I’m in countdown mode. A week from today (now yesterday) I start the new school year. One last week of writing. I’m writing/revising 5 chapters per day on my second novel. I want to be done by Sunday. Wish me luck!

Speaking of my second novel… I have a Kickstarter project for the hardback of Making Spirits Right, my Christmas romance…with ghosts. I’ve spent many weeks building the project and would love it if you check it out. You’ll only be able to see the pre-launch page now, but I’d love to hear what you think. Please follow if you are interested.

Oh, and a cover reveal…

All covers (this one, Ghosts and Roses, and Curses and Kisses) are designed by Susan Gerardi of Susan Digital Deisgns.

If either novel, Making Spirits Right or Ghosts and Roses, interests you, please follow by project by selecting the Notify Me On Launch. Kickstarter will notify you when my project launches when you will have the chance to back an Early Bird reward that disappears after the first 48 hours. You can click here to check out my Kickstarter project.

What can you expect from my Kickstarter that you can’t buy on Amazon or Curios?

🎄PERSONALIZED and SIGNED hardbacks and paperbacks! (Ghosts and Roses hardback, paperback, and eBook options available in the Add-Ons option.)

🎄The Kickstarter editions will have special chapter headings.

🎄Stretch Goals: Both eBooks and print copies might have one or two-page chapter graphics, depending on the number of backers.

🎄Summerween UK Holiday novelettes written just for Kickstarter

🎀Novelette #1: Daphne’s Dilemma–experience Daphne’s journey through a haunted, subterranean street in Edinburgh, Scotland with a cute Brit.

🎀Novelette #2: Geri’s Secret. (In full transparency, I still need to write this one, but it involves a secret pen pal, a secret rendezvous in London, and a not-so-secret ghost.)

A little more about Kickstarter

The KEY Aspects: Kickstarter is all or nothing. If a project doesn’t reach its funding goal, it doesn’t happen, and roughly 60% of Kickstarter projects don’t happen. As a backer, you will only be charged (and receive rewards) if the project meets its funding goal.

Here is a couple of romance Kickstarter projects to check out and see what Kickstarter is all about.

For all my Paranormal Romance fans, be sure to check out Beth’s Kickstarter project. Select Notify Me On Launch to follow: Spelled Inkwell Book 1: Penned by Fate.

Practical Magic meets The Ghost Whisperer. Follow Beth’s project from now through its launch and beyond. She already has 125 following! Good luck to Beth (a former 4th grade teacher). Beth is offering a limited0time, free book, Hexed and Hopeful, to those currently following her project, and this way you try before you buy.

The Kickstarter projects I have backed have ranged from author-specific books (my favorite) to romance books. A couple I backed just to support the author. What I have learned recently: read book sample if provided, or if none is provided, check the author’s book reviews on Goodreads.

Speaking of checking out book reviews: former dolphin trainer Colleen Heidecker’s book Undercurrents of Love is rated 4.63 on Goodreads. Check out her book project here.

My last comments about Kickstarter:

1. It costs nothing (but a little time) to check out the launched and pre-launch projects.

2. It costs nothing to follow a project. And leaving comments of encouragement for the author probably creates good karma.

3. Once a project launches, you can choose how you want to support the author: back them through pledging or with moral support through comments.

Finally, what are you up to this last week of July? Any vacation or staycation pictures or stories to share? I would love to see them and hear them!

Happy end to July!

Heather

If you are experiencing a heatwave right now, well, count yourself lucky to have air conditioning. As it turns out, air conditioning isn’t a common amenity in most apartments and lodgings in London. Which leads to a list…

Ways to Beat the Heat in London

• The most obvious way: spend time in a pub. I can recommend The Swan across from Hammersmith Station. The Distillers pub has a door always open, so it wasn’t as cool, but the staff were extra friendly, and they have great fish and chips.

• Peruse the frozen food section in the grocery mart, like the one in the Hammersmith Station mall.

• Burrow in the basement of your lodging, assuming your lodging doesn’t have air conditioning, which was my case.

• Eat out every meal at nice restaurants (”nice” means air-conditioned)

• Stand under a shady tree by the Thames River

• Catch a movie (I didn’t do this one, but I considered it

• Shop at Ikea (also near Hammersmith Station on King St.)

• Take the District or Circle Underground lines. At least I thought this was a good option. EVERYONE else did, too, which lead to masses of commuters waiting on the platforms. Plus there were tons of delays. So the non-air-conditioned Piccadilly line and its whooshes of air wound up being the better option for two writer friends.

• Take cold showers. Especially right before going to bed, so hopefully your cold, wet hair will keep the rest of you cool long enough to fall asleep.

• Take an Uber Tour. The tour part was a pleasant surprise. We were just getting from Trafalgar Square after a concert to our lodging, but our Uber driver pointed out landmarks and other buildings on the way.

• Go to a museum. Most, but not all, need air conditioning for the art pieces.

• Wade in the water at the Serpentine at Hyde Park. Note: Be prepared to swim/wade with waterfowl and their droppings. Also, note: reservations are required on busy days (Fridays and Saturdays) and you may be turned away if you don’t have one.

• Stand in the sprinklers - it’s too hot to run through them.

• Catch a theater show. I saw Six (which was fabulous and I can’t wait to see the film version in August), where due to the heatwave they needed to give the performers a five minute break. Even though the theater is air-conditioned, it still was rather warm as it was a “haus full.”

One final way to beat the heat? Curl up on your couch in your air conditioned home with a good book to read. Need a new read? Here are two freebie ebook promos running right now, just click on the title of either or both!

No Spice Romantasy

49 Paranormal, Fantasy, or Sci-fi novels, novellas, sneak peeks and more!

Finally, a quick author update: I sent my Ghosts and Roses manuscript to my editor

today! Which means I’m looking for readers to join my ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) Team! Stay tuned for more information.

Would you rather wait and purchase Ghosts and Roses? Pre-order on Curios using this link. (I’m happy to report Curios continues to upgrade the experience and it’s now easy to buy on Curios and read on your Kindle app.)

I hope you are some place cool, enjoying the day!

