Not an Easy Year

The bad year that brought about Ten Kids, Two Lovebirds, and a Singing Mermaid

2023 was not a good year.

I’ve had worse.

Years I try not to think about much.

But 2023 was tough.

Someone lied about me and it was very painful.

Don’t worry! The lie was not about me burying a body, slugging someone in a bar fight, running naked along a river, or watering a weak man’s Alfa Romeo with a hose after popping a cherry pie into his smirky face. These are all things I’ve made the characters in my books do, but I have never done anything so exciting myself, unfortunately.

The lie that was told was like being bitten by a know-it-all crocodile with a weird smile and a superiority complex.

Perhaps you, too, have had malevolent crocodiles in your life who lied about you?

Well then, you can relate to my experience. Chomp, chomp!

Photo by Simon Watkinson on Unsplash

In addition, our second floor washing machine flooded at the end of 2022, which brought the wet problem into 2023.

Note: When you come home and the can lights in your kitchen ceiling are RAINING you have a problem. There should never be rain inside your house.

We were under construction for months. Yes, this is water dripping through our ceiling. The whole thing had to come down. Carpets ripped up. Floors replaced.

Want to see another photo?

The very worst part, by far: Two friends died. My husband had been friends with Steve since high school. I’d been friends with Steve for 30+ years. He had a huge personality, a booming laugh, and a huge heart for his family and friends who were family.

One of the best friends of my life passed away at the end of the year. I met Nancy when I was 22. Both of us were teachers. That fun, funny, close friendship lasted 34 years. Nancy was a talented pianist, an inspiring teacher, and married to a kind minister with whom she led many churches. Her light was so bright.

For Innocent Husband and me it would have been far easier for us to lay down, hold hands, and have our legs smashed by a speeding motorcyclist.

In 2019, I took four years off writing books because I needed a break. I went back into education, which I loved, and for a moment here I will say I MISS YOU to all the amazing, splendiferous educators and students I worked with.

In the fall of 2023, I officially retired from teaching and I went back to writing books full time.

But this time around, after too much stress, I knew I wanted to write…differently.

Photo by Yukon Haughton on Unsplash

Not necessarily a new genre, but in a new way.

I knew that I could not write the longer books that I wrote previously because it was exhausting. I knew that I could not do the months of historical research that I had done before because that would interfere with my general laziness. I knew I could not edit my books 12 times each again as that had burned me out and made my vision fuzzy.

I wanted to write something hopeful and happy. Something sweet.

I wanted to write about love, and family, and friends who become family, and I wanted to go back in time, to a simpler way of living.

I wanted to go back to my childhood in Huntington Beach, California, on Deauville Drive where I lived for ten years.

I couldn’t write a memoir because I love and adore my sisters and brother and did not want to write anything that might offend or crack open their privacy.

So I took inspiration from my childhood and created two different broken families who would heal together with love and laughter.

A lot of laughter. I know I am not the only one who desperately needs to laugh.

I began writing Ten Kids, Two Lovebirds, and a Singing Mermaid. It felt like going home. I felt like I was getting myself back. There were no crocodiles.

I am delighted to be writing full time again and my cats are glad I’m home all day. They like having their servant nearby.

2024 has definitely been better, and I feel like I can breathe again.

PS If you need a book, Ten Kids, Two Lovebirds, and a Singing Mermaid is only available on Amazon.

Wishing you a peaceful day.

Cathy