Today is the forty-eight anniversary of my marriage. My wife and I are at the stage of our union where we are both retired and satisfied with our lives. I am, at least, and I believe she is also. That’s not to say that we’re content to sit on our duffs and let the world go by. We still have hopes and dreams that won’t come to pass by themselves. She’s given me four beautiful children, who have graced us with…
Above image by Theo Crazzolara from Pixabay The new year is here and tradition would have me listing a slew of resolutions concerning my 2024 writing goals. The problem, as I explained in a previous post, is that I am not much for announcing changes and intentions for the following twelve months. At best, my decisions will last two or three months, so why bother? Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay It’s not that I am a lazy person by nature,…
Featured photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash Just a quick note to wish everyone the Happiest New Year. All of us at A Glimmer of Gold want the very best for you and your loved ones throughout the coming year. However you celebrate, please do so safely. I am not trying to lecture, but please take the time to plan the conclusion of your celebration. Arrange a designated driver or engage a taxi, Uber, etc. As for my wife and I, we…
“Hidden Desires” was one of my first published novels. I had written a short eBook before this, called “The Parson’s Rescue”, but this was my attempt at creating a full length story. I slaved over it for a few months, worrying over the plot, the phrasing, the correct vernacular, etc. Upon finishing the first draft, I ferociously edited, replacing words that weren’t in use in the time period of my story, correcting spelling and punctuation, and everything else I thought necessary….
Isn’t it funny how time flies? It doesn’t seem like ten years since I published my first book, but I recently passed that milestone. September 1, 2013, was when I published Acting on Faith, my first novel. I’ve come a long way since then, now with more than 50 books published. That journey, and the one in which I am still engaged, has taken my life in a different direction from anything I might have expected. This past summer, I knew…
November has arrived. Summer is a distant memory and Halloween is blessedly in the rear view mirror. So what comes next? If your house is anything like mine when I was a child, the arrival of November meant the start of the Christmas baking season for our mother. I fondly recall the heavenly aroma of fresh baked bread, the wonderful smell of cinnamon as the rolls turned golden brown in the oven, and the sight of pies cooling on the…
I’ve seen lots of movies about AI run amuck. The Terminator was an early one, and those movies were good for about the first three, then there was The Matrix, where the first was good while the rest (haven’t seen the fourth) were pretty much abominations. I tend to like dystopian, disaster, thriller movies, as they tell stories about the human spirit and people rising to the challenge, even if the scripts are not often the best and some of…
Today is Thanksgiving in Canada. As with so many times of the year, it arrives ahead of our American friends’ observation of the occasion. (Please don’t take offense, my tongue was firmly in my cheek as I wrote that last sentence.) My eldest sister lives in Utah, so I have a habit of pointing that out to her every year. What is a younger brother for, if not to bother older siblings, of which I have two? In Canada, the…
In this episode of Funny Friday, I thought I’d talk about funny as in “weird” rather than funny as in haha. I’ve often spoken about the different parts of the writing process and how I do in the various parts. I do pretty well in outlining, but it’s fairly hot and cold. If I get an idea, I can run with it, but it will sometimes take me a while to get into outlining a story. Editing, proofing, grammar checking…
I’ve been thinking a lot about life and mortality of late. If you read Colin’s tribute post you will know that our mother passed away at the beginning of the month. In the latter years of her life, she began to struggle with immobility and problems with her legs that left her walking with a walker, and then later essentially confined to a wheelchair when she wanted to get around. Even worse, she was diagnosed with dementia, which became so…