Misty Zaugg's Blog, page 2

Are you a Tortoise or Hare fan? Misty's Writing Update.

Hi friends,

Family vacations are now behind us! Whew! :D

The older kids are starting college classes while the younger ones are balking at the start of "fun learning" again.

That's what I've been calling our homeschooling, but the 7-year-old isn't falling for it. :)

And today, my 16-year-old just got his wisdom teeth out. That, plus other family stuff, like my husband changing jobs and us looking to relocate cross-country next year have been sucking up my time.

But I'm about ready to start publishing my latest book online sometime next week.

I just have one decision about the book that keeps nagging at me and I wanted to ask your opinion:

So, are you a fan of the Tortoise or the Hare?

In other words, do you like to see the character in a new book suddenly gain a lot of achievements, racing from one to the next at the start of a book. (The Hare)

Or

Do you like the character to struggle at the beginning of a book, taking some time to overcome obstacles and only begin to see rewards once you're a good way into the story? (The Tortoise)

Why do I ask?

Well, I wrote the gaming part of my newest book with the character progressing like the Tortoise. Now I'm second guessing myself and wonder if I should do a bit of a rewrite - make him more like the Hare.

A brief summary:

So, Pax, a street rat orphan, grows up in a medieval-type fantasy world where teenagers are awakened to their class and from then on they can gain skills, abilities, spells, etc. Since he will eventually end up at an academy, I originally had planned for him to increase his level once or twice during each year of school.

If you've read any of this type of fantasy with game-like mechanics, you know most stories have the main character leveling-up really fast in the beginning, like they would in a video game, while it's the later levels that become more difficult and slow to achieve.

Mine is kind of switched around with Pax fighting his way out of the street life and only then, after hardship and the start of a new life, does he gain achievements. As he figures things out and triumphs, he picks up speed.

So, my question to you is, which do you like to read better in a story: the Tortoise or Hare?

What do you think I should do?
1. Rewrite the speed of Pax's achievements to be more like the Hare with faster levels and gains. It's better to do it now before you write any more of book 2 and have to edit that too.
2. Just leave it and see what readers think. There will be plenty who enjoy a character that has to work hard to reach his goals.

I'd love to hear what you think if you have a moment to send me a quick reply.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear from those of you who enjoyed the new Print release of our "Escaping the Virus" trilogy:



Deadly Lockdown Paperback


Enjoy the stories you read this week - full of both tortoises and hares!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Escaping the Virus Paperbacks finally out! Plus, quick distraction technique for Anxiety. Mental Health Tip #1

Hi friends,

Remember my adult daughter returning from her mission trip?

Well, she is also the cover artist for the 2nd and 3rd book in our Escaping the Virus series.

So, after a way too long delay in getting the paperback versions of the books online, she came to the rescue.

Our breaking news today is that all three books can now be ordered in PRINT for those of you who enjoy holding a book in your hands instead of squinting at an e-reader like me. (I keep having to increase the font as I get older - lol)



Deadly Lockdown Paperback


I hope you enjoy them!

Use your Five Senses to Distract from Anxiety:

Have you ever distracted a distraught toddler by pointing out the color of a bird flying by or asking them about their favorite food?

It turns out distraction is a great tool for anxiety in all ages.

Try this simple technique next time you have racing thoughts or an overwhelming sense of worry or panic.

Pause and turn your attention to your surroundings.

1. Notice five things you can see around you.
2. Pay attention to four things you can touch or feel.
3. Listen for three things you can hear.
4. Inhale and find two things you can smell.
5. Pause and notice one thing you can taste.

This exercise engages different parts of your brain in a concrete fashion that allows the anxious, worrying parts to turn off and relax for a bit.

This is a great technique to know even if you aren't the one with anxiety. Next time you're trying to calm someone close to you, ask if you can help them by trying this with them.

And don't worry if you can't remember the exact number and order of the senses listed above. Just go through each one you can remember and come up with one or two of each.

Try it next time your emotions are feeling a bit out of control and let me know how it works. I'd love to hear. :)

May your week be full of peace and contentment - all the best!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

The Good and Bad of Family Vacations - Misty's Writing Update.

Hi friends,

We are loving our whirlwind two-week trip visiting both sides of our huge families. Between my husband and I, we have fourteen siblings, most of whom are married and have kids. So you can imagine how crazy it is to try to see all of them in a couple of weeks.

We have amazing extended family who've fed all six of us and let us invade their homes and visit. By the time we finish our trip, we'll have stayed in four different homes, one campsite and a Wyoming cabin.

Check out the good and the bad of our trip so far. Maybe you've had similar experiences on your family vacations.