Heather

I know it’s been awhile since I last shared with you. It’s the end of June, it’s near the midpoint of my summer vacation, and it’s time to share a personal story with you which happened just ten days ago.

To be brief, I’m starting in medias res:

My 21-year-old son texts me: You have my passport!

Seated on the second floor of the airport cafe with a prime view of the runway, I immediately respond: No. I gave it to you last night. You put it in your backpack.

To which my son replies: I have yours!

And that’s how my Friday dovetailed. Because of my writing retreat, I wasn’t flying home for another week, so I left my passport (nope, his passport) in the hotel. There was no way I could shorten the 80-minute round-trip on the tube, and was it a packed, stifling trip back! There’s a big difference between traveling to London Heathrow at 7:15 in the morning versus 10:15. While making my epic, Tube dependent roundtrip back to the airport, my son obviously missed his 10:30 flight. United Airlines took care of him, reserving a seat (way back and in the middle, of course) on the next flight at 1 P.M. They were just waiting for his all-important passport to issue him a boarding pass. While one son was held hostage at the gate, his twin brother left on the 10:30 A.M. flight.

After I returned with his passport, it was a long, anxious thirty minutes before he received it, and another twenty plus minutes before I received mine.

Ugh. I owned The Biggest Idiot in the World title for the entire day. I tracked two United flights from London Heathrow across the Atlantic to SFO, which meant thirteen hours spent repeatedly checking the United flight app:

At 2:34 P.M.

At 4:57 P.M.

I considered keeping this personal shame to myself. But that very day I happened to read a passage about shame in my memoir writing book (Fast-draft Your Memoir... by Rachel Herron). The author explained that sharing shame can be the ticket to healing from it.

So I tried it out the next day with the random woman I sat next to on a bus tour to the Cotswolds. I confessed my mysterious moment of idiocy, still baffled by how I made the mistake. The 28-year-old American living in Sicily empathized with me, just like the book said she would. Better yet, she shared her friend’s story, which went like this:

In Sicily, they aren’t strict about checking departing flights’ passports, so her friend didn’t realize she had her baby’s passport instead of her own until she tried to fly back to Sicily. My new friend didn’t know what happened next, but somehow her friend made it home to tell her story.

Needless to say, this made me feel better. All those navy-blue passports look identical (a situation I have since fixed after my new friend suggested passport covers.)

I shared my passport mix-up story another ten to twelve times before earning a second similar story. My soccer teammate tried to travel with her family to France on a passport that expired in three months. She would have been back before it expired, but they wouldn’t let her travel with it. This meant she missed touring the D-Day Beaches with her family, a tour she planned.

Our situation could have been a lot worse. And my son figured this out sooner than I did. He accepted the situation like a champ and didn’t act upset about spending a couple of extra hours waiting at the airport (with a good portion of that time spent standing next to a United agent).

Do you have a passport tale to tell? I would love to hear it! Please share by replying or commenting.

Author Update: now that I am back from my UK trip (Scotland was amazing!) and my London Writers Retreat, I am elbows-deep into final revisions for my next novel, Ghosts and Roses, due to be published this September. You can pre-order the eBook on Curios here: Pre-order Ghosts and Roses.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Heather

I hope you are enjoying the spring season and are embracing this time of rebirth and renewal.

In the spirit of rebirth…

I have a new (and vastly improved) cover for my debut romance novel, Ghosts and Roses! I will reveal it…soon. I can’t wait to show you! (I created the first covers, but a professional has designed my new cover.)

And on to renewal.

I still have two months to go, but I desperately need of a recovery summer vacation after a long, challenging school year. While I’m recharging at my writer’s retreat in London this June, I will write a short story for my Haunted Holidays Community and I need some suggestions. This longish short story (or short novella?) will be about the five leading ladies of each book in my Haunted Holidays romance series. They will enjoy their own renewal trip to London. Get it? A London Holiday, with witches and wizards perhaps?

Here’s where I need help. What do late twenty-somthings do in London? What are the must-see places and the must-do activities? If you and four girlfriends took a much-needed vacation to London, England, what would you do? My goal is to see and do as many recommended activities as possible while I’m there.

Prior to the retreat, I will revisit the Harry Potter Studio, catch A Midsummer Night Dream at the Globe Theatre, and tour the London Eye. But none of those strike me as must-do’s for a gal-pal trip of a lifetime.

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I’m a planner. Please help me plan.

Thank you!

Heather

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How was your 2025? Now is the time to reflect on all you accomplished this year and reward yourself; no win is too small. Something I like to do when I reflect on my travel is create many Top 10 or Top 5 lists. Creating a Top 10 list for 2025 sounds doable, right? What will add to your list?

10.

December 2025 - 88 readers claimed my Curses and Kisses prequel offer this month, helping me reach well over 100 subscribers. Also, a big update: My Haunted Holidays series is NOT cozy horror romance. It’s Sweet Romance with a Paranormal Twist. Turns out, even the term Sweet Romance needs an explanation: it’s one level beyond CLEAN Romance, think PG to PG13 with no spice and minimal cursing only when appropriate because, you know, ghosts can be unsettlimg.

Have you read Curses and Kisses? Please respond to my post on my Youtube channel with a simple click on the “Yes” stating you would recommend it to readers who like to read sweet romance, or click on the “Not for me” image. Here’s the link: Youtube Post on Curses and Kisses. I hope to hear from many of my Curses and Kisses readers to help me improve the reader experience.

I also joined the Bay Area Romance Writers Club this month and attended my first event, the holiday party, in Fremont at Billy Roy’s.

9.

November 2025 -I attended Author Nation in Las Vegas where I attended some career changing (for the better) sessions and had a terrific time running around with my author friends. Here we are celebrating my birthday:

I also attended my first book signing at Reader Nation where I sold and signed 11 books! Below is a picture with my first customer!

Finally, I set up a WEEKLY accountability meeting every Sunday at 5pm PST with other writers I met in Las Vegas in 2023 or 2025. This has been very helpful for me.

8.

October - I volunteered at and attended Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCWBI)’s Oktoberfest convention. I also stepped away from my SCWBI co-cordinator position October 31, 2025, which I needed to do for several reasons, but the obvious is because I am focusing on writing romance stories for adults.

