Delilah

Scared woman in a house via Pixabay

Delilah loved her new home, except for the weird feeling she experienced in certain locations, particularly near the front door. This past week, she'd felt so scared near the door that she began exiting the house through the patio and coming around the side. The house was beautiful, but Delilah began to have thoughts of moving away, far away. 

She stood on the patio, sipping her coffee, wondering if she was losing her mind. Maybe she was just lonely with Tom gone all the time now that his band was a success. All the good things he had promised her in his silly hit song had come to pass, so why wasn't she happy?

"Hey there, Delilah!" Andy the pool guy greeted her with the line from the song. Everyone knew she was that Delilah, and while at first it was off-putting to be famous, she'd long since gotten used to it. 

She watched him unload the supplies from his cart and begin to test the water. "Morning, Andy." Usually, she went back inside while he worked, but today she didn't feel like being in the house alone. Sometimes lately she felt it was alive, breathing, waiting. Waiting for what? She didn't know.

When Andy was finished, Delilah invited him in so she could write his check. "Does it seem funny in here to you?" she asked him abruptly with her pen in the air.

"Funny?" he repeated. "Not sure what you mean."

"In the foyer especially." Delilah motioned for him to follow her toward the front door. "It's... colder right here or something. It gives me the shivers. And the light never works. I changed the bulb twice."

Andy glanced up and around. "Well, it could be the AC vents. Want me to close them for you? I can grab my ladder. Not sure about the light, but I know an electrician who could check it out. Or maybe you're psychic and getting flashbacks of the stabbing. Haha, just kidding!"

"Wait, what stabbing?" she stared at him in horror, as a dark, cold fog seemed to settle around her.

"Yikes, you don't know." He shrugged. "I guess it was just a local story."

Delilah was growing increasingly annoyed as well as terrified. "What was it?" she yelled, opening the door to let the sunshine in. 

Andy seemed startled at her tone. "Nothing for you to worry about. Around twenty years ago, a crazy guy was obsessed with a woman who lived here. One morning he knocked on her door and stabbed her to death when she opened it. He told the police she was cheating on him, but it turned out they'd never met and he'd been stalking her for months. He would stand over there," Andy pointed at the park across the street, "watching her from behind the trees. They said he was unfit for trial and committed him to a mental institution."

"Oh, my God, that's horrible." Delilah vowed she would tell Tom that they had to move. After Andy left with his check, she began googling for information. She skipped dinner and kept searching as it grew dark outside. There was no way she would be able to sleep in this house again. Maybe she should go to a hotel. She realized that Tom had forgotten to call, so she texted him, but it didn't go through. She resumed her online search. It was hard to find old news stories with all the ads and crap cluttering up the pages, but she kept clicking. Finally, she found it, just like Andy had described.

Except he had left out one thing: the murdered woman's name was Delilah.

~*~

Written for Fandango's Loosely Based series with inspiration from the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah" (writing credit to Tom Higgenson) as well as the oldie "Delilah" sung by Tom Jones (writing credit to Barry Mason).

Summer Reading Bingo 3

Reading challenge bingo card 

Welcome to my summer bingo book series, where I post five short reviews at a time. I'm giving myself the whole summer to finish the bingo card, not just the month of June. This is my third set of reviews; you can find the first set here and the second one here.

1. Grumpy/ Sunshine. Two Truths and a Marriage by Nicole Snow. First, I confess that I'm generally not a fan of this romance trope. Perhaps it hits too close to home ~ why would you fall for a grumpy jerk just because he looks good? Ugh, guilty. Anyway. I knew I had to pick one for this challenge, so I chose the one with a bakery involved. The level of suspension of disbelief required to enjoy this novel however was too high for me, even if there were cupcakes happening. Our hero Dex was supposed to be this wildly successful businessman, but he was a big lump who couldn’t communicate properly with anyone, not his family, not the creep he was trying to impress, and certainly not Juniper. I liked Junie, but it made no sense that she was running the bakery by herself at age 24 with no business experience, when her grandmother, the original owner, was still healthy and vibrant. Why wouldn’t Nana have sent Junie off for a degree in business before retiring and handing over the shop? Dex, the cranky real estate mogul, stomps into Junie’s bakery one day and orders a million desserts (that he hates because he’s a fitness freak) for a business meeting. Of course, a fake engagement will ensue, as that makes total sense. Creepy mafia guy that Dex wants to make a deal with loves the desserts, so naturally our suave hero blurts out that he's engaged to the bakery owner. And then… and then… the mafia creep decides that he’s going to use Junie’s sweets to hide codes to cash drop locations. Like wtaf? COME ON! So absurd. Lots of hot sex and sugary puns couldn’t save this disaster from my 2-star rating.

