Hobbies

One of the challenges I face with ADHD is jumping into new hobbies full tilt. Before I know whether or not it's worth buying all the things necessary for said hobby.

Sometimes I get lucky, like with knitting and it's a hobby I continue with. That means investing in all the knitting needles and cords and stitch markers, etc was worth it because I'm using them regularly.

Then there are the hobbies that are less successful.

An example here is that I bought a machine that cuts stickers and vinyl. I can make my own stickers for my planner! This will be awesome! This will save me money!

Yeah. So I kind of make stickers when I feel like it, but it's not often because my laser printer flakes off ink when the sticker sheets first come off the printer, and if I don't grab them off fast enough, I have patches that look like someone did a bad job with an eraser.

I have an all-in-one inkjet that used to belong to my dad, but it doesn't produce a high quality image, and because I rarely use it, the ink is frequently dried out and it gets expensive to keep putting in new cartridges.

Also, it's just so much easier to order stickers. They look better, they're cut better because my cut lines end up too wide, and they're usually on thinner sticker paper so they don't bulk up my planners.

This is midway between success and failure because I sometimes still do it, just not often.

Then there are the aspirational hobbies. Like sewing.

I like to think I'd sew more if I could get the craft room organized with enough space to leave the machine out all the time. And maybe I would because I am so picky about my T-shirts. (SOOOOOO PICKY!)

But this is an aspirational hobby more than something I actually do.

On the plus side? My mom gave me one of her sewing machines when I moved to Atlanta, so I didn't have to buy one. I do, however, have a stash of fabric and I bought pins and sewing machine needles and other little things. I did resist buying the specialty sewing machines.

Barely. 

Adventures In Mailboxes

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It seems as if every week there’s a new adventure. I’m tired of adventures, but this one? I especially did not like.

My subdivision has group mailboxes, which means a trip up the street to get my mail, and because they have parcel lockers, I can’t even get my packages brought to the door. (Aside: If I move again, it’s going to be to a house with a mailbox in the front yard. I’m over schlepping boxes from the group boxes to my home.)

Last month, I stopped with the car on my way home because I had a few packages to pick up. I was already irritated because I’d put in a request on USPS’s Informed Delivery to bring two of the boxes to the door. They were part of a subscribe‑and‑save delivery, and at least one of them was going to be heavy‑ish.

I’m muttering complaints as I get out of my car and walk to the boxes. I open mine, see something hanging, but assume it’s a piece of plastic. I grab the parcel locker key and reach back in for the one package that fit in my box. As I pull it out, my hand brushes that piece of plastic.

That’s when horror washes over me. That’s not a piece of plastic.

It’s a tiny dead frog hanging by one leg from the box above mine into mine.

And my hand brushed it. Ewww.

I never even looked at the thing hanging there, and I know there’s an issue with tiny frogs getting into the group boxes because I went up there one day last summer while the mail person had the unit open. A number of the lower boxes had amphibians trapped inside. “It happens all the time,” the mail carrier told me when I mentioned it.

I remember being grateful my box was near the top and that I’d never had a frog in my box.

Guess my lucky streak ended.

Sorry. Sort Of.

I promised, PROMISED myself that I would not talk about planners again. I'm boring you all, I'm sure. Some of you are probably even thinking, it's August. Planners are for December.

Yeah, no, they're not. All the planners I like are boutique planners. Pre-orders for some of them started at the end of June or the beginning of July.

Not academic planners. January 2027 start planners.

And because I'm so plugged into the planner community, all I've been seeing for around two months now is planner discussions, planner pre-orders, planner teasers. And that means I'm spending a lot of time thinking about my own planners for 2027.

And if my brain is looping, it's going to end up in a blog post. Sorry?

I have my writing planner figured out. I've blogged about that and shown pictures of my attempt at decoration. I am horrible at artistic things, but I'm actually improving the more layouts I make. To refresh your memory, I'm repurposing a 2026 planner that I ordered and forgot what I was going to use it for before it arrived. Instead of just having it sit empty, I re-dated it and decorated the blank pages to be my 2027 writing planner.

There was a huge sale on an A6 planner in July, also from 2026 and it's Tomoe River Paper, which I adore even though I do not use fountain pens. I'm going to use this for my journal. The B6 actually ended up being more room than I needed in 2026, so I'm going smaller for 2027 and the price was right. A little correction tape will fix the daily pages, and since I don't use the monthly layouts, I probably won't bother correcting the dates there.

