Amy Q. Barker's Blog

Happy Birders Unite!

Tasha and the Biologist: Book 2 in A Better Man Series

I have a confession: I’m an obsessed birder. This will not come as a surprise to my friends and family. I’ve been known to rudely dash out of a perfectly good dinner or happy hour or work conversation during a random fly-by of an eastern blue bird, pileated woodpecker, or belted kingfisher.

Wait—was that a—! I need to grab my binoculars—I’ll be right back.

Two hours later…

Oh well. Sorry, not sorry.

Do you have any hobbies that have become an obsession?

I’ve been birding since my early twenties and quickly compiled a life-list that rivels the dead sea scrolls. And I’m still adding more. Luckily, we are blessed to live on a lake for half the year and the ocean for the other half, so I’m surrounded by amazing birds every day, and find that the hobby still sparks joy for me.

When I first moved to Indiana twenty-five years ago, I didn’t know anyone, so on the weekends, I would head to the local parks to hike and commune with nature. I also spent WAY too much time online following Operation Migration, a project to save the whooping cranes. I noticed that during their ultralight flights they sometimes spent time in rural Indiana. Back then, I tried to figure out where they were, taking day trips down to Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cranes, but I never found them.

Fast forward to January of this year. For this latest book, I wanted it set in Indiana. And I wanted to see if I could check-in with Operation Migration—was it still a thing? I researched and found https://savingcranes.org/. Although the breeding program hasn’t been successful as of late, the International Crane Foundation is still very much active. I noticed that some of the cranes were currently wintering about an hour away from me in Indiana at Goose Pond!

I took the day off work and drove over there, not caring that the weather was rainy and cold or that I was the only one on the tour that day. Check out the photos—I was happy, happy, happy!!!

I came back from my trip completely excited to start writing a book about two people who fall in love amid the backdrop of the pond and the birds.

Enter Tasha—a sweet, quirky, beautiful visiting nurse who just got out of a bad relationship and is trying to turn over a new leaf and stop being a people pleaser.

Enter Caleb—a kind, thoughtful, handsome biologist who just moved to Indiana after a divorce and wants to start over in a small town.

How will these two bird lovers find a fresh start while also working through their painful pasts?

Tasha and the Biologist—hope you love reading it as much as I loved writing it!

This is the second in my “A Better Man” series, which will be a trilogy. For those of you who liked Bailey and the CEO, you’ll notice a quick “appearance” by Bailey and Fox in this story. Each book in the series will have a reference in the beginning to the prior book, but each story will be unique and different, all following the same theme—women who’ve had bad luck in relationships now finding love again with a better man.

Some more "research" photos:

Barnaby - the adorable French Bulldog who completely STEALS the story!

The wetland - where it all began - Goose Pond, which I call "Granger Pond" in the book.

Wait until you read about Caleb! He's been known to don the infamous crane costume.

I know you're gonna fall in love with Tasha and Caleb AND with the cranes--so dive right into this latest story.

Thank you for your support, love, Amy

Bailey and the CEO

A Corporate Love Story

Write What You Don’t Know About What You Know

This expression makes my head hurt, lol, but it’s what I do every day as a writer, sometimes without even realizing it.

When I began writing Bailey and the CEO, I wanted to dive deep into the corporate world. I’ve been working full-time for over 30 years, mostly at big, Fortune 500 companies (4 of which have been around for over 100 years). I love being a small fish in a big pond. It's what I do best--find my own little niche and play well with others.

So, when I began writing this book, my first thought was to write a story about a woman striving to succeed at a big company, overcoming obstacles and moving her way up the corporate ladder. Then, on the flip side, I wanted to explore what it would be like to be the CEO and how that would not only impact your career but also your personal life.

Finally, I wanted this to be a love story about two people who meet at work but are scared to act on their impulses. When sparks fly between them, how will they handle a corporate romance and still keep the integrity of their relationship intact?

Bailey and the CEO will be the first in a new "A Better Man" series, so stay tuned for books 2 and 3. Enjoy!

Thank you for your support, love, Amy

Life Imitating Art

Interesting Article and My New Book Cover: Lap Baby

I had a Bibliointuitive * moment this week. I'm still writing book number six, so in the meantime, I've been working with a designer to refresh the book covers on my current books. This process takes time and I was so excited yesterday because, after several months, I could finally reveal my new cover for Lap Baby (which, btw, don't you just LOVE it !!!).

Here's where the biblio * thing comes in: wouldn't you know it, on the same day, while I'm eating my breakfast, I see something pop-up about lap babies on the local news (and later I find this related article):

https://nypost.com/2023/03/20/flight-attendants-renew-push-to-ban-lap-babies-on-planes-after-turbulence-events/

I sometimes wonder, did I will this action into being with my book? These things happen to me quite a bit (life imitating art *) and I have to just scratch my head.

* I guess that's why I wrote a whole book about it - see Bibliointuitive link for more information.

Anyway, I think it's amazing that the Flight Attendant Union is looking into the lap baby rules again. I don't know what will happen (if anything) and I can't necessarily weigh-in myself because I can see both sides of the fight so clearly (as I described in Lap Baby). All I can do is hope my fictionalized account gives some context and framing to the topic, and maybe also a form of justice to those willing to investigate this important topic further and who have suffered and/or survived as a consequence of them.

