More Conversations about Making Up the Gods

I so enjoy talking with readers and other folks about Making Up the Gods. Each person has a lens through which they read anything, and combining that with their life experiences and the moment through which they're living can be really powerful.

Thinking about it, I've often said, "This is the right book for me at the right time." And, of course, a different view--"This isn't the right time for this book for me" or "Hmm, I don't seem to personally *like* this type of book."

In any case, I've recently been fortunate to have several public discussions about my book and its themes: grief and loss, home and place, choices and communication. They're collected on the Making Up the Gods page, linked above, as well as in individual posts.

Here are the latest two:

Podcast: Let's Talk About Grief with Anne, on how grief can be a powerful motivator to make changes. 

YouTube: Shawn Breathes Books, in which Shawn Mooney and I have a great conversation. I'm the Mystery Guest, starting at about 2:13 in this episode.

It's August, so I'm on a sorta-vacation, the parameters of which I'm still determining. I mean, I still pay bills, go to the landfill, monitor the water, wash things, get some exercise, and read. So far, so much like normal life! 

I am reading MORE, visiting with my sister, and stopping in at the bookstore almost as often as their delivery folks. I'm not putting many words on paper (some, hooray!) but the characters in my next novel are coming more alive to me, little by little. 

From Mrs. Miniver: "Not that she didn't enjoy the holidays: but she always felt – and it was, perhaps, the measure of her peculiar happiness – a little relieved when they were over. Her normal life pleased her so well that she was half afraid to step out of its frame in case one day she should find herself unable to get back. The spell might break, the atmosphere be impossible to recapture."

Like Mrs. Miniver, I thoroughly enjoy my regular life. And I'm also enjoying my August sorta-vacation. The best of both--and I'm grateful for that, daily.