Category Archives: Passing Rain

Indie Publishing, Passing Rain, Writer's Life, Writing Health, Writing Romance

My Life Rhythm

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I’m at that point in my life where I can appreciate having the freedom to spend my time as I choose. I have a flexible routine, not a schedule, so I rarely set an alarm, moving about my day based on how I’m feeling and what I want to accomplish. The day, month, or season affects how my time unfolds. I feel this flexibility to discover the natural rhythm of my life is a privilege, as well as a responsibility.

This responsibility is reflected in my favorite quote, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” These are the wise words of Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Writing Updates

As is my tendency, it’s been a while since I posted here, though my last post was about accountability, but I’m happy to say I have been writing and I owe most of my progress to my Monday night Zoom buddies, Stephanie Bond, Jennifer St. Giles, Susan Goggins, and Rita Herron. I definitely hold myself accountable to these wonderful writing friends. I couldn’t do this without them.

Currently, I’m a little over halfway through the initial draft of Late Night Lattes, the third book of The Coffee Stop Series. The first book, Espresso in the Morning was originally a 2012 release. I have updated that book and have completed the initial draft of Americano Afternoons, the second book in the series. Once all three are drafted I’ll do rewrites and edits. With luck, I will release them early in 2026.

Series Goals

One of my goals for this series was to make it diverse and inclusive. I spent time on sites like Writing With Color, a resource created by people of color, sharing tools for authors to help them write diverse characters in a respectful way. In The Coffee Stop Series, I have developed diverse, non-point-of-view characters with their own story arcs. They have purpose and, hopefully, impact the series. If anyone is willing to be a diversity reader for me, please reach out. I’d love your input.

Another goal was to understand the effects of AI on the publishing industry and determine how and if I should use it in my writing. I use AI in the brainstorming and story development phases. Seasoned authors who are using generative AI, trained on their own writing, are ahead of the game, in my opinion. For me, though, generating the words is the best part. I also limit my use of AI due to environmental concerns. I offset my carbon and digital footprints by doing non-AI internet searches, not downloading large files unless needed and by keeping my data storage clean.

Lastly, in honor of my Jessie’s September 28th birthday, Passing Rain, the e-book version, will be free for five days from October 2 through 6.

Passing Rain a memoir front cover
Cover design by Elizabeth Graham

How are you finding your life rhythm?

Hope everyone is enjoying cooler temperatures!

deep pink zinnias with bee enjoying pollen
a bee enjoys my zinnias
red and yellow Indian blanket flower
my first bloom in my pollinator garden
orange and black butterfly on variated orange marigold
butterfly on my marigolds
Indie Publishing, Passing Rain, Writer's Life, Writing Romance

Happily Accountable

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These days I’m feeling happily accountable for my writing. I’m openly discussing my projects with friends and family and this post is another way of committing to the process. My youngest recently visited for a couple of months and then my sweet godgrandson came for a long weekend. Though I took some writing time, I enjoyed playing for a good bit of the summer. Now that August is drawing to a close I’m focusing on updates for Espresso in the Morning and the children’s book series I’m working on with my sister.

Dorie Graham Updates

Dorie Graham books spread with North American and international copies

Harlequin approved the reversion of rights to A Family Reunited, my remaining Superromance and five of my Blazes, The Last Virgin, Tempting Adam, The Morning After, So Many Men… and Faking It. I’m really looking forward to rereading and reworking all of these.

I’m well into the updates for the re-release of Espresso in the Morning. I ask anyone interested in reading it to please be patient, though. This story had so much more in it that was either cut or never made it onto the pages. In exploring all I wanted to do with it, I’ve decided the new Espresso will be the first book of three in The Coffee Stop series. In Americano Afternoons I’ll explore the continuing conflict Lucas has with Toby’s sister, Louisa Platt, while she grudgingly explores her own romance. By the time I write the third book, Ramsey Carter, will have his business degree and be the driving force for making The Coffee Stop a nighttime destination in Late Night Lattes, where Ramsey will get his own experience with love. I’ll want to complete all three books and release them in consecutive months, so stay tuned!