That leaves me with my regular daily planner. I like the one I'm using this year a lot, but even though this is another boutique planner company, they have not spelled out yet what their 2027 planners will look like. This company doesn't do pre-orders any longer. You order it in September and it gets shipped. This is a good thing because I need to do a lot of setup, but I have no idea what's changing in the planner I'm using now.

And I'm sure something will change.

2026 is the first year that this layout was released and yes, there are things I want changed. I hate the duplicate weeks that get stuck in there when a week spans two months. Just stick the weekly pages with the month that has the most days and skip the repetition. That's how I'm using it now. I put down stickers or vellum over the weekly pages I don't need.

I'm also not a fan of the fact that this book is hardcover. I use a lot of stickers, washi tape, vellum and acetate tip-ins. The hardcover isn't as forgiving of the bulk as the soft cover would be.

The wait, though, to find out what's changed in the planner that is almost perfect (There are other things I'd change that I didn't mention) for me is driving me crazy. It makes me wonder if I need to pre-order one of those other planners. Just in case. The FOMO is real!

My daily planner is absolutely vital to me. I have ADHD and the planner is how I keep myself on track. I have systems in place. This isn't just Oh, I love planners. This is OMG, I need a planner so nothing falls through the cracks.

So apologies for another planner post. I literally am obsessing about my 2027 planner right now. This will stop once I find out what's going on with the planner I like. 

Not Intuitive: Follow Up

I thought I had the controller for the sprinkler figured out. After all, I watched the video, discovered what everyone thought were zones were actually program numbers, and turned off programs two and three. No more three hours of watering. Problem solved.

And then my next water bill arrived.

I knew it would be close to the first one because I figured out the controller issue late in the billing cycle. I did not expect it to be more than the first bill.

Clearly, there were more problems to be solved with the controller, so it was back to the video.

Hmm, I thought. Program 1A was running, but I assumed that programs 1B and 1C were not, but I didn't actually check that.

Yeah.

I discovered the program 1B was running. I turned that off and then I just turned off the entire sprinkler system because whatever at this point.

I had an in-ground sprinkler system at my house in Minnesota. I had a different company's controller and it was easy to know exactly what was running and when. It did not require watching a video to figure out how to set the damn thing.

Keep in mind, it's not just me that didn't know how to set the controller. My landscaper who does this kind of thing for a living and the men working for him did not know how to program the controller. My brother didn't know how to program the controller. Everyone thought they knew what they were doing but none of them did. None of them! Who makes a controller this complicated?

This is a normal, suburban yard. I don't need for programs with A, B, and C options. I have three zones. There's no reason to install anything this complicated. I had more zones at my house in Minnesota and an easier controller (and a lower water bill. MUCH lower.). What the hell are we even doing here?

I'm going to leave the sprinkler off and watch the new grass. It's been raining this week, so I should be okay for at least a little while, but yikes! 

Planner Lessons Learned: Part Two

On Tuesday, I talked about how I set goals and how my ADHD‑friendly planner system works. Today is all about the practical lessons I learned this year--and the changes I’m making for 2027.

1. I Do Not Need a Pocket Planner

I thought I’d use a pocket planner for appointments, but I always ended up checking my phone instead. The real lesson was that I need to update my phone’s calendar immediately and consistently.

For 2027: No pocket planner. Just my main planner and my phone.

2. My Writing Planner Needed Simplification

The writing planner I created for 2026 wasn’t used the way I imagined. I didn’t do monthly previews, reviews, or any of the extra sections. What did matter was:

• coloring circles (dopamine)

• tracking daily word counts

• tracking weekly word counts

For 2027: I’m re‑dating a monthly Erin Condren planner I already own. I’m decorating it with sticker art--clumsy, imperfect, joyful sticker art--because even though I’m bad at art, I enjoy it. In future years, I might switch to a bullet journal or stick with another monthly EC.

(Not affiliated with Erin Condren; just using what I have.)

3. I Found a Nearly Perfect Planner

I finally found a planner that works for me better than anything else ever has. The weekly dashboard is perfect, and when I need more space, I tip in extra pages (Tomoe River Paper from a 2025 planner I abandoned).

The A5 size gives me room to decorate and still have space for lists.

For 2027: I’m buying this planner again. I may experiment with others, but this one is my foundation.

