SpiritsofIdaho @SpiritsofIdaho

@KingAriPress Don't let a bass eat Charlie!

So greet the morning with a smile And linger in its peace awhile For every dawn brings something new A chance to start a chance to do. May joy be near, May laughter fill your day with cheer. And when the evening sky turns blue, May you be proud of all you do.

Something worth saying to indie authors writing outside the popular genres: You don't need a cover that looks like a bestseller in your category. You need a cover that tells the truth about your book. A literary novel doesn't need to look like a thriller. A dark romantasy that's closer to a dark fairy tale than to anything you may see on BookTok, shouldn't try to copy the BookTok covers. Yes, genre signals matter. Yes, you want readers to recognize the shelf your book belongs on. But there's a real difference between honoring the genre and chasing what was working six months ago. The cover is a promise. Break it, and the reviews will tell on you within a week of release. Design for the reader you actually want, not the one who's statistically most likely to scroll past.

Awake again at midnight Getting to be a habit Backyard swing Drinking Contraband soda (pre-diabetic) Looking up at the Big Dipper Contemplating life Isolated Maybe I'll write a story about it

@atlasjlively Sometimes it is scary what comes from your own mind!

@KingAriPress The Land of Lakes

@whataimeereads_ Just in case, I have you on Instagram and a couple of other accounts. I really don't want to lose track of some people if I can help it.

@Avonleebythesea Fun! We have a lot of caves in our lava flows (like Craters of the Moon Ntn Park) that are fun to explore. Ice caves are really spectacular.

A few quotes I have picked out of I Am From Idaho We learned that real rocks are hard. The ground can be hard. Sometimes life is hard. We learned that if we skinned our knees, we didn’t go home crying. Instead we picked ourselves up and kept going because we didn’t want to miss out on the fun. xxxxxxxx That was still back in the era where the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and we knew the difference. xxxxxxxx Spark plugs and carburetors are the primary suspects in most motor problems, maybe because if you have gasoline and a spark to ignite it, most everything else goes along for the ride. xxxxxxxx I did not see the danger in much of what I did as a child because, on those occasions that my life passed before my eyes, it went pretty fast, and there just wasn't all that much to see. Kind of a flash and ffffttt, and it was over. So I would think, “maybe if I do this, at least the next time, I will have some cool stuff to see.” xxxxxxxx I thought of my poor parents, wondering where I was, never to know that I was entombed only yards from the back door. Eventually, they may have discovered my remains, only a skeleton clutching a plastic army man in one hand and my mother's spoon in the other. I could imagine my mother standing over my remains with a tear running down her cheek. She would turn to Dad; shake her head, and say, "I always wondered what happened to that spoon." xxxxxxxx We learned to make our own choices, make our own adventures, and make our own mistakes.

@plainrunner2 @KingAriPress For once in my life, I am typeless.

Why do I write? It is a private story, but maybe it needs repeating. I have written all my life, but only started writing stories seriously for about 5 years (I am 75).My sister died before I was old enough to remember her and pictures didn’t really tell me much. I found some stories she had written in high school and thought that told me a lot more about her than pictures. So I decided to write stories for future generations. I recently published I Am From Idaho, which recounts my time growing up in rural Idaho in the 60s. It was an attempt, not only to entertain, but to ask the reader what makes life important.

@ElChandler Probably the same reason most of us bother, and when I figure out what it is, I will let you know.

@caroscottcolli I read good books... including contemporary romance.

I have been thinking about this very question as I go through the final edits of my next work about ghost hunting. Although the intention was humor, I also believe that I studied ghost hunting quite extensively and could impart some of that interesting history. There is also philosophy; how do we relate to death?

@pensandpoison AI is not the threat The real threat is the people who want to read crap

@SObooknerd I think we should cancel the whole week... then we could start on NEXT Monday.

@caroscottcolli I remember loving the 'easiness' of village. A soothing feeling. No car chases, no rash of murders, just people trying to get by; good and bad. Sometimes we need to visit such a place, if only in our minds.

While working on my next release, Spirit Chasers, I have been pondering what I want to pass on to the reader. When I think of all the books I have read (only some of which are pictured below), each one has left an imprint: a peaceful European town, a clan that worships songs, a love story with the devil. Then there is all the poetry, much of which I have copied and pinned by my computer. So what do I want to leave to readers of Spirit Chasers? I think it was during the many rewrites of I Am From Idaho that I started to leave something more of myself than just the stories; this is what I learned; this is what made me. Good literature does that; it leaves an image on the screen of your mind.

Happy Father’s Day

@realevelyncross The sun is up (yesterday it was raining) and I am here. That says something