2.  One word title. Sweet by Emmy Laybourne.  Fun, fast-paced story about a bunch of wealthy people on a cruise who go violently insane after a bad man and an evil scientist get them addicted to a sugar substitute weight loss supplement. The worst of human behavior is highlighted when these folks will do anything ~ and I mean anything ~ to get another taste of the sugary drug. We see greed, selfishness, and egotism displayed alongside the maniacal quest for superficial perfection, or what society has decided is physical beauty anyway. Body image and self esteem issues are explored as well. There’s also a love story between the two teenaged main characters, but there are no explicit sex scenes. Lots of blood and gore though! This is a horror novel. I gave it four stars.

3. Age gap trope. The Professor’s Obsession by N. Viktoria. This was a sweet story, with an interracial element as well as the age difference (older male, by 18 years), but there was no real conflict between the main characters. Everything proceeded relatively smoothly ~ whenever Marcus made a slight faux pas, Sage corrected him, and all was well. Emma, Marcus’ daughter, only needed around a minute to process their relationship. The real drama was with their colleagues, but even that resolved itself neatly. There were a bunch of editing errors, such as when Marcus went to Sage’s apartment for the first time ostensibly to make love, but the scene faded to black, and the author must have forgotten she wrote it because later there was a first sex scene AND a first visit to Sage’s apartment. Confusing! Three stars.

4. A book about a father. Between a Heart and a Rock Place by Pat Benatar. Fabulous, uplifting story of a woman who fought fiercely for her love, her family, and to control her own music and image. With Pat's every success, chauvinistic label executives and other jerks tried to get in her way and quash her dreams, but she ultimately prevailed. For most of her journey, Pat was supported by her wonderful and super talented husband Neil (“Spyder”) Giraldo, proving that great men do exist. Except for one blip, they were an unshakable team. The reason I’m putting Pat’s memoir in this category is because it is about a father ~ the moment Pat met Neil she decided he was her soulmate and would become the father of her children. He is heavily featured throughout the book, since they are a team, both professionally and romantically. And they have two beautiful daughters, though their privacy is respected, and Pat does not go into great detail about them. I awarded this book one of my rare 5-star ratings.

As an aside, I finished this book at the beginning of July 2026 and cried at the end when Pat described how the USA came together after 9/11. We don’t have much of that spirit now at our 250th birthday, just division and hate for the “other side,” which is heartbreaking. I don’t have any ideas on how to fix this; it’s just sad.

5. Title begins with J. John Gribble Is Gone by Peter James. This was a quick (73-page), twisty little mystery, "free" with Prime membership and included in the July selections. I read it while my car was getting serviced on a Saturday morning. Even though some of the story is far-fetched, the idea that we can be subject to massive, life-altering inconvenience due to a technology breach is all too believable. The setting is in England, and for whatever reason, it was more fun to imagine all these shenanigans happening in a British accent, sort of like a Monty Python skit. Four stars.

I'll return soon with the penultimate bingo card! I'm happy to have only 10 books left to close it out, as I am getting tired of some of these genres and want to read more nonfiction soon. The Benatar memoir was truly enjoyable. (I already read a book about planet formation, which I will review in an upcoming Two for Tuesday post.)

Flashback Friday: Some Like It Hot

Somewhere in time...

I'm participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday today with a post from June 19, 2021 that I found on the Wayback Machine for my old WP blog. 

Hot Enough For Ya? 

Are writers pyromaniacs? They sure talk about heat and fire a lot. Romance novels are full of warm looks, hot kisses, burning desires, and fireworks exploding when people make love. The obsession with heat transcends genre however. Here are some titles from my list of read books. OK, most are romance, though some are horror (as if there’s a difference).

Sizzling. One Hot Cowboy Wedding. Devilishly Hot. Firestarter. Firelight. A Song of Ice and Fire. The Girl Who Played With Fire. Little Fires Everywhere. A Dream of Fire. Heart of Fire.

What about music? Fire It Up. We Didn’t Start the Fire. Fire Down Below. Fire and Ice. The Heat Is On. Hot Summer Nights. Hot Legs. Hot Child In The City. Burning Up. I’m Burning For You. And those are just the titles!

It’s kind of weird that fire/ burning is associated with love/ sex/ romance, when it also conjures up notions of hell. Then again, considering my past relationships, perhaps it’s not strange at all…

First Reads of 2026

Before I get into the books, I want to say a word (or 500) about stats. As you know, Bob, one of the main reasons I gave up two relatively popular blogs is because I became obsessed with checking my stats. With Ultrablog, my obsession was tracking IPs to try to figure out who was visiting me ~ this rarely works now because peeps use their phones, and the IP and location changes. I also freaked out if a post received way fewer views/ comments compared to my average. With my more recent WP blog, I was obsessed with follower count as well as comments per post. Like many other bloggers, I quit worrying about views per post, as those are meaningless. Fast forward to this blog, where I don’t fuss about any stats whatsoever. I have noticed lately that WP bloggers based in the US and UK are wondering why they get an onslaught of views from places like Hong Kong and Singapore, when they don't have any followers from there. Welp, now that I have been commenting more on those WP blogs, I too am getting views from Hong Kong and Singapore. While my comments here are about the same as they've been all along, averaging only a few per post, my views overall have exponentially increased. What am I going to do about this? Nothing. I assume that the view counts are as meaningless as they've ever been, but I just wanted to feel included.