4. Daily To‑Do Categories Need Space

Midway through the year, I started dividing my daily to‑do list into categories. I loved it, but adding tasks later became a problem because the categories were stacked vertically.

For 2027: I’m splitting the page into quadrants. Top quadrants = categories that don’t change (Exercise, Writing). Bottom quadrants = categories that do change (Life). This gives me room for additions without crowding.

5. Journaling Needs a Smaller Space

I didn’t need the B6 size this year. I’m a little burnt out on journaling, and between my five‑year diary and my journal, things feel redundant.

For 2027: I’m re‑dating a discounted A6 planner to use as my journal. Smaller space, less pressure.

6. My Gratitude + Currently Journal Is Perfect

I experimented with sizes--Standard TN, B6, A5--and A5 won. It has the height of a Standard with the width I need. The only drawback is stamping out each month because I’m terrible with ink, but I love having these monthly records of:

• what I read

• what I listened to

• what I wrote

• what I was grateful for

No changes needed.

I'll always experiment with planning systems the same way I experiment with new pens, but this is the first year where I really felt as if I had a good handle on my life. The systems as they stand are working and it's a relief. 

Planner Lessons Learned: Part One

Every year I refine my planner system. As someone with ADHD, what works for neurotypical people rarely works for me. I’ve learned that if a planner requires too much structure, too much reflection, or too much “future thinking,” my brain simply checks out. For years I thought this meant I wasn’t a “goals person,” but that wasn’t true--I just needed a different way to set them.

How I Actually Set Goals

The goal‑setting sections in planners? Completely wasted on me. My brain shuts down the moment I try to fill them in. But I do set goals--just not in the traditional way.

Long‑Term Goals: My Kanban Board

My kanban board is where my long‑term writing goals live. Each book gets a column, and each chapter gets a Post‑it Note. If I write more chapters than expected, I add sticky notes. If I write fewer, I toss sticky notes. It’s flexible, visual, and ADHD‑friendly.

Short‑Term Goals: My Planners

My everyday planner has one simple daily instruction: Write. I must write 600 words to cross it off.

My writing planner is more detailed. I have eight circles I can color in--one for every 250 words. If I write 2000 words, I color all eight. While my everyday planner only requires 600 words, the writing planner’s goal is 1000. This is the only habit tracker I use in any planner I own, and it works because it gives me a dopamine hit every time I color in a circle.

Refining My System

Last year I worked hard to create a system that supported my ADHD brain. This year was about fine‑tuning--adjusting what didn’t work, keeping what did, and letting go of anything that added friction.

In Part Two, coming on Thursday, I'll share the lessons I learned and the changes I'm making for 2027. 

The Accidental Hero: How Rusty Became Ian

I’ve been thinking about Rusty this week—specifically about his name and his role in the Paladin League series.

When I wrote book two, I needed a throwaway character. Someone who didn’t quite fit on the covert ops team. I didn’t bother naming him. He wasn’t meant to matter. He was simply The New Guy.

Book three changed that. I needed someone to play bodyguard to Cat and Griff alongside Deck, and The New Guy needed a name. He became Rusty—still a background presence, still not intended to be important.

He showed up again in book four. Through the Musketeers section of the Paladin League, he bounced between screw‑up and unexpected savior. He was never meant to be a hero. He was there for plot reasons. Nothing more.

And then Deck insisted he had a story.

That’s when the Lost Treasure section of the Paladin League came into existence. My original plan was a four‑book subset: Deck, Lurch, Rusty, and Archer. But Rusty needed more redemption than two books could handle, and the plot to reach the arms dealer was too big to wrap up this quickly.

This was the era when Rusty’s real name was Zack. I labeled spreadsheets with it. OneNote pages. File folders. Everything said Zack.

Right up until I wrote the line where Ellis called him Ian.

I’ve learned never to argue with my characters about their names. I’ve tried. I’ve lost every time. I have a fair number of vowel names because when I expanded the Lost Treasure arc to six books, I ended up with Oz, Ayla, and Iona joining Archer, Ian, and Ellis. I sighed and went with it.

Now it’s nearly time to actually write Ian (AKA Rusty, AKA The New Guy), and I’m nervous.

Have I redeemed him enough to be a hero?

Ian is earnest. Determined. He wants so badly to do the right thing. And I’ve paired him with a heroine I don’t normally write—someone naive, green, not savvy. The exact opposite of Iona, who can take care of herself.

