizzled.

I do have a partially completed shawl that I would like to finish, but I can't find the pattern I printed out. I could print out another copy, but the problem is that I keep track of where I am in the knitting by marking off the row with a pen. Without my marked up copy of the pattern, I don't know where I left off.

I have another partially knit shawl, too, but the next section of the shawl is not something I'm excited about knitting, so I've been ignoring it. Maybe I'll try this one? Or maybe I do another search for the marked-up pattern on the other shawl.

Or I could attempt a sweater. Which is something I always wanted to do, but am hugely intimidated by. But maybe this is my opportunity?

Maybe I should just go back to the little squares. 

Reading Challenges

I'm not doing well in my reading challenges for 2026 at all.

Part of the problem--and I'm not sure it is a problem--is how much writing I'm doing. I feel like every minute where my brain isn't shut down for the night, is spent creating new words or editing existing words.

And the part of my brain I use for writing is apparently the same part that reads. Once I'm done writing for the day, I don't feel like reading.

Also the library ebooks stress me out because I feel like I'm under the gun to read them. Possibly I need that spur? Because like I said, I usually don't feel like reading after writing. But also when I feel stressed, it makes it hard to enjoy what I'm reading.

Like right now? I have a library ebook due back in three days and I haven't started it yet. I also spent last night power reading another library ebook that had 15 people behind me on the waiting list.

This month, one of the reading challenges I'm doing has a read-a-thon where the idea is to read a lot of books in 31 days. Last year? I kicked butt, but last year my book was with my editor for a couple of rounds of revisions for most of that month, and I had a lot of downtime. This year? Book was with my editor in March, so no downtime.

The one thing that might impel me to read more--my book journal--has been sitting untouched for months.

I'm failing 2026 reading intentions. By a lot. 

Building a Fictional Country

Those of you reading my Paladin League series have spent a lot of time in Puerto Jardin, my fictional South American country where the vast majority of the action takes place. There are a few reasons why I created it.

The biggest reason is the freedom it gives me. If I need drug cartels, I can set them where I need them. Arms dealers? They control the city.

It also let me create my fictional cities inside my fictional country. Rio Blanco, the capital of Puerto Jardin, near the middle of the country. Set in the mountains so it isn't as humid there.

In the south, I have Trujillo. This city goes from the foothills of the mountains to the edge of the rainforest. This allows me a variety of climates and rain levels. This becomes very important in Wicked Temptation for the climax of the suspense plot.

Then there's San Isidro, the town set in the rainforest. This location has played a smaller part in the series, but it's the closest town to the ruins and a drug lord is close at hand. And because the place is fictional, it allows me to have the people of the city keep the bad guys out. Their city is safe and crime-free because they don't allow trouble.

I'm deliberately vague about some of Puerto Jardin because I don't want to rewrite South American geography completely. I also don't want to be nailed down to any details I don't need for the story I'm working on. Earlier in my writing career, before I learned a valuable lesson, I would put in a throwaway line that didn't matter for the book I was working on, but when I went to write another story in the series, that unimportant toss in would bite me in the butt.

After seven books that take place primarily in Puerto Jardin? The country feels pretty darn real to me. I've been reusing locations all along. The mercenary bar where the heroes have meet-ups to check in with their team. The open-air market. The convent. The coffee shop with the couches. The estates the bad guys have that are more compounds than mansions. The arms dealer's in the foothills north of Trujillo. The drug lord's near San Isidro.

Creating my own places? Creative and fun! And something I'll likely do in the future, too. Just makes life so much easier in so many ways. 

The Music Fueling Me Right Now

I fell down another algorithm rabbit hole recently. I'm not sure how it happened or what triggered the topic, but I found myself watching Queen perform at Live Aid in the 1980s.

Wow, was that a fun concert to watch and the way the crowd got into it was awesome.

Naturally, this had me streaming Queen on my phone as I clean up the kitchen or straighten up the rest of the house.

I can't even pick a favorite. Sometimes I'm singing Bohemian Rhapsody. Other times it's Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites the Dust, or Radio Gaga.

It's been years since I power listened to Queen like this, but it's fun!

How long will this last? No idea. Right now, though, it's Queen and Freddie Mercury time.

FYI: I can't listen to music while I write, not unless it's instrumental, because words yank me out of the story. But I do like something playing when I'm doing boring chore stuff.