OK then. Let's start with my first DNF of the year: The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter. This was one of our three January books of the month, which is the only reason I started it, as I have heard that Karin's books are horrendously gory and violent. Yep, it was horrible ~ technically a thriller, but really more like horror, at least at the beginning. I read about 10 pages or so and gave up. So, I have no idea whether the story is good or if the grossness abated, but I tend to believe not/ not. I won't ever try this author again. Yuck! Here's a thing about trigger warnings: they don't work that well for me because I can handle impossible goriness, such as supernatural shenanigans, but when it sounds realistic, I am out. Karin's sounded real. When I read, I picture what I am reading throughout the book, so those disturbing images stay with me. The ones from TGD are still kind of floating around my mind a bit.

The first book I read for the year was A Cat Abroad by Peter Gethers. I read his first Norton book, The Cat Who Went to Paris, six years ago and loved it. Then for some odd reason I skipped the second book in the trilogy and went straight to the third: The Cat Who'll Live Forever. This was also great, though as you might guess from the title, heartbreaking as well. It hasn't been that long since Gatsby died, so even thinking about that third book makes me cry. Recently, as I was (obsessively) rearranging my physical bookshelves, I realized that I had never read the second book, so I ordered a used copy. I loved it, though not quite as much as I loved the other two books because it’s very travelog-y, as one might expect. Since I have never been to Europe nor do I know any French, many of the funny moments don't do much for me. And not to be mean, but I don't have much (or any) sympathy for the travel mishaps of people who have gobs more money than I do. I can smile at the petty ironies and minuscule woes of their lives, but do I really care? Nah. Norton's behavior is still adorable however. Four stars (the other two received five each). This counts as a memoir on my genre hop list.

I am still teary over a novel I finished this morning: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It begins very slowly, and I might have DNF'd it except that a couple peeps in my book club loved it. So, I kept going and am sure glad I did! Nora, the MC, is a whiny, sad sack of a person, and I didn't relate to her all that much, at first. The premise is that after she tries to commit suicide she hovers in a state between life and death where she visits a fantasy library that contains all the stories of her life that might have been as well as a huge tome of regrets. As Nora chooses other lives to slip into, she's guided both practically and philosophically by her old primary school librarian (the one person from her past who had shown her unconditional kindness). As Nora's epiphanies accumulate, I begin to resonate with them, especially the ones about living to please other people. Whether struggling to keep a straight A average for my mom or to be accepted by my peers or to find a boyfriend, my earlier life was also dominated by the need to receive praise from others. My first paragraph about blog stats is a good example. I internalized all this dreck to such an extent that I felt guilty when not writing a bestselling book while working full time. Why can't I do more? Other people do more. Why can't I achieve any level of socially blessed success, blah blah blah. Anyway, TML explores these ideas plus the obvious conclusion that being yourself is enough. Going after your own dreams is not selfish. Relinquishing old dreams and being content with what you have (where I am now) is just fine too! None of these are radical concepts, but Haig presents them in a fresh and emotionally relevant way, so TML received five stars from me. It also counts as a fantasy book on my genre hop list.

Speaking of the genre hop challenge, it's not my intention to complete the entire list the first quarter. I may expand the categories into subgenres or simply read two or more from each. While A Cat Abroad counts as a memoir, it's not a biography, so I will try to find one of those I might enjoy (the category is biography/ memoir). Also, I noticed at the bottom of the hop list is a bonus category to reread five favorite books, which I may do too. The whole point is to read books I love, and if I can't give a book three or more stars, I probably should consider tossing it in the DNF pile. Of course, sometimes I'm digging a book and then get really annoyed at the ending, so there's that. 

Hope your new year is going swimmingly so far ~ mine is, literally, with all this rain. Back to the office tomorrow I go, hi ho, hi ho.

PS: I found a way to add a DNF shelf to my Goodreads without it marking the book as "want to read," which was so annoying. I had to do it from my laptop. Apps aren't always all that and a bag of chips.

PPS: Nope. Goodreads insists on marking my DNFs as "read," which wrecks my count. I have deleted the DNF shelf once again.