I also attended the FIFA World Cup 2026 Volunteer Tryouts in October! Not writing related, but cool!

7.

Writers Meetups! My last meet up organized as co-coordinator of the Solano/Napa region of SCWBI at One House Bakery in Benicia in September:

Writers Assemble - My first co-hosted SCWBI meet and critique in March using Greta Vollmer ‘s Critique Group from Hell role play. It was a hit! This was our writing crew minus Jay. Writers pictured outside of Fairfield-Cordelia Library.

6.

August 1, 2025 I returned to work as my school’s eighth grade ELA teacher. Also, I moved my son into his apartment in Chico (pictured here with my dad and Joseph’s roomies in front of our favorite Chico restaurant).

5.

July 2025 - A road trip to and from Seattle, plus a family cruise to Alaska with my dad and aunt. I have written about it, but there is more to come.

4.

June 2025 - Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) TWLIP training. I learned some excellent teacher practices to bring to my classroom to support Mulit-lingual learners.

3.

May 2025 - I published my middle school writers journal in Ocotober. Added some podcasts and other resources on my website.

2.

April 2025 - Published Kayla’s Quest, the second book in my Surviving Seventh Grade series. My poodle Kirby approves.

1.

February 2025 - Co-planned my first Meet and Greet as the co-cordinator of the Napa/Solano region of SCWBI. Thanks to this event, I met local children’s book writers in my hometown at One House Bakery. This was the start of a consistent five at our Meet and Critiques. I also learned from this to always have my books with me for photo opps.

0.5

January 2025 - I started 2025 with a trip to visit my Aunt in Mississippi. The best part: my sons joined me. One of the best memories from the trip was the four of us playing at TopGolf in 38 degree weather. My mom’s shirt, jacket and gloves kept us a little warmer.

Thinking about my 2025 author accomplishments makes me excited for the new year. There are more stories, freebies, and opportunities for you in the new year. Stay tuned!

Are you going to create a Top 10 (or Top 5) for 2025? I would love to see it or hear about it.

Wishing you a wonderful start to 2026,

Heather

Like many teachers and students, my winter vacation just started. Let the holidays begin! For the first time, I have a son coming home from college (tomorrow) and he will be home for an entire month. I am so looking forward to both sons helping me finish decorating our tree.

I am currently reading two excellent books. I’m halfway through reading T. Kingfisher’s cozy horror A House with Good Bones, which is oh-so good. Her protagonist is both witty and relatable, even if she’s an expert entomologist (bug scientist?) and the house is very creepy. I can’t wait to review it.

Speaking of books, there’s a Massive Free Romance Book Fair for Fantasy, Paranormal, Sci-Fi going on right now. You can sign up for the author’s free novella, bonus chapters, or full book in exchange for joining their email list. I have found some exciting new authors this way and I do enjoy the try-and-maybe-buy-someday method. Please check it out, even if you decide not to try any. Here is the link: https://books.ahauntedholidayromance.com/massivefreepnrdecmidmonth/3dya2s7vda

I have downloaded three books from this book fair. I’m checking out the paranormal genre just in case my books lean more towards cozy paranormal than cozy horror. I’m starting to think I’m writing a cozy paranormalish horrorish romance.

But back to the other book I just started reading in school today: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Oh WOW, is it good. Why am I just now reading this one? My life’s motto seems to be: better late than never. It is historical fiction set in Germany during WWII, so it doesn’t help my cozy horror romance endeavor at all. I won’t be doing a deep dive into reviewing this one, but as a writer, reading a brilliant writer’s literary work is so uplifting.

Do you have any favorite books you love to curl up with during the holiday or winter season? Please share your recommendations. I think after I finish these two books, I am re-reading The Hunger Games for my fifth time, but this time, I’m reading it as a writer.

Finally, do you have time to read my prequel novella, Curses and Kisses? I’d love it if you can spend an hour or so reading it. Here’s the link one last time: https://books.ahauntedholidayromance.com/tezr8r0z44

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate! Winter break is finally here!

Heather

Hi Friends and Fans,

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being here, and for reading my newsletters, the last two years. I really appreciate you. I will continue to post about my travels and tribulations and upcoming projects here on Substack, so you are welcome to stay here, but I have a new opportunity I want to share with you.

I am currently writing the second of five books in a new cozy horror romance series called Haunted Holidays. I won’t publish the first book until October 2026, but the fun starts very soon. Each community member on my Haunted Holidays email list will receive monthly newsletters from the mayor of my fictional town, Everbrier Bay. The first newsletter will welcome them as the newest citizen of Everbrier Bay. If you want to join the fun, please join the Haunted Holidays email list by clicking the link here: JOIN MY TRIBE

What is cozy horror you ask?

In essence, it’s the contrast between cozy and eerie. It could be a small town setting with friendly but secretive townspeople and a constant feeling that something is off. Cozy horror may have haunted houses, cursed cabins, and humor to offset the dread.

Cozy horror is NOT real horror. Eerie or creepy: yes. Bloody, gory or jump scares: no.

Cozy horror romance is a relatively new sub-genre. Think of my new series in all caps COZY, in all lowercase horror, and all caps ROMANCE. The cozy outweighs the horror.

If this new series doesn’t interest you, feel free to stay here on substack where I will continue to post my travel stories and what every else strikes my fancy. I will continue to be me here. If you are uncertain but curious about this new series of mine, feel free to learn more about it on the series website: ahauntedholidayromance.com

Thank you, once again, for supporting me and my writing just by being here. It would make me even happier if you responded by commenting here on Substack by answering these questions:

• What are your favorite book genres? (think of the books you hate to put down)

• Which book do you recommend that best represents your favorite genre?

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Yours truly,

Heather Still

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Hello Friends,

As the title suggests, I’m about to share what happened in Las Vegas last week! Here’s a quick TOP TEN for Vegas 2025:

10 - Sacramento airport is a dream to fly in and out of. Flights leave on time. It’s easy in (especially if you find a spot in the parking garage, and especially if you can park on the same floor as the sky bridge) and easy out. Even the Las Vegas airport was an easy experience. 15-minute TSA security check, and 15 minutes after that, I had a Starbucks Latte.