The Bad
• A retread tire flew off a semi-truck in front of us and hit our car. Thankfully, it only knocked off a small piece of chrome and left a little dent in the hood.
• A 7-year-old nephew landed on my pinky toe and broke it. No biggie though, because it healed quickly.
• My 14-year-old teenage son got into the car with shoes on, and somehow, by the time we got to our next destination, they were gone, nowhere to be found. This is the third time over the years we've had to buy new shoes for him on vacation. LOL.
• Lack of sleep and lots of miles on the car.

The Good
• Seeing the gummy, no-teeth smile of my granddaughter and watching her take her first steps.
• I loved watching my 20-year-old daughter reconnect with family after her 18-month mission trip.
• We picked blackberries with an aunt and spent a day bottling 40 jars of yummy jam.



Homemade blackberry jam is the best!

• We joined Grandma with close to thirty grandkids to visit Thanksgiving Point with beautiful gardens and museums.
• We sat snipping and snapping freshly picked green beans with Grandma.
• We all visited Grandpa in the care home, working toward finding peace with his declining condition.
• We spent a couple hours enjoying an ice skating rink where my daughter broke in her new ice skates and helped her little sister learn to skate.
• We're looking forward to relaxing in the outdoors this weekend in Wyoming before we start the long two days of driving home.

I hope you're having a great month and I love hearing how life is going for you!

My next author update will finally include new progress on my writing.

All the best!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Ignore Grandma's advice at your own risk. Be Prepared Tip #14

Ignore Grandma's advice at your own risk. Be Prepared Tip #14
Hi friends,

It was great to hear from those of you who lived in Nebraska! I'll be thinking of you next weekend when we make the drive back.

The family trip is going really well and my daughter who just returned from her 18-month mission trip has really enjoyed reconnecting with all her extended family again - especially . . . her niece! (Otherwise known as my most adorable granddaughter in the world.)



It's really so much fun to have a big family! Though, as those of you who are also a bit introverted will understand, I am finding it difficult to find some quiet alone time to recharge. Thankfully, I can hide and read a little before bed most evenings.

My prepper tip today comes from Grandma Zaugg, my mother-in-law, and the morning she took me to pick produce at her small patch of farm.

As she got out of the car that morning, she reached back inside and began pulling on a long-sleeved shirt. I gave her a questioning look, and she explained that she needed to wear them or her arms would itch terribly after picking veggies.

My first thought as I watched her? That's interesting, but I don't really need long sleeves.

I was wrong. LOL.

I really should have copied her, because by the end of reaching deep into squash, green bean, tomato and berry plants, my arms began to itch. As we finished up, the itching got worse. When I looked down at my inner arms, I saw them flushing red with fine scratches everywhere.

Oops! I washed them off with cool water and then rubbed hydrocortisone cream up and down. It took another half hour before they finally stopped itching.

So my prepper tips for the day?

1. Find friends and family with experience and learn from them.

2. Be humble enough to listen to advice.

What about you? Have you learned valuable skills and/or information from those around you?

I hope your preparations for the future are coming along well.

All the best!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

We're somewhere Nebraska today . . . or is it Wyoming? Misty's Author Update.

Hi friends,

I'm writing this ahead of time, because by the time Friday rolls around, I'll be in our minivan watching countryside swishing by out my window. We're driving out west to visit family for a couple of weeks and then leaving our daughter at college when we drive back home.

For those of you who haven't made a cross-country drive across the center of the United States, it really gives you a feel for how vast the countryside is: hundreds of miles of farmland or just empty grazing land. We do love seeing the towering windmills that have been cropping up along our drive over the last few years.

How exactly do I survive two long days of driving with a car full of kids, plus a quick update on my writing. :)

Thank goodness for electronic devices! They revolutionized long distant travel with young children and gave us adults even more stories to bore the kids with that start out with, "Back when I was a kid . . . "

I bet some of you can empathize with my memories of enduring long car rides as a kid in the '70s and '80s.

• The alphabet game - first one who finds the letters from A to Z wins . . . and everyone always got stuck on Q!
• License plate bingo: filling in different states we saw to get bingo.
• Teasing siblings until they got yelled at by parents.
• Asking parents how much longer until we get there.
• Eating tons of snacks.
• Drawing and coloring books
• Reading until you got carsick

And now, the kids can watch movies together, play games on phones, binge watch TV series, and listen to tons of audiobooks. All much more entertaining than my childhood memories.

However, falling asleep in the car hasn't changed much and everyone still wakes up with sore necks and backs from the awkward positions.