Officially in My Fusspot Era

This year I have read an absolutely insane amount of books (250+), and I have come to some decisions. First, I am slowing down because I want to retain more of the content. Second, I have been in a genre rut with psycho thrillers and romance, and I want to read more broadly in 2026. I don’t mean more fiction genres, but other types of books entirely, such as poetry, biography, and science. Third, when I do read genre fiction, I plan on being much fussier. 

This all is basically just me clarifying stuff for myself; I expect it to have zero interest to anyone else. I needed a place to vomit my thoughts.

I won’t read a contemporary romance novel if the meet cute involves clumsiness/ spilling of food, beverage or paperwork. Post meet clumsiness may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. In The Hating Game, Lucy was trying to make Josh jealous and tripped/ fell in her sexy dress and high heels, dumping out her purse all over the floor. That was funny and cute, but it was also cringe because I would have sprained my ankle. It’s like the scene in Miss Congeniality when Gracie strides out all gorgeous and blows Eric’s mind… then she falls. These are not technically meet cutes!

I won’t read a CRN or any kind of mystery where the plot could be obliterated by one session with Google. I mean, come on. Any type of fake ID/ mistaken identity motif is not going to work in a modern story unless the character has bought fake creds from a super hacker. Or if they’re a government agent. 

I don’t want to read books with teenaged protagonists. This is handy because it rules out genres that already don’t appeal to me, such as fantasy and young adult. I can’t bear anything about high school drama, nor do I want to see teens saving the world in some dystopian yuck. But what about Victoria Holt? All her heroines are teenagers. Great question! I am tired of her books and don’t plan on reading any more of them, so that works out. Granted, teens were different back when and way more mature, but even so. Also, I am suspicious of that “new adult” genre full of people under 30. They’re annoying and not much different from high schoolers.

I still like romances, though I am on somewhat of a break, but I don’t want to read about second chances. They annoy me. I just finished a holiday romance (The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah by Jean Meltzer) that had not only a second-chance motif but also was full of ghosts (a la A Christmas Carol), and I liked it enough to give it three stars. But I consider it an exception, mainly due to the fabulous job Jean did in describing migraines and related issues, including rationing meds because insurance allows only nine pills per month. In general, however, I don’t care for ghosts or exes hanging around past their expiration dates. 

What else? I don’t like the trope of the grumpy boss (billionaire or not) and his “sunshine” romantic interest. Why does the man always get to be the grump anyway? I am over mafia romances because they’re all the same. I am not a fan of contemporary characters who “hate” each other and end up in a fake-dating situation because there’s never actually a need for it other than to satisfy the terms of a will, but characters who are willing to sell their souls for a chunk of change don’t appeal to me anyway. Maybe hater dater fakery is acceptable in a Regency or other old-timey romance, depending on the details. Back then, people had fewer options. I am not ruling out CRNs though ~ they just need to have better plots than the standard omg I spilled coffee on the cutest guy but it turns out he’s my hot new boss and totally grumpy because his grandma cut him from her will unless he gets married in 30 days and he really needs her farmland to develop an enrichment camp for orphans.

Now we come to murder, blood, and gore. In general, I am not a fan of graphically described injury and death, but I do love mysteries and detective stories, so I will tolerate gore for the sake of the story. If I see from the book jacket that the main point of the novel is to come up with gruesome torture scenes, then that’s a hard pass right there. It’s one thing to describe a death in context of a police procedure, but it’s quite another to witness the writer revel in bloody descriptions. I don’t want to go inside the mind of a maniacal serial killer who gets off on amputations, etc. There are so many gross books out. But I also don’t want to read cozy mysteries, where bodies are bloodless and the murder scene smells like pumpkin spice candles. 

Horror is too disgusting and disturbing for me. I gave it a chance with the Haunted series by Lee Mountford back in October because I liked the first book, but they became a nonstop river of gore. The last few books were basically a skim because of all the rotting corpses and mangled eyeballs. Shudder. I’m reading a murder mystery right now that is all about the various clues and psychological aspects of the characters. (So far, there haven’t been any disturbing passages.) That is what I like in a story, not descriptions of death or how bodies look in the morgue. The same goes for any book about relationships ~ I want to read rich and vivid details about the characters’ mental and emotional worlds, not a boring recitation of sex romps. 

This also means I will be more discerning re the books I am willing to read for my book clubs, especially the online club.

Regarding World-Bulding

Creating a fictional world can be difficult in the best of cases. From the simple task of making sure you use the same character names throughout your story (especially if you decide to change one) to keeping stage directions consistent, careful proofreading is always required. It’s really helpful to have another person read your story to find the silly mistakes your gaze glossed over. It’s also a good idea to search for excessive repetition that might annoy the reader. If you think a turn of phrase is clever, please use it only once!

