The Anxious Author

      Who-dun-it meets Scooby Doo and a murder mystery party in July's book of the month. I've had Corbin Mano r, by KR Hall, on my to-be-read list for months and I couldn't be more pleased with it's story.      Corbin Manor is an old building with a past full of blood shed. The Amazon synopsis says:        You are cordially invited to dinner...and a murder!      Corbin Manor was built in the early 1900s; it has been the silent witness to so much life, the good and bad. The legend of Corbin Manor is that it has been haunted by at least a dozen occupants who have died inside the house.      Earlier in the evening, there had been an elegant dinner party hosted by the new owner of Corbin Manor, Miss Joanna Hart. The dinner guests were most notably all women.      A woman has been murdered while visiting Corbin Manor.     It’s up to detective Michael Jon Donahue, his assistant dete...

        There's a quote that all writers know but seldom are aware of who coined it. The phrase has been contributed to so many authors at this point that I'm not even going to try to credit the original sayer. However, Stephen King once said, "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric scribbler's heart, kill your darlings".      Kill your darlings...Ouch...     Seems harsh, right?     I loathe killing darlings. In case you are new to the writing scene and are unaware of what darlings refer to, darlings are the small, insignificant, beautifully written scenes that writers ultimately fall in love with despite them having no real effect on their story. Some might call these fillers. As popular killing darlings are, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I love them so much.     Darlings, to me, are like the little moments in life. They may seem inconsequential, but they have the power to lift or c...

 Greetings, souls. Happy Independence Day to those of you in America. I'm giggling over here at some of the memes I've seen this year about our beloved day of all things red, white, and blue. I've been enjoying all the book stacks I've seen too, and the shelves reorganized to look like the American flag. Very clever.     I'm spending the Fourth of July with my parents. Partially by choice but partially because I don't have a working AC in my apartment and they can't get it fixed for at least two weeks. It's been alright, but I've now been crashing with my parents for two weeks and sometimes I remember why I love having my own space. Big families are great but noisy and I feel like I'm in the way most of the time.      Anyway, it's 3:07 in the afternoon right now and my nephew has confiscated my phone to play PBS Kids while his brother takes a nap, so I thought I'd take this time to write an update.      I've been keeping track of all ...

      It's ironic that I'm writing this post with a head cold so strong that I feel like my skull might explode. It's not even funny how much cold medicine is in my system right now, so I apologize if this post doesn't make sense. I have no filter today. It's frightful. I have a rule to not write when I'm sick because all the words get jumbled and I simply don't care, but I'm breaking that rule today because it's been a bit since I've posted and if I want to keep this blog consistent to attract readers, I need to post.      Today's topic of discussion is cleaning for your health. Now, some of this is common sense. I mean, we all know that moldy dishes lead to poor health conditions and they can contaminate the air in your home with toxins and spores, but there is a little more to cleaning than that.      Did you know that your home is an extension of your being?      It is a representation of your mental health, physical health...

      Dead boys are such wonderful things, and I don't mean that in a serial killer or necrophilia kind of way. Dead boys, meaning the boys inside books that readers cannot help but fall in love with (whether they be ghosts, vampires, or mortals) are the safest form of romance that exists. Rue Volley sums it up nicely in her book, The Dead Boy's Club when Harper (the main character) says that she prefers dead boys because they are controllable.      A book is inanimate, even though it possesses the power to control our emotions. It is a way to experience life without the heartache that comes with it.  Dead boys are easy to love. The whole point of literature is to form a strong emotional bond between reader and character. It's easy to fall in love with someone you know doesn't come with risk or the tangles of reality. Someone who ceases to exist the moment you close the book. Those boys aren't wandering around asking for attention, they are waiting pa...

          I want to share something with you all and I hope it is read with an open mind and the understanding that I am no longer the same person I was when the events I’m about to share with you unfolded. When I was young, really young, something happened to me. I don’t know how to explain it without hurting anyone and I understand that the occurrence was an accident. Only recently have I begun to understand how that single moment may have impacted my life. Moments are fleeting things, you see, but they carry a huge impact. One moment can send ripples through your life far from the event.  Today at work I received an obituary for a young man and when I read that donations were requested to be given to mental health organizations, my stomach dropped. There are so few reasons why that line might have been written. Then, when I was in the store, picking up a salad because I am going through a stage of detoxing my entire life from Instagram to food, ...

            This month my town has been talking about mental health awareness. The local hospital has issued challenges to the community to help strengthen mental health and is doing giveaways to encourage people to participate, the Pony Express Mental Health Riders came through town, a mental health resource center was held in the park that should probably be called our town square, and people have been talking openly about how they struggled with mental health during the pandemic.      It's been nice seeing people talk about mental health like it isn't something to be ashamed of. It's not, by the way. There is nothing wrong with feeling sad, or depressed, or anxious, or needing help because your brain is trying to convince you that everything in your life is wrong and no one loves you. I had an interview with someone for the newspaper I work at and she said that if you go to the hospital for a broken arm you should be able to go becaus...