Ellis scares me to write because she’s a delicate balancing act. I don’t want her to come across as Too Stupid To Live, but her naivety and her determination to break free from her ivory‑tower life are real driving forces for her.

Ian is ready. Ellis is ready. I just hope I’m ready for them.

 

Not Intuitive

I've talked about the juniper removal and replacement with sod, but I'm not sure I mentioned watering this new sod. That's about to change.

The controller I have for my sprinkler system feels much more complicated (to me) than the one I had at my house in Minnesota. That was felt easy and straightforward. This one? Not so much.

I've relied on other people to set it for me. The landscaper. My brother. But my yard is just a muddy, sodden mess and I didn't understand why.

I also didn't understand how my water bill could be as ridiculous as it was.

Then I tried to adjust the time on the controller myself, made everything worse with zones running twice, and I was like what is going on?

Finally, on Saturday, I did a search for the manufacturer/controller names. Found a YouTube video that the company created about how to program the controller. It was eye opening to say the least. What I thought were Zones were program numbers.

PROGRAM NUMBERS!

My sprinkler was running THREE times. Every day.

When the landscaper had it scheduled to run for an hour for the new sod, it was running for three hours.

I didn't notice this because I was sleeping while most of the running was happening, but when I adjusted the times, it started running while I was awake and that's when I noticed it was going off twice. Actually, it was still going off three times, but I wasn't up for the first one.

With the YouTube video fresh in my mind, I went to the controller and turned off programs 2 and 3. Verified that program 1 was hitting all three zones and turned it to run.

Of course, I'm going to continue to monitor the situation to make sure I did it right, but I'm hoping this takes care of how wet and muddy my yard is. The water bill is still going to be outrageous this month, but hopefully that goes down next month.

What a mess. 

Junipers: Post Script Part 2

Please go back and read part one if you haven't already. This is part two of the saga.

I flip the lever, get hit in the face with a burst of water from the sprinkler, and try to run to avoid taking another slam of water. Unfortunately, I didn't take a couple of things into consideration.

One: I'm on an incline. The yard goes up where I'm standing which (I guess) is why the original owner had junipers there instead of sod to begin with.

Two: The ground is very uneven.

Instead of agilely running away from the water like I planned, I literally face plant on my first step. Thank God for my privacy fence so none of my neighbors got to see that inelegant landing.

Now the real fun begins. My Apple Watch is pinging an "SOS: Hard Fall Detected" message and wants to call for help!

NO! NO! NO!

I don't need any help. I'm fine. Muddy. Wet from the sprinkler. But fine.

And I can't get that stupid thing to stop. I'm to the point where I'm trying to Google how to turn that damn thing off before it calls 9-1-1.

It took (what felt like) forever, but I finally got it to stop.

Now, I'm plotting because the last thing I want is a repeat of this experience. I debate the old hoses, the heavy rubber ones stored in my garage, but I really don't want to lug them around. The answer is clearly to buy a second 100 foot expandable hose because the two of them attached to each other should solve the issue.

From what I read, there are other issues with water pressure and stuff, but I'll take that trade off to prevent another night of getting soaked with water, Apple Watch freaking out about a little face plant, and doing a load of (unexpected) laundry because everything I'm wearing is covered in mud.

This HOPEFULLY concludes the story of the junipers, but I haven't used my second section of hose yet.

Junipers: Post Script

The new section of sod (of course) needs more watering than the sod that's been in for a while. Also, water in Georgia is ridiculously expensive! I literally pay more for one month of watering x3.5 than I do for three months of watering when I lived in Minnesota.

But the landscaper took the sprinkling time down to half an hour from an hour (AN HOUR! GAH!) and told me to sprinkle the new sod more.

So I bought a lightweight, 100 foot house. It's one of those expandable ones. I do have rubber hoses, but they're so heavy and it's hard to haul them around.

And this is the beginning of the saga.

First, I nearly bought a fifty-foot hose because surely I wouldn't need a full 100 feet. But I most definitely did need 100 feet. I wish I'd known what expandable hoses are like before I bought the hose. Alas, I figured 100 feet is 100 feet. I do not believe this to be true. I believe it is only 100 feet while the water is running through it.

Which leads me to point two. Without water running through the hose, making it expand, it does not reach the new sod and I was unable to position the sprinkler I also bought. So I had to turn the lever at the head of the hose to the off position, turn on the water, and then, after the hose expanded, position it.