When I wrote my loosely connected romance novels and short stories, I created a fictional town in NorCal complete with street names, housing tract names, and a business plaza. I also created a nearby suburb with a mall. Part of the reason I did this is because I wanted to ensure that I didn’t inadvertently appear to be using any real people in my fiction. Also, it was fun! I love the naming process. I drew a map for myself so I wouldn’t mix things up, and I also wrote up a timeline to keep the dates straight. This all is a courtesy to the reader so they don’t break from the story to wonder why ages and/or events don’t make chronological sense. Not that I had readers, but whatever. (All those spicy books have since been unpublished from KDP, so don’t bother searching for them.)

I recently finished a series of nine horror novels plus a prequel novella ~ Haunted by Lee Mountford ~ and even though horror is not my preferred genre, I was intrigued enough with the first three books to continue. After Book 4 however, I began to get increasingly disappointed in the series, though I did slog through all nine books (and the novella). One of the biggest issues I had was the inconsistency in the rules for demons and ghosts. It felt like the author was playing “Calvinball” to get the plot where he wanted it to go. Sometimes ghosts were lost and clueless, drifting aimlessly, and barely scary except for their repulsive appearance; other times ghosts were purposeful and driven. Sometimes they would attach to a location, while other times they followed a particular person. One ghost turned into an angelic being and helped her loved ones, except when she ran low on energy, and then she’d be malicious. Who knew ghosts needed a charger?!

There was a simple, obvious solution to all the demonic machinations in this series, but almost every character refused to go that route, despite the fact that the world was ending. Speaking of that, in this creation, God as we normally view him had very little power, and an evil monstrosity was in charge of the universe, except that none of his minions could cross a circle of salt to finish up his end of days plan. This omnipotent devil could make his demons do all sorts of physically impossible stunts and reanimate the dead like zombies, but salt nope can’t go there. Wtf? Ridiculous! The last book was just a pointless gore-fest, and I got super sick of all the mangled eyeballs and gross death scenes. I ended up skimming to the end.

Now I need a break from all this ooshy gooshy horror and will try to find a sweet, fluffy romance involving a bakery and a golden retriever or something of that nature. It’ll be a palate cleanser for my brain so I can next tackle the holiday murder mysteries on my list.

Fandango Has Left the Building

One of my favorite bloggers has taken a break, which sounds rather permanent due to his disgust with bot attacks and just general disillusionment. I get it. I have taken several extended blogging breaks over the years, though so far I have always returned in some form or another. I do like the sound of my own words after all, and I loved his too. Bye Fandango. You will be missed.

After I split from WordPress, I quit commenting much on other blogs, even my favorites. I don’t comment a lot on Facebook posts either, and as I have mentioned, other social media has lost its appeal lately. People get discouraged without lots of likes and comments, and I understand that, but I don’t have the same need. In fact, I sometimes write in a totally private blog ~ a diary, for my eyes only. No one reads my Paula Light fiction and poetry either, but it makes me happy to know the books are available. (I have unpublished my books authored by my ‘nyms because they’re too spicy for a grandma to have out there, at least this grandma.)

Anyway. It’s been a month since Inky and I began our new diets. Inky has lost 0.3 pounds and I gained 0.5. Clearly, some tweaking is in order, at least for me. Or I could just say I dgaf. Not about Inky though. She’s too young to be unhealthy. Probably a tiny bit of progress per month is fine for her; a third of a pound for her is three for a hundred pound person, which is a good rate of loss per month. 

I am reading a series of nine horror books (plus a short prequel) titled Haunted by Lee Mountford. I am on the fifth one currently. Obviously, I am enjoying the books, despite them being out of my usual preferred genres, or I wouldn’t be continuing, so I will pass on a recommendation here in case there are any horror fans lurking about. The series is free on KU.

Books That Could Have Been a Text

I read a lot. I mean a lot. For example, it’s now October 7 (very sad anniversary of the attack on Israel, but also Prime Day, yay), and I have already finished four books this month (OK, one was a novella). Some people don’t read four books in a year! I know, because I am friends with them. Smart people, great at games, but reading isn’t their thing. Anyway, for a while now, I have been pretty jaded about plots. It’s been said that there are no new storylines, but only new ways of retelling the same old ones, and I concur. Hence, this post: book types that could have been a text question to AI.

1. Haunted House 

Q: I have inherited an old house from my weird uncle, and it’s full of strange symbols, shadowy figures in the mirrors, and scary thumps and moans during the night. What should I do?

A: Run away right now and don’t go back!

2. Devil’s Spawn

Q: I am six weeks pregnant and have undeniable proof that the father is a demon who will use this child to unleash chaos and terror upon the world. How should I proceed?

A: Get an abortion! (And quit having sex with demons.)