9 - The Monday night workshop with Becca Syme in a penthouse room on the 26th floor. Here’s the view:

8 - The crepes place in Paris on the way to the Horseshoe. I can’t find the name of this place, but it’s between the cigar place and Bobby Flay’s burger place. Sweet or savory crepes are just two options on this menu. I had a rotisserie chicken and pesto crepe with salad on top that was delicious. It’s packed during lunch hours and rather empty for dinner. The desserts looked fabulous.

7 - Walking to and from Polo Towers to the Horseshoe convention center (through the Paris Casino) once or twice a day with Patricia. We laughed. A lot. I recorded some of her phrasing pearls like “essence of Cesar.”

6 - The first two (out of eleven) sessions blew my mind. Be prepared for a special reader experience with my Haunted Holidays series.

5 - Alby and I met up with my sons to celebrate their 21st birthday in Vegas…for ten minutes. Otherwise this would have been closer to the #1 spot.

4 - Eating at Brewdog restaurant on the third-floor rooftop overlooking New York New York casino with Patricia. Possibly the best cheeseburger I ever had. (top right picture)

3 - My first book sale and signing! Here’s some pictures with me and my first in-person customers! Amanda (bottom right) is an author as well and I might see her on a Zoom call tomorrow to learn what she writes. My very first customer (center top) is a pre-published author who left Reader Nation with a full bag of books.

2 - Celebrated my birthday (center pic) with my amazing writer friends: Patricia Davenport (she writes historical romance with her first book set in the 1890’s Toronto!), Jessica Arden (who writes contemporary romance and nonfiction regarding Tarot cards), Alby Blazo (sports romance and steamy romance), Ivy Sinclair (paranormal and contemporary romance), and Leslie who may have a pen name?

1 - Spending quality time with friends is priceless. It was great to see some friends in person again after two years (Patricia, Christy, Leslie, Alby, Mandy). It was also great to make new friends. (Jessica, John, Nick, Lynn, Lyn, and my awesome booth mate at the Reader Nation - Merle!) It was so delightful to meet readers and authors during the Reader Nation book signing. One customer (middle right pic) is a sixth-grade core teacher. We had a lot to talk about.

Currently, I’m writing the prequel novella for my Haunted Holidays series. It’s set in a snowy cabin in the woods on the last night of the year. Once I’m finished, I hope to find some readers who can read it first before I send it out to those on my Haunted Holidays list.

My question for you: what is your holiday book? If you don’t have a favorite book, do you have a favorite holiday movie? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful weekend,

Heather

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A few days ago, I spent a lovely 2-night trip at my first Wildcat Weekend, which is like Parents Weekend at other universities, except Chico State didn’t want the weekend to be limited to just parents of students. Wildcat Weekend welcomed alumni like me, and parents of current students (also like me), and potential students and their parents. The weather, mostly in the low 70s, was crisp and perfectly fall-like. It was jeans and t-shirts weather, my favorite kind of weather. I even managed three meals over three days with my firstborn.

One of my major highlights of this weekend included meeting up with my friend and fellow Chico alumni for the Wildcat Weekend sponsored Art & Wine Walk. What fun we had! For the price of $20, I received a souvenir wine glass (now housed in my son’s apartment) and then walked with my glass to different shops I never would have entered if it weren’t for the walk. Inside each shop, different wineries poured a sample taster, usually of wine, about a 2 oz pour. You sip the wine while admiring the art, clothes, jewelry, cowboy boots, etc. You must finish or dump the wine before leaving the store. It was very easy to dump what I didn’t like, and enjoy what I liked. The unique stores kept us entertained and I bought cologne for my boys at the Diamond W western wear shop. I wish I could share the delightful scent with you.

Since my current hometown offers these wine walks rather often, and the romance series I’m writing is set here, I can’t wait to work this experience into my novels.

Speaking of my novels…I’m attending my first in-person author event next month! Check out the setup I have so far:

I think I need to add stickers. If you know of a place on the Las Vegas strip for me to buy balloons, I’d love to add some balloons. Here’s a breakdown of what I have so far:

Also pictured in the first picture: a cash box and credit card reader. This is my first in-person author event. I’m both excited and nervous. Wish me luck!

I hope you are loving the fall weather as much as I am right now. What to you look forward to each fall?

Happy mid-October!

Heather

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I hope you had a great first half of September. If you’re like me, you are counting down the days until it’s officially fall, even if Pumpkin Spice Latte’s are already available at your local Starbucks. I always look forward to when the leaves turn crimson, sunset orange, and yellow, which isn’t until November here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve written about my love of visiting pumpkin patches here before, which is something I didn’t grow up with in Southern California. All this probably explains why I chose to set my first paranormal (lite) romance in the fall leading into Halloween. And I’m thrilled to share that I just finished the rough draft of this novel to be published next September.

What am I publishing in the near future? Well, I have a new journal coming out at the end of 2025.

Along those lines, I’m excited to announce I launched my Kickstarter campaign a day early on Sunday September 14th. The focus switched from when I first set up the campaign. The only way to buy my new A Middle School Writer’s Journal is through this Kickstarter. It won’t be available on other platforms until late November or early December. Please check it out and share with friends and family!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillheather/surviving-seventh-grade-3-novels-in-1-book

Now, for an unrelated story:

I’ve shared on here before about the devastating loss of my standard poodle Felix. What saved me was rescuing Kirby through a dog and cat rescue within two weeks of losing Felix. (circa June 2023)

In the past, it took us several months to find our standard poodles to rescue. Ryker was our first, after months of searching, and then Billy, who came with Addison’s and almost monthly shot requirements. To find and get Kirby within two weeks was a miracle.

I found Kirby through Wags and Whiskers dog and cat rescue located in Chico, CA. Out of the 150 dogs available, Kirby was the ONLY standard poodle. He also came with a broken foot from getting too close to a horse on his foster farm. And he came with a lot of issues, as many rescues with neglect in their past do. But this made the match BETTER for me, because I wanted a dog who needed me as much as I needed him, and Kirby fit that need perfectly.