Point three. After getting the sprinkler positioned, I had to turn that lever at the head of the hose back on. We all know what happened then, right?

Water hit me in the face.

But wait! There's More! Stay tuned for Part 2. 

I Chose Poorly

In my last post, I talked about the difficulty I had choosing one of my good notebooks for (some kind of) a journal. I wish I was still dithering because I chose so poorly.

I had this great navy blue, hardcover notebook with silver stars on the front. Perfect, I thought. It even had gorgeous holographic stars on the page edges. It was so beautiful. I was agog. Beautiful edges, navy blue so it will stay clean-looking. What more could I ask for?

Choice made, I began adding the journaling stickers I've been buying for several years to the pages.

It wasn't until I had a number of weeks in that I noticed that the pages were getting lumpy because I was putting the stickers in the same places. Seven days in a week, across two spreads, giving myself enough room to write.

I didn't expect this because it's the thick, 160 GSM paper. Although maybe I should have known? It's just that I primarily use Tomoe River Paper, which is very thin and I have to be very careful with stickers. I expected thicker paper would have easier results.

I decided I'd live with the lumpy.

What made my choice of notebook such a poor one is that the stickers wrecked the smoothness of the page edges. Now there were gaps. Small gaps, but still gaps. Which means that gorgeous holograph is muted. Mostly gone.

I should have picked a notebook with regular edges, but it's far too late now.

I have learned a valuable lesson. 

The Notebook Dilemma

I swore (SWORE!) that I wasn't going to save my good notebooks. That I bought them to use them and that's exactly what I was going to do.

I also have quite a collection of journaling stickers and I thought what if I took an A5 notebook, used my journaling stickers and created something with that?

And then I ran into the notebook issue.

I have a lot of nice, hardcover notebooks. I want to use the one with the lavender pages. Oh, but I can't use lavender paper because it might clash with my journaling stickers. Those are all different colors and I don't want the paper color to hold me back.

What if I used the new notebook with the books? No, I don't want to use that one. I'm saving that for something different. Maybe a reading journal.

Me to me: You haven't completed a reading journal yet. Including the one you started this year and did nothing except the title page and some challenge pages.

Okay, but not the books notebook.

What about the dragon notebook?

Oh, no, I can't use the dragon notebook. That one is too special and I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this idea of mine.

What about the black notebook with the pattern?

Yeah, well, that one has page numbers and little marks to let you know where the center of the dot grid is. I'd really like to save that one because I can't replace it and I'm not sure what I'm--

What about the new notebook with the floral design?

Um?

The notebook with the southwest design?

And here I sit. No notebook chosen because I can't decide.

2027 Writing Planner Update

I did a second spread in this planner I intend to use for 2027. It's as amateur-looking as the first spread, but I've decided I'm having fun with it.

It's nice to have a creative outlet that doesn't involve words. It's a great way to get my head in a creative space without any pressure and to allow my thoughts to wander. Plot problem? Let's decorate a page and let the subconscious work on it while I decorate paper.

Yes, I'm really bad at art. I'll never be good enough to be happy with what I produce, but as long as I can let that go and be satisfied with the process, I think it's a win.

I repurposed a 2026 planner that I didn't use. It allows me to use stickers, not only to re-date the calendar, but to decorate the blank pages behind it. I'll never be a bullet journal person for my personal planner, but this planner set up? It's really a bullet journal in an old Erin Condren planner. This let's me revisit a process I thought would be fun, but just didn't work for my day-to-day life. Since my writing planning is minimal, this works for me.

Oh, and it also lets me use my Tombow marker collection, which has mostly been underutilized.

This is my latest attempt at decorating. The spread is for July 2027.

Title page with seagulls at the beach. I used the image on the sticker box and just taped it down.

My 2026 calendar set up for 2027. Since it was originally a Sunday start and I prefer Monday start, I really only need to change the day labels for the dates to be correct, but I wasn't passing up the chance to use colorful date squares.

 

This is the monthly dashboard layout. I'm not really using that this year, so it'll probably just sit blank, but who knows?

 

July 1st is a Thursday, so the first spread only needed four days. There are eight check boxes. Each represents 250 words. To check all of them off, I need to write 2000 words. The box at the bottom of the page is to record my total word count for the day.