3. Forbidden Room

Q: I am governess to the mad duke’s daughter, and he said that I must never go into the attic, but the upstairs maid told me there’s a trunk in there containing the duchess’s diary which will prove that the duchess ran off with the coachman and wasn’t murdered by the duke. Should I retrieve the diary so the duke will love me?

A: No. Stay the hell out of there and make friends with the new coachman. I hear he is cute (and also not mad).

4. Grumpy x Sunshine

Q: My new billionaire boss is incredibly mean and horrible, though he is very handsome and did I mention a billionaire? Should I put up with his verbal abuse for 300 pages until he sees me in a bikini at the company retreat and falls in love with me?

A: No. He will always be a jerk. Find a new job.

5. Friends to Lovers

Q: I just had an epiphany that I am in love with my childhood best friend, but he hasn’t ever indicated he feels the same except that one time when he was really drunk, which I don’t count. Should I despair over this for 300 pages while we try to make a go of romances with others or take a job I don’t want in a faraway state to get away from this mess?

A: Neither. Just tell him you love him right now.

6. Fake Dating

Q: I hired an actor to pretend to be my boyfriend at my cousin’s wedding so my family would stop bugging me about being single, but we got drunk and slept together. Now I am in love with him, but if I tell him, I won’t be able to figure out if what he says back is real or acting. For how many pages should I agonize over this?

A: Zero. Tell him immediately.

7. Fantasy Quest

Q: So like you know I found a map to the lair of the ancient monster dragon who guards the sparkly thing that will save the universe from destruction. Should I skip my midterms and go get it right away before the witch grabs it for evil purposes?

A: No. Study for your tests, eat your vegetables, and quit peering through game portals.

8. Amateur Detective

Q: I don’t think the police did a thorough investigation into the cookie dough murder, and since I have retired from the library I have time to help. Should I take my poodle Mr. Noodles to the bakery cafe and try to get more information from the shady new waiter?

A: Mind your own business and leave solving crimes to the cops.

9. Family Feud

Q: Should I let the misunderstanding with my sister fester for another 50 years until one of us is dying, or have a difficult conversation with her before the next round of holidays?

A: /eye-roll/

10. True Story

Q: Hey, do you think people would enjoy reading about my transformative journey from—

A: No.

The end.

This and That

This week has been busy, with a bunch of ups and downs, which is why I haven't blogged, even though I can't wait to tell you that Inky is now a big cuddler! She is soooo sweet and affectionate and even sleeps on my bed with me during part of the night. She's curled on my lap right now and purring as I'm typing. I haven't forgotten about Gatsby, my soulmate kitty, and I will always love him, but Inky is helping to heal my heart. I love her too and think about her when I'm at work; my condo feels like a home again now that I have a sweet kitty waiting for me.

Today is my divorce anniversary (the second divorce; I don't remember the exact dates my brief first marriage began and ended). Fourteen years ago today, July 11, the dissolution of my 21 year marriage (plus two years of legal separation) was finalized, which was a huge relief. For five years afterward, I tried to find someone new, and I stayed pretty optimistic about my chances until 2016. That's when I started to accept the idea that a new romantic relationship wasn't going to happen and it would be better to stop dating altogether, as the process was increasingly depressing. It took a couple years longer for me to feel fully comfortable being single and not looking.

I have made a new Substack account: lightmotifs.substack.com. Please follow me and I will follow you back. The reason I made an account is because one of my writing friends invited me to contribute to his poetic series on the body, and I wrote a poem about hair. It turned out well, and he is going to publish it on his Substack soon. I didn't have to make my own account to get credited, but why not? Maybe I will be in the mood to write more poetry on my own stack (or whatever you call the pages there). Last time I joined, I found it confusing and way too political, so I deleted my account, but every form of social media is stuffed with politics 24/7, so I have to take responsibility for avoiding it and focusing on what I do enjoy (same with Bluesky). That said, my first comment on the app was about Pete B (love him). LOL!

(I still find the app confusing, btw. When I logged on, it said hey how about these four friends we found for you? I said, OK, I will follow them all, but now they have disappeared. What's up with that?)

I read The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt and gave it four stars. It's a romance mystery novel, and I found both aspects very intriguing. A chunk of the book takes place in Hong Kong, and the local color was fabulous. I have no idea whether it was accurate, but I enjoyed it regardless. 

Earlier in the week I finished The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson, a horror novel and an homage to Carrie by Stephen King. I wasn't sure at first if I would like this book because it's partly told in podcast format (which is apparently a "thing" now), but I did like it ~ I gave it four stars! The story involves a lot of racism and cruelty and some fantasy elements as well. 