We still try to take time to turn devices off and play road games together, run a quick game of tag at rest stops or listen to audiobooks as a family. But with two full thirteen hour days of driving to get out West, binge watching a few movies is a great way to ease the boredom.

A few non-electronic ideas that are still fun:
• A clipboard with blank paper, a new pack of colored pencils (NO crayons. They melt in hot cars) and some of the following print outs:
• Custom coloring pages found with a google search and printed, like mermaids, dinosaurs, disney, or even adult coloring pages.
• Custom mazes
• Sudoku, coloring, crossword and word search books from the dollar store.
• A pack of origami paper with a how-to book of patterns.
• yarn and crochet or knitting needles with a new pattern to try.
• friendship bracelet kits
• magnet toy sets
• A bag of special treats that are given out when you get back in the car after a rest stop.
• A map of the drive so kids can follow along.

Hopefully some of these are helpful to any of you out there who are taking long trips this summer. What about you? Any fun ideas for long car rides?

As for writing, I spent a bit of time going over edits by some of my latest beta readers. Shoutout of thanks to Olivia and Jeremiah!

And we'll see if I can squeeze in a bit of writing time during vacation or not.

The plan is to get going again full speed once September rolls around.

Have a great summer out there! All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Do you still tell your mom where you're going? Self-defense Tip #23

Hi friends,

I hope you're enjoying your summer if you're on my side of the world. Those of you in the other hemisphere will cool weather . . . we're jealous!! :)

I've been loving my time with my daughter before we leave on a family trip next week. After a couple of weeks together, we'll have to drop her off at college again. I love seeing her grow as an adult, but miss her a ton, too.

Thinking of her off at school reminded me of a simple idea for safety that is helpful for single adults living or traveling on their own . . .

Tell someone where you're going and have a check-in buddy.

Remember when you were a kid and got lectured about telling your mom where you were going?

Well, a few years back, my youngest sister graduated from college and moved out on her own. This was her first time living without roommates, and at some point she realized that something could happen to her and no one would probably notice or send help for days.

So, we chatted together and decided on a nightly check-in, which made both of us feel safer. Every night before bed, she'd text or call me that she was home safe.

Occasionally she'd forget and I'd call her. Thankfully, she always answered and nothing dangerous happened to her. But with this simple plan, we both felt much better about her safety.

Tips when living alone:
• Find a friend or loved one who is willing to do a daily check-in with you. Pick a time or method that makes this as simple and easy as possible.
• Decide on a clear set of instructions of steps to take if you don't check in.

Example instructions:
• I will text you every night before 8 pm. Pick a time that would be reasonable to get someone else involved if you don't pick up.
• If I don't text, call me in case I forgot.
• If I don't answer wait X minutes and try again.
• If I don't answer again, call Person 1 (someone who lives close enough to check on me like a neighbor. Or if you live in a complex, perhaps the office, just make sure to check office hours and adjust your check-in time accordingly).
• If they don't answer, call Person 2.
• If they don't answer, call Person 3.
• The police might be the next step, but check your local regulations for reporting missing persons and welfare checks.

Tips when traveling alone:
• Send your travel plans, including flights, hotels, convention centers, phone numbers, etc. to one or more friends or loved ones.
• Ask if they would mind a text/call check-in each day at a specific time. Again give them simple instructions of who to call and what to do if they don't hear from you.

Ideas for safety while living with roommates:
• Sit down together and make a check-in plan.
• Agree on a nightly time that a call should go out if someone isn't home
• Collect everyone's emergency contact numbers (who to call and what to do) in a centrally located place for when someone can't be reached or doesn't return as expected.
• Post a calendar or whiteboard by the door to jot down plans for others to know - days someone is gone, staying out late or overnight somewhere, locations they'll be, etc.
• Brainstorm a couple of scenarios and run through how everyone might respond. Repeat until you work out any kinks and everyone is comfortable with what will happen when they don't check in, their phone dies, they can't be reached after a certain time at night, etc.

Working together to keep each other safe doesn't take much time or work, just a little planning ahead.

Let me know if I missed anything or you have some good tips or stories on the topic.

Stay safe out there! All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

After 18 months, my daughter is finally home! Plus grandbaby in Florida :) Misty's Writing Update.

Hi friends,

This week was such an awesome one for our family! Lots of smiles and tears. :)

First, I had an amazing time with my son's family in Florida and got so much precious play and snuggle time with my granddaughter.

The beach was gorgeous (and HOT!). Plus, we visited Universal Studios, Kennedy Space Center, and our church's Orlando temple. Thanks for everyone's suggestions! There wasn't enough time to get to everything, and we definitely have a great list for our next trip.



The other amazing event this week is the return of my adult daughter who has spent the last year and a half on a mission trip for our church!