Bailey and Bud’s Magical Adventures Series

I can’t wait to have pictures to share for this project. I’ve developed a children’s picture book series I’m creating with my sister, Carol Anderson, illustrator extraordinaire. Currently I have outlined When You Meet a Fairy…, When You Meet a Dragon…, When You Meet a Wizard…, When You Meet an Elf… and When You Meet a Ghost… I have drafted the story for When You Meet a Fairy… and started the storyboard for that one. Basically, Bud, the dog of Bailey, a seven-year-old half Japanese, half Irish girl (like some sisters I know) gets into trouble with magical beings and Bailey and her friends, modeled after my grandnephew, grandniece, godgrandson and sister’s grandson, all help right the trouble. I don’t have a timeframe for releases yet, but am having so much fun with it and will keep you posted.

Passing Rain Free Book Promotion

Passing Rain a memoir front cover
Cover design by Elizabeth Graham

In my continuing effort to learn about all the promotion opportunities on Amazon and to also make this book available to anyone it might help, I’ve enrolled Passing Rain in a Kindle Free Book Promotion through Friday. Please pass this along to anyone who might be interested. Thanks!

I’m falling asleep thinking about these projects, waking up thinking about these projects, then making my way through all the other fun stuff I get to do in my day until I can sit down and get those thoughts out and recorded. If this isn’t happily accountable, I don’t know what is. Hope everyone is safe, well and enjoying life!

Passing Rain, Uncategorized, Writer's Life, Writing Health

Embracing Change During a Pandemic

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I’m grateful that during this time when many are suffering, I have so very many blessings to count. The changes COVID-19 has brought into my life have been easy for an introvert like me to embrace.

  • Staying employed – I’m able work from home and even assist our front line workers in some small way.
  • Staying connected – from social media to email groups and texts with family, all are at my fingertips.
  • Staying healthy – we have plenty of healthy food options on hand, a basement workout room, and a nice sized patio and back yard available 24-7.

Even for me, here in my protected bubble, though, the grief of the world seeps in from time to time, especially when watching the news. In all my stability, I have moments when that river inside rises and I either let it overflow, or breathe deeply to settle it.

Yesterday, I relaxed with my youngest in their room, watching “Little Women,” where Jo lay next to Beth, who struggled to make it through the night, I realized I was lying in the exact same spot I’d been 13 years ago with my Jessie during her final hours. I breathed and let go some of the tears.

Today is the 13th anniversary of Jessie’s passing. The grief can still be intense, but those tears get fewer each year. I reach out to her and my parents often and feel their support as a constant in my life.

This year I’m not seeing my middle daughter, Liz Graham, aka my Newt, for the first time on the anniversary of her sister’s passing. So today I’m missing them both, but Liz is a call, IM or text away and I’ll see her as soon as we’re able to when the world has healed enough for us to do so. I can’t wait to give her a big hug. And Rain is with me now, even as I write this, still my inside connection, helping me embrace the changes during this historical time of pandemic.

Passing Rain

Passing Rain – Cover Reveal

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I’m excited to share the result of my wonderful Elizabeth Graham’s hard work. I couldn’t be more pleased to present the cover for “Passing Rain.”

Cover for "Passing Rain a memoir"
Cover for “Passing Rain” by Elizabeth Graham

As a parent, I never thought I’d:
– Witness a hair cutting party for my oldest daughter, who wanted a wig made of her own hair for when the chemo rendered her bald
– Shop online for sperm with that same daughter, because she’d already picked names for her four children
– Plan a “Viking funeral” for my sweet Jessie, or Rain, as she was known by many of her friends

Maybe I should have included a spoiler alert, but this isn’t a story where I keep you in suspense about whether Rain won her battle or not. It’s the story of her passing, in which she did triumph, as she managed this course with grace, peace and an ample measure of bravery.

