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A few days ago, my brother and I were supposed to be on a plane, heading for Montana. The following morning we were going to get on a bus and drive into Wyoming and into Yellowstone National Park itself. All that changed, however, when we got a series of emails from Yellowstone.

In the emails, we were told that because of COVID-19, the start date was being postponed. Okay, not too surprising. I mean, even they don’t know what’s going on, so they decided to wait and reevaluate the summer season. Instead of beginning at the end of April, my new start date became May 22nd. So, I went about my business, believing that everything would just be delayed a month. Last week, I got an email saying that the start time was again being pushed back to mid-June and that fewer people would be working there this summer. They want to make sure everyone stays safe, so all the employees are going to get their own private dorm rooms. The staff will have to be cut in half to compensate, but then again, I’ve heard that not everything will be open immediately.

Now, this is just the information I’ve been given or heard through their general updates to the public. Nothing is set in stone. I will say this, however, I hope everyone remains safe and happy, and if you do visit Yellowstone, enjoy your stay.

This has been an interesting time, ever since I learned that the COVID-19 was more serious than I originally thought. Since then, I have had more time to write, read, watch movies, and cook. I have gotten a lot of my sequel, “Silver Crescent” written, whole chapters in fact. I read books I haven’t had the opportunity to read yet, like Kerry Greenwood’s first two “Miss Fisher” books. They’re really good, especially if you like Australia in the 1920’s.

As I write this, “A Muppets Christmas Carol” is playing in the background. This is one of my favorite movies. Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” is a good story, but I like the Muppet version the best. Michael Caine is great as Scrooge and the addition of the Muppets makes the story even more enjoyable. Yesterday, I watched the 2017 live-action “Beauty and the Beast.” The 1991 “Beauty and the Beast” is my all time favorite movie of all time, but the live-action version had some good moments too. I especially love Dan Stevens as the Beast singing, “Evermore.” By far the best new song in the movie. It’s a powerful song showing the Beast’s anguish when Belle leaves to rescue her father.

The last thing I’ve been doing is “cooking.” I’m really not much of a cook, but I’ve been able to help make things like spaghetti and salad. My mom and brother are the cooks in my family and they’ve making some wonderful dishes, like macaroni and cheese, stuffed shells, homemade pizza, and chicken.

I hope everyone stays safe out there and that COVID-19 passes quickly. Have a wonderful, productive, and safe day, everyone!

On February 15th, I attended the Desert Writers Expo in Rancho Mirage, California. This was my third year going. The Palm Springs Writers Guild holds it annually and there were a lot of people there. Many of them were fellow writers, who were just looking for more information on how to publish. I’ve been there. Before Silver Rose was published in October 2017, I stopped by the Expo with the sole purpose of gaining information.

As for this year, I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. Nobody bought any books from me, but my table mate, a man named P.F Walsh, had much more success. He wrote a book called “The Velvet Abbey,” which he described as a modern version of Downton Abbey. I haven’t read the book, but he was so nice that I’m sure I would enjoy it.

Even though I didn’t sell any copies of my book, the Expo was far from unproductive. I gave out tons of bookmarks and my cute, little dragon toy attracted a lot of attention. There were quite a few people who told me that they were planning on looking me up on Amazon. I can’t see the Desert Writers Expo a loss. It was a good chance to network and make a difference in some authors’ and readers’ lives. I don’t think I will go to the Expo again next year.

On January 12th, I had an opportunity to speak to a small audience of eight people. They were mostly authors, with an actress mixed in. It was a chance to practice my oratory skills. I think I did well and my mom, who was at the reading, reassured me on that point.

It was definitely a nerve-wrecking experience. I found out about this reading in early December, but I had maybe a week to write and rehearse my speech. The only instructions I got were, “Don’t just read. Talk about what you write and what inspires you.” So, that’s what I did. I spoke for twenty minutes. I did read passages from Silver Rose, but they were spaced out throughout the talk.

The main theme of my talk was that I may write fantasy, but my work is far from juvenile. I started the very first draft of Silver Rose when I was sixteen. I hated it if and when adults spoke down to me, like I wasn’t smart enough to understand. Silver Rose is meant to entertain people, no matter their age. I deal with topics like friendship, responsibility, discrimination, and loss throughout the book. I know my presentation went well. My audience gave me a steady round of applause when I finished. And I sold some copies of my book.

Recently, I’ve been working a seasonal job at a clothing store. Nothing big, just folding clothes at tables and making them look nice, but there were two weird incidents this holiday season. They were so… different than anything I expected that I needed to recount them.

The first incident found me organizing men’s underwear and undershirts. Don’t ask. I was rearranging the packages, when an older couple showed up and asked what kind of underwear the man should get. Speechless, I quickly got a hold of myself and preceded to name a few of the brands the store kept. Satisfied, the two started to search the section, while I went back to what I was doing. About ten minutes later, they approached me again and asked if there were any test underwear for him to try on, to see if he liked it. If I was speechless before, I was struck dumb by this request. Test underwear? Stammering, I tried to explain that I had never heard of such a thing. If they noticed my confusion, they chose not to react and soon wandered off, much to my relief. Later, I saw them head for the changing rooms. I think they were going to open a package and he was going to try one of those on. They don’t pay me enough to deal with that.

The second incident happened less than a week ago. I got to work and started folding in the store’s athletic section. It was almost Christmas and the store was running out of clothes. Everything the store had was on the floor. The manager on duty even told me that they were receiving a shipment of spring clothes that day. I hadn’t even been there an hour, when a woman asked if we had a sweatshirt in the size she wanted. I answered that if she couldn’t find it on the floor, it wasn’t in stock. She then pointed to a mannequin on a high shelf. There was a sweatshirt on it. “Could you check that size?” she asked. “I want to know if it’s a medium.” I didn’t even know where the ladders were kept, so I approached a cashier and explained the situation. The poor cashier was coughing and looked like he had a cold, but he accompanied me back to the woman, heard the problem, and showed me where the ladder was. He climbed up and managed to get the mannequin down, with me holding the ladder steady. Checking the size, it was indeed a medium. He managed to pull it off the shelf, while I tried my best to keep him from falling, and he showed me how to disassemble and then reassemble the mannequin. The woman got her sweatshirt and the mannequin, now with a new sweatshirt, was replaced on the shelf.

I worked the eight days leading up to Christmas, the last day being on Christmas Eve. I got some weird requests and inquiries during that time, but nothing was stranger than the underwear and mannequin adventures. You got to love the public. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and an even happier Happy New Year!