The other kids spent the days before making signs, and the 7-year-old picked out balloons, a plastic lei and carried a bouquet of flowers to the airport.

When the day came, we rushed to the airport when the app said the flight was arriving fifteen minutes early.

After standing near the security exit for twenty minutes and watching every person who came around the corner, I checked the app again to find that the plane was now listed at it's original arrival time. (Apparently, it had to wait in line to taxi to the gate for a while)

Despite being eager to see her arrive, it was pretty fun to watch the other travelers' responses to our group with our big signs and smiles. We got a lot of encouragement and thumbs ups. One older war veteran in a wheelchair even shouted out his name and asked where his signs were. We gave him a welcome, too. :)

When my daughter finally walked around the corner at the airport, she saw us and started running, towing her carry-on behind her. As soon as she passed the "Do Not Enter" security line, my 7-year-old shrieked and raced to wrap herself around her big sister.

The carry-on got dropped to the side, and I got to hug her for the first time in forever. Her little sister wouldn't budge, so you can see the top of her head and an arm holding the lei squished between us. :)



It is such an amazing thing as a parent to see your children grow up into adults you admire and respect, doing hard things and finding success in the world on their own.

She is an amazing woman and we're all so excited to have her home . . . until she leaves for the fall semester of college. We'll miss her again. (Though I'll get her to do the paperback covers for my virus series before she goes. She's an amazing artist!)

And since this newsletter is supposed to update you on my writing . . . I didn't do any. LOL.

I took the advice of some of you readers and took a break from writing to spend time with family instead. Thanks!

I think the break and fun time with family will help me come back to writing refreshed and energized.

All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

Poison Ivy Cures: What worked and didn't work. Herbal Tip #8

Hi friends,

This is the final installment of our Poison Ivy saga: a list of ideas to treat it. Thanks for all the suggestions you sent in. We tried most of them! :)

Treatments for poison ivy:
1. Avoid and wash if you suspect any exposure at all. This has to come first. Simple water can dissolve the dangerous oils and wash them away, preventing a rash. However, this also means sweat and porous clothing can result in exposure. My husband kneeled down in wet grass with poison ivy. The dampness allowed the oils to get through his pants = rash on his knee. Eek!
2. Calamine lotion: Relatively inexpensive, this traditional standby helped a lot by drying out the rash during the weeping stage and decreased the itch by a medium amount.
3. Hydrocortisone ointment (OTC) - Great for fast itch relief, but wears off quickly.
4. Hot water - My husband used this the most for longer lasting itch relief. The idea is you run hot water over the rash which releases the histamines all at once making it itch a ton, but then giving you itch relief for a few hours. Caution: should be the temperature that would redden your skin like a hot shower, but not hot enough to scald.
5. Technu poison ivy wash. We used this a week into the rash and it was probably too late to help. I expect it would be helpful closer to exposure. Had minimal effect.
6. Fresh Aloe Vera - We should have done this sooner. A thanks to readers Vet and Tom who suggested it! I have a plant in the kitchen window and after putting it on before bed, my husband woke up with all the redness in his forearms gone by morning. It came back later, but this versatile cactus had visible benefits.
7. Rhus Tox Homeopathic remedy (Be Gone Poison Ivy) - We ordered this on Amazon, but by the time we got it, the steroid had calmed things down a lot, so we don't know how well it would have worked earlier.
8. Zanfel - a cream suggested by Dayna and Gerald as a miracle for relief. We weren't able to get a tube in time to use, but are keeping it on the list for the future.
9. Oral prednisone - 5 -day course. Despite wanting the non-medical routes to be enough, my husband turned to this short course of steroids to halt the full body inflammation that kept spreading. Thankfully, this stopped the spread and got his body to start healing. The rash wasn't gone by the five day mark, but it was healing instead of spreading angrily.
10. Prescription steroid cream. This was a nice stop-gap measure as new patches kept showing up, allowing spot treatment instead of needing to hit the entire body with an oral medication.

This is a couple of weeks into the poison ivy adventure:





And here is the 3 1/2 week mark after a 5-day course of prednisone steroids.





And today at almost seven weeks, he has just a little bit of redness left in a few areas, plus an occasional new sore from continuing to do yard work, despite being super cautious and washing immediately when he gets near the weed of death.

Thank you sooo much for all your suggestions and hopefully these tips can help someone else out there.

All the best and thanks so much for your support!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

If you're in the food court of the Orlando airport, you might become a character in my book. Misty's Writing Update.

Hi friends,

I'm typing up this update while sitting in the Orlando airport waiting for my granddaughter and family to arrive, so we can start our vacation together.