 

These four spreads allowed me to create a scene with markers and stickers. Many of the ideas came from the Hubman and Chubgirl YouTube channel, but since I'm using my planner for a different purpose than most people are, I frequently diverged.

 

 Here, I used the journaling card and some washi sticker strips to decorate the final page of the month.

The Juniper Finale

I talked earlier about having the junipers removed and replaced with sod. I also mentioned that the project was not complete. Here is the rest of the story.

They ran out of sod when they were out originally to do my yard project. The owner of the landscaping company promised me they'd be out the following week--the first week in June--to lay down the rest of the sod. Perfect.

Except not so perfect because the first week in June went by. No sod. The second week passed. No sod. And then we reach week three and there is still no sod. And now the bare patch of dirt is loaded with ugly weeds. I contact the landscaping company, Um, hey, I need this project finished.

I was promised they'd be out the following week. The fourth week of June.

Monday passes. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. And then it's Friday and I'm like, damn it. Now I have to contact them again and the only info I have has me talking to an admin, so it's not like I can be irritated with her. It's not her fault. She doesn't do the scheduling, she just answers emails and the phone.

Then, around 3 p.m., I see a truck come up the street. I'm sitting in my home office, swivel my chair, and lean forward. Yes, it is my landscaping company.

They showed up on June 26th, four weeks after the original sod was laid down on Memorial Day.

The good news is that my yard is finally complete. The bad news is that I have to water this new section of grass double the time the sprinkler system is scheduled to run for another month. Water down here? Priced at ridiculous levels. I pay TRIPLE down here for one month than I paid for three months in Minnesota.

At least it's done. Next year, the grass will have to fend for itself.

Test Decoration

I talked about using a 2026 monthly planner with notes pages as my 2027 writing planner because this was sitting unused, and all it took to make the calendar work was switching the Sunday start to a Monday start. Since I prefer Monday start anyway, I decided this would be easy.

While I love my 2026 writing planner and I use it every day, I don't use it to the extent I planned on. Instead of brilliant marketing strategies and carefully thought out goals and reflections on goal progress, I mostly just use it to keep track of how much writing I did that day.

Since I'm hardly using it the way I'd hoped, it made sense to repurpose an unused planner I already owned.

The caveat, though, was could I create my own daily boxes on the blank notes pages without hating it? I decided to spend some time creating the January 2027 spreads to see what I thought.

First up, the monthly title page. This was not strictly necessary, but I'm happier with decorated planners.

I didn't need to decorate the monthly calendar for January because I had already done it in January of 2026 with stickers I got from a seller online. Same with the dashboard page. Since those were just rote stickers set down in set locations, I didn't take any pictures of those pages to share.

First page of the month encompasses a partial week with three days.

 

Those blue blobs are supposed to be clouds. Clearly, I'm not an artist. I was trying to follow the Hubman and Chubgirl video tutorial on YouTube and her navy blue clouds looked great. Mine? Sigh.

But I got my three days set up. The square check boxes each represent 250 words and there are eight of them, so if I write 2000 words in the day, I can mark all the boxes. The colorful boxes at the bottom of the daily boxes are to record the total words written that day.

 

Here is the rest of the month, decorated with all boxes ready to go for writing in January 2027. Clearly, not an artist which is so frustrating. I also overdid some of the stickers, but I was trying to use up sheets so I could throw them away, so I over stickered.

I was a little sloppy lining the boxes, too. It's especially noticeable on the boxes where I used a blue marker instead of gray.

I had one page left over at the end of January, so I made it a notes page. Not sure how much use I'll get out of that because I didn't use them at all in 2026 after the first month or two, but there's space if I need it. I also have notes pages at the very back of the planner if I need it.

I'm hoping I get better at the artistic aspects as the year progresses. Can't get much worse, I guess.

Last Chance for Early Bird Pricing!

Interested in picking up Wicked Temptation? This is the final day to grab it at the special early bird price! Tomorrow, July 15th, the price increases. Save money and enjoy an exciting action-adventure, second-chance romance!

The blurb: 

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.

Scathingly Brilliant Idea or Busy Work?

I'm toying with a new thought for organizing my writing.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you know that I print out monthly calendars and mark which day each chapter takes place on as I write. This keeps my timeline intact and accurate. It also saves me some huge headaches.

Huge!

I recently wrote a side project where I thought I had the timeline lodged in my head only to discover when I went to mark up the calendar that I royally messed up. It took quite a bit of work to fix it.

