Who’s excited to see the sunshine? Me! It has finally been warm enough to not need to run the heater in the mornings here. And may need to switch to the AC by the end of the week. So, how about a quick May update? 🪻

The Mark of the Artist now in paperback!

Business first! As announced last week, you can now get the book in either digital or paperback! 🎉 Break open the ereaders or get your bookmarks ready, folks! 📖

Garden Update

Tomatoes! Beans! Herbs! The Engman veggie garden has been planted and is soaking up the warmth and sunlight. It’s looking so much better than a few months back. Still will be awhile until we have actual tomatoes, but we’ve already been using the herbs in cooking and munching (the mint only for that). The kiddos and I planted some flower seeds, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for zinnias come summer.

I geeked out garden-wise this year and grabbed a few Yerba Buena native herb plants at my local garden store. These natives have the same name as the original name of San Francisco. Not only do we love native plants in our yard, but this one’s historical name relates perfectly to my new work-in-progress (shh!)✍🏻. So yep geekin’ out in both a gardening and literary way! More info on the next writing endeavor later! 💛

Reading Updates

Still chugging away on the 4^th Land of Stories book with my daughter. Both of us are ready for this one to be done. She’s reading Holes by Luis Sachar on her own to read ahead of her classmates (dude, does that sound familiar! ☺️). We are huge fans of the Wayside School series also by Sachar, highly recommend to anyone with elementary age kiddos.

Son and I keep bouncing from one early reader book to another, but have just finished book 7 (?) of The Kingdom of Wrenly series. He and I both enjoy them, very cute.

Our local library is holding a Summer Reading challenge that the kids have asked to do. So proud of both my kiddos that they enjoy a good story and reading! 📖

For myself, when I’m not reading non-fiction gold rush history in preparation for my next book (ooo I slipped a little hint in there), I’ve been reading some cool indie books. Just started reading The Victory Party by Emma Donovan. So far I’m hooked! Mysteries aren’t my usual first choice, but this one is already great: like Downton Abby meets Sherlock Holmes. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mother’s Day

This weekend is Mother’s day so let me wish a happy one to all the other moms out there. Rest, if you can! 😆