Beyond his broken foot challenges and excessive vet bills due to weekly re-splinting, Kirby would consume his food in seconds and growl, snap, and occasionally bite if you touched his foot or came near his butt or moved around too much in bed. At one point one night after he snarled and bared his fangs at me, I worried he was a little crazy.

To make a long story short, I followed a recommendation and met with a dog counselor through the Marine Humane Society. For about an hour and $100 she completely changed Kirby’s trajectory. She introduced me to the concept of “resource guarding” and showed me how wonderful Kirby is and always was. Two years and a few months later, Kirby rarely snarls and hasn’t snapped once. It wasn’t Kirby who needed the counseling. It was me.

When you rescue a dog, they will only adapt and conform to your expectations so much, and then you have to adapt and meet them halfway. It takes time to build their trust. The more neglect they experienced in the past, the more time they need to adjust. But this just makes it that much more rewarding. I believe adding a dog (or cat) is the quickest way to improve the quality of one's life. And there are so many dogs and cats in shelters needing a forever home.

Kirby has grown into a trusting cuddler that is still a too-dedicated guard dog every morning at 9 A.M. when the mail truck stops in front of our house.

Wishing you a happy second half of September!

Heather

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In the next couple of weeks, I will join approximately 3.8 million others in the inevitable and unenviable: returning to work after a too short vacation. Remember when we were kids and summers felt three months long? Well, my summer was two days shy of two months this year. At least I ended it with a high note.

Picture this: A narrow but comfortable bed, with the current style of a thin comforter sandwiched between white sheets, gently rocking me to sleep in the dark, peaceful room. Nice right? It was a wonderful start to our 7-Night Alaska cruise.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The alarm jarred me out of my sweet slumber. The announcement over the stateroom’s intercom included words like fire, deck one, and first team respond. The man (The captain? Assistant captain?) repeated everything in his urgent tone.

Silence followed his announcement.

I sat up, looking for answers.

My aunt and current cabin mate for the trip rolled over, unconcerned.

“But what are we supposed to do?” I asked. I mean, that alarm, the announcement that clearly went off in every stateroom in the ship. Surely we were supposed to do something, right?

“Go back to sleep,” my aunt said. Even though it was almost 1 A.M. in the morning and we had been sound asleep seconds ago, my aunt had this amazing talent for sounding cheerful and wide awake. Even as she’s curled up like one of her Italian Greyhounds in a ball beneath the comforter.

I got up to check the time—just in case I wanted to write about the experience later, as details matter—then climbed back in bed. Lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling, I replayed the announcement over and over. A fire on a ship, that doesn’t sound ideal. Especially on the first deck of the ship with 11 decks and over 2,000 guests and who knows how many staff are already asleep on decks A, 1, 4-8, 10 and 11.

Generally speaking, a fire on a ship sounds bad.

At least we were the first of three cruise ships to leave the Vancouver port headed for Alaska. If the fire rages on the first floor and we have to abandon ship, there will be two other cruise ships nearby to pick us up.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

The same guy greets us again. “The small electrical fire has been extinguished thanks to the quick response of the First Team…” He probably said more, but I heard what I needed to hear. I took a couple of deep, relaxing breaths. I let the swaying of the ship rock me back to sleep.

Of my seven nights on the cruise ship, plus one night at Holland America’s Denali Lodge, another night at a hotel in Fairbanks, Alaska, two nights at the Best Western Seattle Airport (highly recommend this hotel!) and two nights at Seattle Airport Marriott, that first night on the ship with its 1 A.M. wake-up alarm was the most memorable. Mostly because I was so stuck on what we were supposed to do with that announcement (I found another guest who got out of bed and poked her head out into the hallway, also wondering what we were to do) and my aunt was equally certain we were supposed to ignore it.

Fun times.

This was just one of my many fond family moments from my 16 days of traveling. Cruising, road trips, and train travel are great ways to spend quality time with the family!

Book Update

I actually have completed a lot of writerly tasks this summer, but the only evidence of that work I can show you right now is:

That’s right! I created a writer’s journal specifically for sixth through eighth grade middle school students. It guides students through the writing process, from brainstorming ideas to structuring a story to writing in different genres. No two teachers teach the same content in the same way, and I suspect a lot of us don’t have the time we need to teach storytelling in depth. For various reasons, some kids (often through no fault of their own) might have missed the personal narrative unit. And I don’t know how many teachers get to teach short story writing in middle school. I’ve only squeezed it in a couple times in my nine years of teaching sixth grade. For these reasons and more, I think there is a need, and more importantly, a desire for this journal. It’s also for students who enjoy writing. There’s a lot of them out there! I hope this journal can find them. This journal will be available first on my Kickstarter this August.

Take care and I hope you are enjoying the last days of July.

Heather

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It’s the first full week of July and I’m about two-thirds of the way through drafting my first holiday romance. The official series title is Haunted Holidays because I decided my romance books need ghosts. Lucky for me, I’ve set the series in my current hometown of Benicia where we have plenty of ghost tales. Thanks to my romance writing reality, here’s the Rom-Com movie update you didn’t know you needed!

Passport to Love

After viewing Netflix’s entire stock of Rom-Coms (that interested me), I was desperate for new movies. Hallmark+ came through for me. The movies I’m really digging right now are in the Passport to Love categories. It’s a nice blend of vicarious vacationing and romance. The top three contenders for me to write about today are, in the order I watched them: A Machu Picchu Proposal, Journey to Love, and Love on the Danube. Picking my favorite is a tough choice.

A Manchu Picchu Proposal did an excellent job of showcasing lesser known, incredibly scenic locals in Peru. The heroine and hero were great and both spoke Spanish often. This was my first movie in the Passport to Love category, before even realizing this category existed. I really like Hallmark’s multicultural take, and love that we saw responsible tourism:

1. Using the local language

2. Visiting off-the-beaten-path locations and really getting to know the people and places on a personal level.

The only thing keeping this from being my favorite is the heroine’s twin brother annoyed me, and it was his Peruvian proposal that kept getting postponed, requiring them to try out other proposal places, so he’s a main character.