Finally, I read The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Shades of Verity abound in this psychological thriller about a caregiver, Kit, who who is "forced" to take a job working for an alleged murderer at the crazy mansion on the edge of the cliff. Everyone in the story is a potential or actual murderer or victim, and though the story is basically well written, I found the pacing tedious at times. I kept wondering why Kit simply didn't walk away from the mess and begin again somewhere else where people didn't know her. The ending was so convoluted that I gave up trying to understand what motivated everyone to do what they did. Three stars.

Creme de Menthe

I have been brainstorming names for cats, since I plan to have one adopt me soon (wonder what she will name me?). Mostly I imagine getting a pure sleek black cat and focus on dark names like Raven and Nyxie and Nori (as in Noir, not seaweed), though there may not be a black cat available when I go to the shelter, so I need alternatives. I see that at the moment on their website there are female brown/ white/ orange kitties in the age range I would like, so I am gathering potential names for them. 

I like the name Confetti or Cupcake for a mixed color cat (AI suggestions), and I also thought of Sundae or Parfait, the latter of which reminds me of the creme de menthe parfaits I loved as a kid. Back in those days, it was no biggie for a child to have alcohol in a restaurant with their parents. These days, you can buy your kid a gun but not a beer, not that I want to get into politics here. The bigger question is why the heck did I like creme de menthe? It’s hideous! It tastes like melted toothpaste. If I had some now, I would barf. Well, most alcohol makes me barf, sadly, along with triggering a migraine. Ah, the days of wine and… more wine and fireballs and margaritas and mojitos and Bailey’s. You can keep the roses.

Anyway, I’m going to find my next soulmate kitty at the same place I met Gatsby (Orange County Animal Shelter). Whichever sweetie is there and connects with me next Friday will be The One. No more sketchy stuff with posts on forums about demented neighbors, powers of attorney, dead nephews, etc. I don’t want the adoption to be questioned.

I still miss Gatsby terribly; sometimes when I’m about to fall asleep I feel a little bump like he just jumped on the bed for a snuggle. I loved him so much.

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The Reunion Dinner by Jesse Sutanto was a fun short story with a nice twist at the end, and I gave it four stars. I created a challenge category for it: takes place in one day. It’s fun to create my own categories after the fact, knowing that my reads are not “going to waste” but instead will help me get to 100 books faster. Well, actually I am already over 100 books for the year, but I didn’t think of adapting the challenge to the books (like a Procrustean bed) until this week.

Slow Burner by Laura Lippman had a similar ending, but the twist was so much fun that I had to give it the full five stars. It was also a short, quick read. For this, I created another challenge category: involves a Greek myth. How the peacock’s tail feathers got their “eyes” is one of my favorites.

Next up is Ushers by Joe Hill, a fun short story, though a bit predictable at the end as horror often is. Four stars for the clever interview format and for keeping my interest throughout. My self-created challenge category for this one is: author’s parent is a famous writer. Joe Hill is the son of Stephen King. (I enjoyed Joe’s debut novel Heart-Shaped Box years ago.)

Another recent shorty was A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews ~ this one was a romance novella. The romance was meh, but the historical aspects were very interesting (and I dived into them further after finishing the book), so I awarded this book three stars. The title refers to the actual history of gas lighting in England, not to the psychological tactic of “gaslighting.” I didn’t have to create a category here, since it fit into the requirement of taking place during the holidays.

* 

I finished Sirens on Netflix ~ only five episodes total. It became more enjoyable as it went on, which had a lot to do with the increased screen time of Kevin Bacon, and I recommend it.

I also rewatched The Hating Game just because. It’s on Hulu. Speaking of Hulu and romance, I am completely over the Bachelor franchise. The last couple I rooted for broke up recently, as most of them do, and it’s starting to feel like a scam. Contestants audition for Bachelor Nation shows to become famous and get exposure for their Instagram accounts, it seems, not to find true love. The whole concept of “influencing” makes me gag. Get a real job!

Peach Nectar Iced Tea

Decades ago I discovered Dean Koontz and gobbled up a bunch of his thriller novels... but I grew tired of his writing style. He was fond of certain clunky words, like obsidian and chitinous, that he reused in every book. It grated on my nerves. He's also politically conservative and can get a bit preachy through his characters/ narration. That being said, I needed a "recommended for you" book for one of the boxes on my 2025 Reading Challenge, and Amazon recommended Koontz's The Mercy of Snakes. I decided to read it because (a) it was short, and (b) it was free with my Kindle Unlimited program.

Reader, I loved it! Four stars. I enjoyed it so much that I decided the heck with my reading challenge... imma just read the rest of the books in the Nameless series (two series, six books each). I proceeded to devour all 12 stories and starred them between two and four depending on the story. I appreciated that each one was a standalone novella, but if you read them in order until the end (which I did, after I dived into the middle with Snakes), there is actually a progression and a satisfying conclusion at the end of book six and a dramatic conclusion in book twelve. The basic premise of each story is that we have a hero called Nameless (among other monikers) who receives assignments via anonymous texts to eliminate various terrible people who have escaped conventional justice. The ways in which the bad people get their just deserts is clever and satisfying. I gave only two stars to Preying Mantis because it didn't have a bad guy anywhere near as bad as the others. All 12 books were "free" with KU, and I guess they should go into the horror category.