Passing Rain, Writing Health

Keeping Her in My Memories; Embracing Her as She is Now

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I have two main dates with which I’ve learned to cope, the anniversary of my daughter’s passing and her birthday, which falls in September. She’d be turning 29 this year and that is difficult to imagine. She’s frozen in my memory at nineteen.

As I move closer to determining a release date for “Passing Rain,” I thought blogging about her coming birthday might be a good way of better preparing for it. I haven’t always handled the anniversaries, the holidays, all those special days on which I feel her physical absence in the best of ways.

So to get ready for this post I searched online to see how others deal with these occasions. The advice that resonated the most with me came from Abraham Hicks. To connect with her as she is now I have to set aside the grief and be the best me I can be.

Keeping her as she was in my memories is fine, but I’ve already embraced her as she is now. I’ve mentioned many times that I think of her as my little inside connection. She’s no longer that nineteen-year-old Earthbound child I knew. She’s operating at a higher level and if a birthday while she was here focused on celebrating her advancement into a new year, shouldn’t her birthday now be focused on celebrating where she is now, in her most advanced state?

In order for me to connect with her I can’t hold myself down with pain and grief, because that isn’t where she is. I’m not saying I won’t still feel that grief at times, but accepting her more in her current state will help me to better cope with those moments. For her birthday this year I plan to concentrate on being the best me I can be and to honor her for being the magnificent being she is.

I’ve been doing this in my daily life for some time. I’ve thought of my loved ones who have passed and imagined them as the Grand Masters they are, my inside connections to that place from where we originate. I’ve felt their love and felt the connection. I believe in those moments I’m connecting because I’m coming into alignment with the real me. I’ll be keeping her in my memories, but embracing her as she is now.

What better time to nurture that connection than on her birthday?

Read about the dream that inspired me to write Passing Rain: From the Camel’s Mouth

Messages in Dreams, Passing Rain

From the Camel’s Mouth

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I stood in a high place, both a church and a courthouse. Dark masonry covered the walls, while light flowed through stained glass windows in splashes of yellow, pink and blue. Respectful quiet permeated the space.

Before me stood three camels. Their size and the muskiness of their scent drove me back a step. A commotion broke out among the handlers of the one to my right. They spoke in rapid dialog in a language I didn’t understand, but their distress was evident none-the-less.

Something was stuck in the camel’s mouth. It knelt before me and its mouth opened like a computer-generated image. I hesitated a moment, then reached in with both my hands.

My fingers closed around an abundance of long, slender objects. They slipped as I gathered them and pulled them from the opening. Light fell across my hands, revealing pencils, pens and paintbrushes, too many to count. Again I reached into the camel’s mouth, withdrawing a second bundle and then a third.

The load was more than I could comfortably hold. I glanced around for a place to lay my burden. A door stood ajar off to one side. I entered to find court in session, the judge in her raised chair at the front. I glanced around quickly, not wanting to disturb the proceedings. No shelf, counter or cabinet presented itself.

The judge caught my eye and gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. With that, I understood the bounty from the camel’s mouth was mine to keep.

This is the dream that directed me to write, “Passing Rain,” my story relating the events in my life from late 2004 through 2006. I interpreted the dream as saying the camels represented those three years. I researched dream meanings for camel and both “long hard journey” and “great sadness” struck a chord in me. I’d pulled creative tools and writing implements from the camel’s mouth (the mouth representing expression/communication). I had my directive. I had to write about those years.

My memoir is complete. Now what? Follow my journey here and discover with me where this project will land. Will it catch the interest of a mainstream publisher? Will I self publish it? I don’t yet know, but I trust it will end up where it is meant to be and if the only purpose in my writing this was for my own cathartic process, then I’ve accomplished that, at least. For my daughter, Jessie’s sake (aka Rain), though, I do hope our story will touch at least one other life and make all she experienced that much more meaningful.

Read an excerpt from “Passing Rain” here.