Last night I watched Love on the Danube about The HERO and his Dad meeting The HEROINE and her Mom on a river cruise in Europe. I dream of taking a river cruise and have researched the Passau trip, so I loved this concept. But found I wasn’t able to appreciate the locations like in Machu Picchu Proposal. However, the love story was fun. First, it’s a Parent Trap plan, but the parents pull a switcheroo. Good, fun, solid romance story.

The third movie I want to discuss involves an Emergency ER doctor who hasn’t taken a vacation in four years getting bypassed on a promotion she felt she deserved, only for the new boss to tell her to take a vacation. In Journey to You, her mom insists her first vacation in four years should be hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

From personal experience, you can’t go to Spain and not be aware of this trek, and to know that it consists of many different paths, like the French Way (from south eastern France just north of Catalonia, the Northern Way from the west coast of Bilbao, the Portugal Way and so forth. All paths converge at the town Santiago.

Even though the heroine didn’t speak Spanish, the movie has several things going for her: a strong character arc; A Single Dad Hero with his 14 year old son and his sixty plus dad in tow; and a lovely introduction to this once in a lifetime pilgrimage with a wonderful message.

Of all the movies I have watched, this is the one that makes me want to go there and try it. The most popular hike, the French Way, takes 4-6 weeks, about 12-15 miles each day should be able to get it done in a month. But you don’t have to hike the entire path or do the most popular and therefore most crowded.

I hope to one day walk part of this path. I’m looking at a two week option because I can’t see a way to take a whole month of my summer when it will be HOT in Spain. So for the next few years, I will work on this trip, find at least one traveling companion, and you know I will write all about it.

Finally, book news

I will have a new book for sale on my Kickstarter this August! It’s a writer’s journal, written specifically for middle school students with its main emphasis on writing narratives, both personal and short stories. It will first be available through my Kickstarter going live next month, in ebook and paperback form. Possibly Hardcover, I have a proof of the hardcover to arrive any day and see if it works.

As always, thank you for reading my post!

Heather

Even though my last day of teaching was three weeks ago tomorrow (Tuesday June 3, 2025), my summer hasn’t really started. I spent the first three days of “summer” packing up my classroom. Then I spent the next two weeks attending a summer institute with the Bay Area Writing Project which is housed at U.C. Berkeley. And then I got COVID last week. Now I’m recovering from COVID and still packing up my classroom. <sigh> My classroom move is because I’m teaching eighth grade this coming year.

But hey, thanks to four full days of isolation and rest, I’ve made some good progress towards my first Kickstarter campaign.

A little more about Kickstarter: Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform where many authors have found support for their books. I have three goals for my first campaign:

I’ve been busy preparing my Rewards for Kickstarter. If you haven’t backed a Kickstarter campaign yet, it’s worth checking out. For my Kickstarter, I will have available for purchase:

• Surviving Seventh Grade Hardcover omnibus (all three stories)

• Omnibus available in eBook, paperback, and (hopefully) Audiobook

• Paperbacks for Sean’s Survival Guide and Kayla’s Quest

• Deleted Scenes eBook (the $1 to play reward)

• A digital writing journal for middle school students (the digital download can only be redeemed once, but it can be gifted to the middle schooler in your life)

There may be a couple other perks, called Stretch Goals, if I feel brave enough to try it.

Thank you for being a friend and following my updates and news. I hope to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Heather

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When I was a kid, the news was infamous for blowing an event, like a little earthquake, out of proportion. This little earthquake caused family thousands of miles away to call to make sure we were OK.

Nowadays, we have social media to do this, and dare I say, news channels may be more reliable.

We have to be careful in reading this news, both the reality and the blown up (made up?) news. I’m here to recommend a Substack I enjoy and appreciate their humor. Check out Greg Nix’s latest post, Los Angeles Migrant INVASION on Chortle.

That is all.

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Enjoy your day,

Heather

I can’t believe it is the 30th of May already. Everything is in fast-forward motion. I have two days left of the 2024-2025 school year and these are my last days teaching sixth grade. I’ll be teaching at the same middle school, but I’m moving classrooms to teach the big bad eighth graders. You know, the ones who survived seventh grade. It’s no mystery why I avoided the dreaded middle grade in middle school.

Bigger news: my first-born leaves for college this August. He started his summer break last Friday, and it’s starting to sink in that he will soon be on his own, without his parents and without his twin brother. It’s both exciting and scary at the same time.

With my sons already a week into summer and mine just a couple days away, I’ve been reliving my trip to Spain last June. For all my summer travelers out there, this little bit is for you.

How to Ensure You Have a Terrible Trip

10. Leave all your notes on the location at home (or the hotel).

9. Also leave the guidebooks at home.

8. When you realize you left your notes and books, stubbornly refuse some last-minute online research and choose to instead wing it. After all, it’s a place with people in it, you’ll be fine.

7. When you meet some nice, friendly tourists and they explain how they are taking a taxi to get to the famous castle just to be sure they make it, ignore this advice. You’ve got plenty of time to walk to the castle.

6. When the person at the tourist center hands you a map and points at the location, then says, “it’s an easy 20 minute-walk from here,” believe them.

5. Make sure the major tourist attraction is in sight at all times so that you always know where to find the bus stop. You might never find the castle this way, but at least you’ll never get lost.

3. Ask the locals for directions. Honestly, this should have worked. I asked in my faulty Spanish, but the locals had trouble reading the map, too.

2. Give up and pay for the red, double-decker sightseeing bus, only to realize if the bus returns a few minutes late, you will miss your bus to the train station and then will miss your train.

1. Decide catching an earlier train out of Segovia is the best idea ever and leave Segovia.

At least I had a lovely lunch overlooking the train tracks with the mountains in the distance as I waited a couple of hours for my original train.

In retrospect, I think my fear of getting lost sabotaged this day trip for me. Especially since my favorite stories to tell are the ones where I got lost somewhere in Europe. The highlight of the trip was the train ride to and from Segovia, and of course, seeing the Roman aqueduct.

What are your favorite travel stories to tell? Any of them involve getting lost? Or working hard to not get lost? Please share them here!

Until next time, enjoy!