One thing though: in several of the Nameless stories, Koontz has different characters drinking iced tea sweetened with peach nectar. It made me laugh. I didn't see any obsidian or chitinous however, so that was good. He again gets on his political soapbox, but what's interesting (and terrifying) is that the current party in power is now doing all the awful things they warned that the other party was going to do, so if you didn't already know Koontz was conservative, you might come away thinking he is very anti-Republican. Tee hee.

I also read Ten Things I Love About You, a Regency romance by Julia Quinn. It was spicier and funnier than the usual fare in that genre, but some of the characters were so cartoonishly ridiculous that I could not in good conscience award the book four stars. We learn at the beginning that the hero Sebastian is writing romance novels himself, under a female nom de plume. This makes for amusing situations, and I enjoyed that motif even though generally I am tired of writers turning their characters into writers. The heroine Annabella basically does absolutely nothing, which isn't unusual for the wealthy set in Regency novels, but it didn't endear her to me either. The love-fall was very well done with alternating POVs between the two main characters. Three stars.

This afternoon I wrapped up Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman, a psychological thriller that fulfilled my reading challenge requirement of having been reviewed by my favorite author. This is actually a lie because I couldn't find books that were reviewed by my favorite authors, but when I received SITW from a book club game, I saw on the back jacket that Riley Sager (Middle of the Night) said it was "thrilling and thought-provoking." Since I gave Riley's book MOTN four stars, I decided that SITW fit the challenge box. Ugh. I didn't find SITW either thrilling or thought-provoking. It was a slog, and pretty much on every page I wanted to scream at the MC: why are you doing this stupid thing?!? For a thriller, the plot and narration were very slow, repetitive, and tedious. Did I mention repetitive? It was yet another one of those British novels, narrated in present tense by an annoying woman in first person (at least it didn't keep breaking to other characters in first person like some stories do), and I am heartily tired of them.

Not only that, but there were massive plot/motivation holes throughout, and I had loads of unanswered questions at the end. I felt that was so unfair after I read the entire annoying novel. Geez, author, just tie things up already!

Hoppy Easter, my peeps!

Thirty-Seven Years

I got married (for the second time) 37 years ago today… and we split around 21 years after that. It feels like a different lifetime, having a partner, planning a future together, being concerned with another adult’s wants and needs. Hard to believe that I was ever a wife. These days, my time is my own (apart from work), and I can’t imagine living any other way. On the other hand, this is a scary period, with our country in turmoil and our federal government ripping apart our social safety nets, so I can imagine that being paired up might be a comfort. I’m so glad my daughters are married to good men. 

I read Don’t Let Her Go (mystery novel) by Willow Rose and gave it two stars. It was so preposterous. I’m really tired of these crazy plots. Then I read Strange Sally Diamond (suspense novel) by Liz Nugent, which also had a crazy plot, but the characters were much more interesting and the twists were clever, so I gave it four stars. They both ticked boxes on my 2025 Reading Challenge chart ~ I forget which ones now and am too lazy to go look.

I saw The Monkey (horror) at the theater. It was awful, just one gruesome death after another, without any psychological finesse. I had high hopes because it was adapted from a Stephen King story, but I guess that’s a mixed bag. We have had some great adaptations like The Shining and Shawshank and Carrie, and we’ve had mediocre ones like Christine and Salem’s Lot and The Dead Zone. The Monkey wasn’t mediocre however; it was profoundly bad. We were the only people in the theater!

Luckily, I saw a preview for Drop (horror), which looked intriguing, plus it has a high Rotten Tomatoes score, so I plan to see it when it comes out in April. My friends aren’t into horror, so I may go alone. There’s nothing wrong with going to the movies by yourself! I did it all the time back in Chicago. You watch what you want when you want without dealing with someone else’s preferences. Stephanie has an interesting post up about going to concerts alone, but really it can apply to a lot of things. 

I’ve watched three episodes of With Love, Meghan, and it’s not really my jam (pun intended). It’s mostly about recipes, and I don’t cook, plus making your guests feel special by sprinkling crumbled flower petals on stuff, but I don’t have guests. Or flowers. But Meghan is all pretty and graceful while doing lovely things, so there’s nothing wrong with the show, certainly nothing to hate about it. I may watch more eps, when I can’t sleep.

After a lengthy break, I started painting again and am pleased with my new creations. I put the latest one on Bluesky, and there will be another one soon.