Check out the gorgeous sunrise from my flight here:



(I'll be alternating between my tips and writing updates from now on to make my newsletters shorter and more readable. Let me know what you think!)

We have plans to stay at an airbnb located a bit east of Orlando. We don't have a lot of plans, but let me share our tentative list down below and see what you think. We'd love some suggestions!
Our tentative plans for Florida:

First, as we all come from landlocked states (if you don't count the Michigan lakes), all of us are excited to visit the beach!

I'm reminding myself to reapply lots of sunscreen and stay hydrated! There are sand castles and a grandbaby destroying them in my future. :D

Second, we bought 2-day tickets to visit "Harry Potter Land" as my kids call it, or Universal Studios as it is officially called.

As I've gotten older, my tolerance for roller coasters has completely disappeared and now they just leave me feeling nauseated. So, I'm happy to take on grandbaby duty while my son and his wife enjoy being flung all over the place on coasters.

For any of you who know Florida, please share suggestions of other things we should see in the area east of Orlando.

I met the nicest flight attendant on the way here who recommended the following:
• NASA
• Port Canaveral
• Cocoa Beach

And finally, for my writing update: I got here this morning, and my family isn't arriving until early evening, which left me with time to write this email and another fun past time of authors:

People-watching!

Here are a few stories I made up based on people I'm watching right now:

A quiet, Hispanic woman stands in line with furtive glances around her, noticing everyone moving in her immediate area, and I wonder if she's got someone dangerous in her life.

A grandbaby flops his head on his grandmother's shoulder after eating while the adult daughter cleans up the food. This three generation family is obviously close, and I wonder what troubles they've weathered together and how they did it.

A young man with stars in his eyes treats his girlfriend like a princess, making me hope their new love will protect them both through life's challenges.

This is the perfect place to people watch. We humans are truly a diverse group with so many different situations and motivations. It only takes a few minutes to glean inspiration from the people around me.

So, be careful next time you're in an airport food court. A writer like me might just be adding you to their next story. :)

Enjoy reading this week!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website

What did juicing do to my blood sugar and weight? Health Tip #9

Juice Fast Results - Health Tip #9
Hi friends,

Whew! I can eat again! And good news is any food seems and tastes like a treat. This really helps with the pleasure eating and makes healthier foods easier to choose over junk food. :)

Thanks to all of you who shared your fasting journeys with me. I loved learning about them and picked up a bunch of new information!

I'm not sure why I really struggled with hunger for this fast, even though this is the shortest one I've done, some previous ones as long as 30 days. Possibly it was due to getting older, a lower quantity of juice or that this was purchased instead of made fresh myself.

In any case, I thought you might enjoy seeing the results:

1. Weight loss (BMI for my height indicates a healthy weight of 121-153 lbs):
• Starting weight: 155.6 lbs
• Day 1: 153.4 (loss of 2.2 lbs - weight often comes off fastest at the beginning as your digestive system empties out)
• Day 2: 151.6 (loss of 1.8)
• Day 3: 149.6 (loss of 2.0)
• Day 4: 148.8 (loss of 0.8)
• Day 5: 147.2 (loss of 1.6)
• Day 6: 146.4 (loss of 0.8)
• Day 7: 147.4 (gain of 1.0 - not sure why)
• Total weight loss = 8.2 lbs
• And then this morning after my first day eating yesterday: 146.6! Which would put my total weight loss at an even 9 lbs.

I'm totally happy with this because I was creeping up out of the healthy range and am glad to be back within it. In the past, I've seen about 5 lbs come back once I start eating again, so I was surprised to see this morning's weight drop. I'm just happy to meet my goal to be within the BMI range.

2. Diabetes - My average daily glucose sat around 135, which translates to a Ha1c of 6.3. This isn't too much better than where I normally sit, though my last Ha1c was 7.1 in December which is an average glucose of 157.

In any case, I've had drops to the low hundreds in previous juice fasts, so I was disappointed seeing some 200+ responses after drinking a juice.

It was only when I started eating my normal lower carb, healthy diet yesterday, that I saw a big difference. My glucose response to my normal meals was much lower than usual!

Yesterday, my average glucose dropped like a rock and at this moment it's 108 for the last 24 hours! Very nice!

The fast has definitely improved my diabetic response to food.

Then last night, I actually had some lows, which indicates I might be able to discontinue the second diabetes medication, at least in the short term. I was forced to add it recently when my nighttime numbers had crept up.

So, if I can reduce back to a single medication, instead of two, this seven days of fasting was completely worth it!

Thanks for your support, and stay healthy out there!

— Misty :)
Misty Zaugg Website