Heather

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I received a nice surprise just now checking my email. My newest book, Kayla’s Quest, is featured in a Women’s Fiction bundle for ARCs. While its target audience is middle school students, the vast majority of young adult book readers are actually adults. So it will be interesting to see if I get some ARC readers. Below are pictures of all the books available to you as ARCs from this bundle. You can download any for free with the idea that if you enjoy the book, you will write a review for it. Click HERE to check out the books.

If you read one of the books, or more, I would love to hear about your experience!

Currenlty, I’m busy with a couple of side projects, like setting up my website to sell my books and developing a journal for middle school writers. This second project has me re-reading old, forgotten short stories from my past. It also has me trying to remember fond middle school memories.

Are there really things I WANT to remember from middle school? The first few experiences I could think of were definitely not worth writing about. But, after busting out with a tried-and-true idea generator I’ve used with my sixth graders for nine years now (the Heart Map Writing), I managed to remember that I learned to ski in the seventh grade with my best friend Alice. She joined my family and I for a weekend at Big Bear Lake. And this triggered a few more FOND memories of skiing when I was thirteen and fourteen, like when the van broke down on the way up one time with Rebecca and her family.

Which means, surprise surprise, I have fond memories from middle school. Wow! I don’t know if I can remember enough details to make it into a story, especially since I have lost touch with key friends from those days, but I am going to try.

I’m curious. Do you have fond memories from middle school or junior high days? Can you go back in time and remember what was said or specific details? I’d love to hear about your fond memories!

Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Heather

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What do snowboard boots, classroom desks, running and Kayla’s Quest have in common? All three were on my To-Do checklist, with seven other items, and all are checked off my list. Man, do I feel accomplished.

About my newest book, Kayla’s Quest:

It's the first day back from winter break at Central Valley Middle, and Kayla can't wait to start the year with her best friends and best boyfriend ever. But the wrong text ruins her day and all her plans. Join Kayla as she tries to survive all the highs and lows of seventh grade.

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3W2L4RQ

• Apple, Kobo and others: https://books2read.com/u/mYezpp

My K2 snowboard boots, a quick story:

Last Tuesday I did (my first) solo snowboard outing (in over 20 years) at Sierra-at-Tahoe. The snow was good for April, which means not icy nor slushy. Since it was a Tuesday, the resort was EMPTY. The run my sons and I took in February wasn’t doing too good (soft and slow snow that made me work too hard), so I went in search of better runs, which I found in the West Bowl. The West Bowl at Sierra is easy to miss. All the trees burned down, so it looks like a snow-covered area next to the resort, but surprise, there’s a chairlift and some of the best blue and black runs!

About an hour into my continuous cycle of bombing down the runs, barely pausing to unstrap a boot, and jumping on the chairlift for a ride back to the top, I stopped about a third of the way into my run because my boot was too loose. I twisted the BOA wheel to tighten, but it turned freely without resistance. Here’s why:

The BOA cable on my boot broke! This speedy system tightens the boot around the ankle and keeps the heel in place, giving the boarder “ultimate control.” Since I am a bit of a control freak, and especially with snowboarding, I need my BOA system. But I snowboarded for twenty years before I knew this system existed, so I was able to get down to the chairlift, exit the lift without falling, and get back over to the main lodge. The Sierra staff were super helpful, recommending I contact K2 and comping my boot rentals!

I returned to the slopes for another 90 minutes. The snow grew soft and sticky, and as I approached the home stretch to the chairlift, a strong wind would hit me. Between the slow snow and the wind, I would lose at least half my speed towards the bottom. Plus, I’m a carver, and those last few runs, forcing my turns through the clumps of sticky snow, exhausted me.

It was the best workout I’ve had in years (since my last soccer game), and the sorest I’ve been from snowboarding in many years.

But about those boots!

K2 directed me to the BOA site, where it was easy to add some pictures, answer a few questions, and enter my address to receive my free cable repair kit. So hopefully my boot will be fine and ready to go next season.

Finally, a reminder, Kayla’s Quest is available in both eBook and paperback now! If you haven’t read the first book, it’s fine to read Kayla’s Quest first, and then read Sean’s Survival Guide later.

• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F3W2L4RQ

• Apple, Kobo and others: https://books2read.com/u/mYezpp

Thank you for reading my snowboarding boot story! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Heather

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We checked into our hotel, the Calma Berlin Mitte, around 15:00, or three o'clock Germany time.

Crisp white walls, ceilings, shelves and tables provided the backdrop to the furniture accents of dark gray carpet and light charcoal gray beds. Two pink pillows for the sofa, when it was set up as a sofa, added a touch of color to the modern, slender room.

My first-born stakes claim to the window side of the queen bed.

The sleeper sofa, which was my bed for the two nights, waited, already made into a bed for me, the hotel obviously knowing sleep was the first thing on our to-do list.

Joseph closed the floor-to-ceiling length gray curtains.

Do seventeen-year-old boys take a nap at 3 P.M. during their first hours in a foreign city?

My boys crawled into bed and crashed.

Apparently they do.

Do forty-seven-year-old women sleep their first hours in a foreign city they’ve never visited before? Well, it wasn't like I was going to wander the streets of an unfamiliar, large city like Berlin alone.

Although the curtains were closed, the windows were open with a fan set up on the desk. Only one hotel made a big deal about not having air conditioning; it was plastered all over the reservation and the website that the Hotel Europäischer Hof in Munich didn't have air-conditioning. That hotel mentioned many times that they provided an additional fan free of charge during the summer months. I really wanted to stay there, so I figured we would survive the warmer evenings.

Apparently, the Calma Berlin Mitte didn’t have air-conditioning either. I found the all-important second fan in the closet.

Soon the rhythm of the humming fan guided me to sleep.

When I woke a couple of hours later in the semi-dark room, my boys still slept; nothing short of a hurricane would wake them.

Bright light peeked through the sides and bottom of the curtains. My weather app reported it was 80 degrees in Berlin, and unlike back home in California where the sky would be almost dark at 8:30 P.M., in Berlin, with the higher latitude, sundown wasn't for a couple more hours.

