Handy Patti: Part One

Newsletter subscribers have already heard this story. If you'd like to subscribe, you can do it on the Coming Next page of my website.

It was a Thursday. I come home and hear chirping. Yes, the damn CO2 detector is complaining even though the batteries should have been good.

This is not great because I'm terrified of ladders, and since no one was available to help me, and because I hate the chirping so much, I scrounged up some new AA batteries and got the ladder. I'm short enough that it requires three rungs to reach the damn thing.

I put in the batteries. Still chirping.

Probably old batteries. I don't know how long they were sitting around. The CO2 detector will not accept the generic batteries I use for everything else. It's fussy. It requires the name brand, expensive batteries. This means a trip to the store to buy some of the name-brand batteries.

Up the ladder again. Batteries in. Still chirping.

Up the ladder again. I discover I didn't push in one of the red trigger things. I do so now. Still chirping.

Up the ladder again. I discover I put both batteries in the same direction, so I pull one out, study the sticker, and rotate the one that needs to change. Still chirping.

Now I'm desperate. Still no help available.

Up the ladder again. I pull out both batteries, study the sticker inside the compartment, and put the batteries in per the label. Still chirping.

Up the ladder again. Switch the batteries so that it's opposite of the way the sticker says to put them in.

Silence.

That's when I remembered that the last time I had to do the batteries on my own, that I discovered the sticker with which side should be +/- was backward. I vow to remember this for next time.

To be continued on Thursday. 

Paper Overwhelm

I'm trying to figure out how paper keeps accumulating in my office.

At the moment, I have a pile on my desk to my right. I have no clue what that is. 

To my left, I have a bunched up mess that is actually a timeline/scene list for a book I've written. Not sure I need it anymore or not, but I'm leaning toward tossing it because it got mangled when I pushed my laptop over.

Underneath the laptop is more papers. Have no clue what those are either and I'm kind of scared to lift the computer and look at them.

On top of my black and white printer, I have two separate stacks of unidentified papers.

Under my window, I have a cart with two levels and multiple drawers. I know what's on the top. Mostly. But that second tier? It's a disaster.

Then there are the stacking bins over my desk, the plastic bins I bought to organize myself, but just dumped more papers in, the stack on top of my drawer that used to be where I kept my planner. And oh, yeah, the stacks on top of the filing cabinets.

This is where someone without ADHD would say, you just start and work through it. Unfortunately, I take one look at all this, get overwhelmed and find something else to do. My executive function just checks out when it sees this mess.

Sigh. The paper overwhelm is real. 

Wicked Temptation Countdown

One month until Wicked Temptation is released!

Actually, less than a month since release day is July 1st.

He’s always been a protector. She’s strong enough to fight on her own. This time, survival depends on each other.

Special Forces Sgt. Cal “Baggs” Baggnell walked away from Iona Desmond. Carving out his own heart hurt—but watching the woman he loves charge headfirst into danger hurt even more.

Iona loves Cal with her whole being, but she couldn’t change the core of who she is to fit his protective nature. He knew exactly who she was when they met—the need for adventure is in her DNA.

Now, their paths collide in Puerto Jardin, where Iona has talked her way into Cal’s op. And he’s been assigned to work with her.

Their bait: the Lost Treasure of Trujillo. Their target: arms dealer Jorge Torres. Their problem: Torres isn’t the only predator closing in.

With ruthless drug lords, rival treasure hunters, and a powerful Russian mob lieutenant obsessed with finding the billion-dollar fortune, Cal and Iona must put their past aside. The deeper they dig, the deadlier the game becomes.

As betrayals mount and enemies tighten their grip, survival depends on one thing: Trust. If they fail, they won’t just lose their second chance—they’ll lose everything.

Wicked Temptation is a stand-alone romance with a HEA. There are references to events that happened in earlier books, but it's not necessary to read them to enjoy this story.

Indulge in a protective Special Forces hero and a heroine who works undercover for the Paladin League as a photojournalist. This story features a second-chance romance, identical twins, and a kick-butt heroine. 

Waiting Mode

Those of you who've been around, know I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2024. One of the features of this is something I call Waiting Mode. It basically means I can't do anything if I have an appointment or something scheduled later.

It doesn't matter if my appointment is at 3pm and it's 8am. I will have a level of anxiety looming that prevents being productive on anything.

Because I'm waiting. Because I'm worried I'll get involved in something and forget the appointment. Because even though I have reminders setup on my phone, I don't trust them enough to not go into waiting mode.

There's nothing logical about this, but here I go again. Into Waiting Mode.

I'm writing this on Saturday. My new mattress is supposed to be delivered between 11:30 and 1:30. I am struggling to do anything beyond writing this short blog post, and even while I'm talking about waiting mode, I can feel that low-level anxiety starting.

Do I have everything ready?

I took off all the bedding. I actually wrestled the mattress and box spring off the bed frame so that I could vacuum and dust before the delivery team arrives. I have the bedding in the dryer right now. I have the new covers for the box spring and mattress on hand and organized by size. I have the gripper thing for between the mattress and the box spring folded and ready to go. (I ran it through the dryer to get the wrinkles out and folded it.)

And I'm still worried I forgot to do something even though I can't think of anything to do.

There are things about ADHD that I dislike more than this, but Waiting Mode is pretty annoying. 

Continuity

I was brainstorming a new idea and needed to know what the first hero and heroine looked like. I always go out online, looking for pictures that I save to reference. It helps me not get hair or eye color wrong.

Usually, if it's a multi-book series like Paladin League, I will go out and find all the heroes and heroines, although I didn't for this series idea.

That was fine. I actually was right about what color hair the next two heroines have.

It was the secondary characters that tripped me up.

The heroine's best friend. Clearly, she's brunette. I can see it clearly. And another secondary character, the best friend's little sister? Obviously a blonde.

But while I was looking for pictures of heroines 2 and 3, I started glancing around for the two secondary characters.

And discovered I was completely wrong about their hair colors. Not even close.

The best friend? She has auburn hair. Her younger sister? She's the brunette.

On the plus side? I'm not writing this story yet (I have two more Paladin League books to finish before I start another series), so there was nothing to fix. On the minus side? I keep thinking what if I didn't look for pictures of the two secondary characters? What if I did start writing the book and then found out later I was completely wrong? What if I had to do a search and replace and I missed something?

I know. I'm getting worried over nothing, but it was a reminder of why my OneNote is stuffed with photos of artifacts, characters, places, cars, and anything else I need. Not only so I know what they look like, but to avoid continuity issues later.