I'd like to think I learned my lesson, but I'm sure this will be temporary because I've learned this lesson multiple times before. :-)

But to get to my scathingly brilliant idea, I started to think what if I printed out my calendars on sticker paper and put them into a hardbound notebook? I have a bunch of B5 sized notebooks and this way I wouldn't have lose copy paper pages with calendars on them floating around my office, waiting for me to misplace them. Much harder to lose an entire bound book.

Although, with my ADHD, anything can get lost. Still, I think it would be easier to keep track of an entire book, especially if I put it on the shelf above my desk.

This would only be for completed books. Like I'd have the first eight books of the Paladin League series in there, but not book nine. Book nine, Wicked Attraction, would still be recorded on a paper calendar and only added to the book once it was finished and I knew things weren't going to move around.

I've already worked out that I need to print the calendar PDF at 80% to fit it in the B5 notebook.

I'm tempted to do this, but then I started wondering if this is really something I should spend time on or not. I currently have all the Paladin League calendars in a binder and they're secure. I also know where the binder is.

Who am I kidding? I'll probably end up doing this. If it works? Scathingly brilliant idea. If it doesn't work? I wasted time. Gah! 

Juniper Update

I thought I'd do a quick update on the juniper project.

The new sprinkler head was installed in a timely manner. The other sprinkler heads were adjusted and the entire patch of new sod is being watered. Yea!

The place where it's bare dirt because they ran out of sod? It's still bare dirt and we are three weeks, going on four weeks, past when the original sod was installed. That means the bare dirt is no longer bare, but covered in weeds.

My one week delay in sod being laid? Ha!

I had stuff going on that prevented me from keeping on top of it, but I finally contacted them during week three without sod and they promised to come out in week four. I will update as to whether or not they actually show up.

On the plus side? I love the new sod! I love having those damn junipers gone, gone, gone! So much nicer looking than that damn mess I was dealing with previously.

The new gardenia bushes I had installed to replace some dead and dying bushes are also looking really good. This yard update was worth the cost. 

Wicked Tempation Is Out!

Wicked Temptation is officially released as of July 1!!!

This is Cal "Baggs" Baggnell and Iona Desmond's story. You met both of them in the last book when Io's identical twin sister came to Puerto Jardin to find her missing sister.

This is book 8 of the 10 book Paladin League series. I'm about to start writing book 9 for 2027 release.

Book Blurb: 

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.

2027 Writing Planner

I know it's not even close to 2027 yet, but planner season is starting! Some brands already have their pre-orders up or will have them up shortly and that means decisions must be made.

For 2026, I have two different writer planners going. One is a pocket-sized horizontal and the other is a 7X9 dashboard planner.

I knew I didn't want another dashboard planner because the full week is on one page and instead of going down the left column and then down the right column (which makes total sense to my brain!), this planner goes left, right, left, right, left, right.

While I love stickers, I'm less of a fan of being forced to buy them to correct a layout issue that makes me insane.

The second option I'm using was more tempting for 2027. The small size is nice and it's portable so I can slide it in a pocket if I want or put it in my purse, although I don't generally take my writing planner out of the house.

I also considered a daily duo, which is a planner that has a horizontal and vertical spread for each week of the year. I'm intrigued by that layout, but I'm not sure I need that much planner for what I keep track of.

And the final option on my possibilities list was a planner that has only the weekly pages and next to zero notes pages. It's called the Core planner. For 2026, it was vertical only and vertical is not a layout that my brain can use. I was hopeful, however, that this year it would come in a horizontal option, too.

So where did I end up?

This year, I also bought a monthly 7x9 planner. This is basically just a monthly calendar spread with blank notebook pages behind it. I actually had a plan for it this year, but I didn't write that plan down, and while I waited for a sale and waited for the planner to arrive, I forgot my plan. I still haven't remembered what I thought I was going to do.

My plan for 2027 is to re-date the 2026 monthly planner and create my own weeks pages on the blank notebook pages behind it. The calendar is a Sunday start which I would re-date anyway because I prefer a Monday start. The funny thing is that by changing to a Monday start, the dates all fall correctly for 2027 so all I need to do is re-label the days of the week.

It also gives me the flexibility to create a mini-bullet journal on the blank pages. I started with an elaborate setup for my current writing planner, but it included sections and information that I wasn't keeping up with and wasn't using. That means I only need to create something simple and I think this will be fun.

I hope.