Lake Atitlan, Panajachel, Guatemala

Friday, November 28, 2014

The post-Thanksgiving Food Coma

Ever eaten so much at Thanksgiving dinner you feel like you're in a food coma? Aww, come on you can admit it! And why is it the day after all we want is hot dogs or pizza? I used to work at the Costco food court and I think we sold more pizza on the Friday after Thanksgiving than any other day of the year. With all those great leftovers at home too!

Then there's the different kind of coma, the one I imagine in my recently published novel Afraid of Everything. Ever wondered what it's like? I did, and it inspired me to write about how it might be from the point of view of the coma victim.

Mason Canyon at Thoughts in Progress features and reviews Afraid of Everything on her blog. Thanks, Mason!

To experience a different kind of coma than the post Thanksgiving food coma, download Afraid of Everything for your Kindle, now just $2.99.



Helena Carr is afraid of everything. After a crisis at work, she quits her job and feels lost. It’s time for a serious change, to beat the extreme anxiety that has plagued her since childhood. Something different, unplanned and radical. Sell her house, move to a foreign location, turn her life upside down in an effort to end the emotionally paralyzing fear. 

Before Helena can act on her options, however, she has a terrible accident on a Southern California freeway. Instead of going on an exotic vacation, she is in a hospital, in a coma, traveling to strange worlds of another dimension, meeting people who seem to know more about her than she knows about herself.

As Helena explores this intriguing new world, she realizes the truth about her past and the purpose of her future. And she is no longer afraid. Helena is at last ready to live. But first, she must wake up from the coma.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Blogging with a Theme

Sometimes I waver on my blog, not sure what it's about or what I'm doing here. This comes from lack of focus and purpose. And then April approaches and I get excited deciding on my theme for the A to Z Challenge and planning my posts. The focus returns for at least one month!

Besides discovering and meeting new bloggers, I enjoy the challenging process of posting the entire month on one theme. One year my theme was literary terminology; the year my cookbook came out, it was recipes; last year it was living in Guatemala.

Alex Cavanaugh interviews me this week for the A to Z Challenge Blog on my Guatemala topic. Pretty sure I'll do another aspect of living in Guatemala for the Challenge, because it helps me appreciate the wonderful land which is now my home.