My stomach growled. Meals were so random on the plan, eating breakfast four hours after eating dinner, I couldn’t remember if I had eaten anything since breakfast. I pulled up good ole google maps on my android phone—the one without cellular service for our trip—and surveyed my dinner options.

Two buildings down from our hotel was a “fine dining establishment” called 136 Restaurant. Fine dining was definitely out. Next to it was a Vietnamese restaurant.

"Do you want to eat?" I asked the quiet room.

The room ignored me.

The front desk clerk had explained upon check in that there was no one at the desk after 5pm, and that guests were to use their key in the side door. I wasn't quite sure which side door he referred to, but I could always wake my boys and get one of them to let me in.

At the base of the stairs, I could turn right towards the elevator and the main lobby, or turn left out a door that emptied into the courtyard. I suspected this was the side door I needed to use to re-enter, but I wanted to make sure. Past the slim elevator, there was a closed door to the lobby that I hadn't noticed before. Sure enough, it was locked. Not only was no one manning the front desk, the whole lobby area was off limits.

Who did I call if I needed towels or engineering? Were there any hotel employees in the hotel after hours? My stomach roared, demanding to be fed. I stepped out into the courtyard and didn’t look back.

At almost nine o'clock, the pale blue sky cast a soft shadow on the large courtyard area. The courtyard, a large square with mostly pinkish red bricks mixed with paths of gray brick, was the first thing that sold me on the hotel. The brick courtyard and the refurbished pallets used as chairs, sofas and tables. When we arrived the chairs had plush gray cushions and inviting, little pink pillows. Now the pallet chairs were bare for the night.

I left the courtyard, walking under the front building, through the squarish and understated "Hoteleingang" sign that I had missed while looking for the hotel hours earlier.

I passed the fine dining establishment with its smattering of romantic tables of two set out front as an afterthought. Whether the setup was due to COVID or had always been a sidewalk café, I didn’t know.

The next building had three picnic tables placed lengthwise in front of the Vietnamese restaurant. Two women sat with their backs towards the wall of the restaurant, looking out on the street. One ate, one sat.

I stepped inside the small restaurant, the seating inside as sparse as outside—four tables max, for two to four people. The back half of the building was the kitchen, with a counter and cash register in the middle. A chef was at the grill, not cooking. Was I too late?

I couldn't remember how to ask if they were still open, so I went with, "Haben sie ein menu auf English?"

The woman standing in the middle of the seating area shook her head but with a quick, hopeful smile. "What do you like?" she asked in English with a thick germanish-asianish accent.

I hadn't had Vietnamese food in years, decades probably, since I lived and worked in Sacramento right after graduating from college. Back then I always ordered a dish with white rice noodles and yellow grass (?) and chicken, so I tried to describe this.

"Ah, nummer dreizig," the woman told me. She handed me her menu in German but with pictures for each item. She pointed to the item. "Number 30 very good."

Number 30 had vegetables and “fried chicken”. I’ve recently realized I hate fried chicken. I’m not sure when it happened, because I loved eating KFC meals with all the fixings when I was a kid. But at this point I was too hungry to care.

"Perfect. I will have that, thank you." I fished out my wallet from my special travel purse that wrapped around my body to discourage pickpockets. But when I pulled out my card, she held a hand.

"No card. Only cash."

My shoulders slumped in defeat. Dollars wouldn't do. "Is there an ATM near? I need Euros."

"Yeah, yeah. There," she pointed across the street to the cluster of restaurants and the hotel sign that lead me upstairs to nowhere earlier that day. "ATM there."

Clearly destined to return to that dreaded side of the street, I hurried out of the restaurant to get it over with.

Since Lindenstrasse was a one-way street, more a small side street than the big main street one block over, I didn't need to walk to the end of the street and use a crosswalk. I just hoofed it across the street and followed the lady’s instructions. The ATM was easier to find then the hotel.

I quickly breezed through the options, slid in my ATM card, agreed to the charge to use the ATM, agreed to the charge for pulling out Euros instead of dollars, decided on 200 euros, and was on my way.

When I returned to the restaurant, the woman assured me the dinner and bottle of water only cost nine euros.

I joined the couple outside, one table down from them, and sat with my back to the restaurant as well. The sky took on a darker shade of blue now, but it was still light out.

The Number 30: green snap peas, giant carrots, and yellow stir-fried chicken (not fried and crispy like KFC!) rested on a bed of white rice perfectly framed on an oval plate. As I brought a spoonful to my mouth, sweet coconut and yellow curry aromas teased my nose. Yummy.

It was delicious. The best Vietnamese food I'd ever had, for sure, but at the moment, the best meal of the past month or maybe even year. If I could get yellow curry Chicken like this at home, I'd eat it at least once a week.

I took a picture of my delicious dinner. Then I took a selfie of me with my delicious dinner. This led to pictures of me and my dinner with the street that led to the U-bahn station we took earlier in the background, followed by another selfie with the other side of the street—the one that intersected with the main street that became Unter der Linden—in the background. Then I ate some more.

While I enjoyed every bite of my first meal in Berlin, the sun continued its final descent beyond the horizon. The buildings across from me, once lit up to show off the many colors and styles of each separate restaurant, now were dark, all in one giant shadow left from the disappearance of the sun.

Before going back to my hotel room, I order two more bottles of water for my boys, not wanting to return empty-handed, just in case they woke up in the next six or seven hours.

Around 22:00, with the remaining light draining from the sky, I jammed back to the courtyard of the hotel in under a minute.

Several lone figures and one couple enjoyed the evening on the pallet chairs outside the hotel. It was maybe seventy degrees and pleasant outside. The cozy setting called to me.

But first, I needed to check on my boys. Abandoning them on our first night in a foreign city wasn’t ideal.

I stopped in front of the glass door, certain it was the right one, and even found the key-swipe lock, but how was I supposed to open it? Where was the handle?

A man from the courtyard joined me. I silently pleaded for help.

He smiled politely enough, leaned forward, and pulled on the long, horizontal metal handle that reached from one side of the door to the other. It was so big and obvious, I missed it!

Red-faced and sheepish, I thanked him. Clearly, I needed sleep.