I find it interesting that Jan Brown, the inspiration for my Julie Geiger character in Lap Baby, isn't mentioned in the article, but the 1989 flight that she was on (and that crashed) is. I keep wondering if she's still alive or not? I dedicated my book to her, but failed in my attempt to locate her, so that I could send her a copy of Lap Baby. The last known information I found was from a 2019 article where she was "too sick" to partake in the interview. This makes me sad. I'm guessing she may have passed by now. And it means she may never know the result of her thirty-plus year fight, if and when it's ever resolved.

Do you sometimes wonder what the universe is trying to tell you?

I hope, if nothing else, it's trying to tell me that writing Lap Baby was a good thing, if for no other reason than it brought something into the light that had long since been buried and forgotten. I will wait to see what happens, and in the meantime, I'll keep writing my stories.

Thanks everyone, for your support. For more information on Bibliointuitive and Lap Baby, check out the links:

Lap Baby: Learning to Forgive - Others and Yourself

Lap Baby. A horrible tragedy. Twenty years ago. Four people survived. No one came away unscathed.

You may have noticed a common thread in my novels - I love a story about lives that intersect and converge under the most unusual and unexpected circumstances. In my latest novel, Lap Baby, I explore how three women tackle a shared tragedy twenty years after the fact - one with action, one with anger, one with resolve.

In my novels and in my life, I'm fascinated by the journey of survivors. How did that incident affect their lives? How do they live with the pain, memories, aftermath? How do they reconcile who they are today with who they were before? Should they even try? How do they become what they are meant to be when the trajectory of their lives has so drastically changed from what they expected?

Spoiler: The idea for this story began when I was flipping through the channels one day, and I came across a show called "I Survived" where people tell their harrowing first-hand accounts of surviving a tragic accident or a murder attempt or in the case of my inspiration for this book, a plane crash.

When I heard Jan Brown, a flight attendant, explain what happened to her that day and to dozens of others as their plane went down in that Iowa field, I was moved enough to remember it and to try to capture the essence of it in a novel. Although Lap Baby is a work of fiction and is based on my own made-up story, characters, and words, I hope you will be moved by the real-life inspiration that Jan is, then and now.

A link to Jan's story.

In Lap Baby, I also explore how three women, leading very different lives, move on from the tragedy, embrace life, fall in love, and learn the most important lesson - how to forgive.

Love always finds a way!

I hope you enjoy my latest novel, Lap Baby.

Thank you for your support.

Love always, Amy

Maplewood: Hometown Girl Makes Good

Who says you can't go home?

I've been thinking about that word "home" a lot lately.

Google definition of "home": A place where one lives or resides.

As a verb (for animals, but I think also for humans!): A place or territory where one returns by instinct after leaving.

What does home mean to you?

I think home is where your heart lives.

I left New York twenty-four years ago to begin a new job (and a new life) in Indiana, but in my mind and in many ways, I never left my childhood home on Maplewood Avenue in Spencerport, New York. In fact, at night when I dream (even today!), I'm right back in that house, wandering around the rooms as if I'm a twelve-year-old girl looking for my lost curling iron. But in reality, I'm here in my cozy house in Indiana, a little bit wiser and a lot older, writing about a magical place and time when life was simpler, easier, and sweeter. A place and time where I formed life-long friendships, learned the value of a front porch swing, got in a little bit of old-fashioned trouble, and lived to tell a tale about a sleepy street in a sleepy town in the heart of America.

HOME = MAPLEWOOD

Imagine for a moment: A street when everyone knows your name and your business. You spend most of your time outdoors playing with the neighborhood kids, swimming in each other's pools, darting in and out of the houses, concocting games, challenges, fights, and fun, all for the sole purpose of whiling away the time.

Of course, like all my novels, Maplewood is a work of fiction. All of the characters are written from my own imagination (no one in this story is real) and nothing that happens in the story is based on reality. However, the setting is based on my memories of the real Maplewood Avenue. I decided before I ever wrote a single word that the street would be a main character and would be the backdrop for the rest of the characters' healing and growth.

Now, for a sneak peek at the "guts" of the story - it's about recovering from grief and about how two lonely, broken people fight for a second chance at love:

When Maplewood begins, Amanda Morgan is suffering after the sudden, tragic loss of her husband. Two years have gone by, and she's still reeling. Finally, she decides she needs a change. She hears that her childhood home on Maplewood Avenue is for sale and buys it, moving 600 miles away from everything she has known and loved for the past sixteen years. She hopes Maplewood will be the answer to her unending sadness. Unexpectedly, she runs into her high school sweetheart and feels a jolt. Jonathan Galway has his own shock and hesitancy about seeing Amanda - he has no interest in a relationship after his recent unresolved divorce. Will these two lonely souls come together under Maplewood's healing drumbeat, against all odds, against the unfairness of life, against their own better judgment?

Wait and see...I hope you enjoy Maplewood.

P.S. For anonymity reasons, I have called Spencerport "Heathport" in the book and created a fake numbered address, so please don't google or map it because you won't find it.

Thank you for your support, love you all, Amy

Two Towns for the Price of One

It was called the eighth wonder of the world when it was built and you can see why--a huge free standing 200-foot dome that takes your breath away. The West Baden Springs Hotel and Resort, built in 1902, boasted the largest dome in the world at that time and remained the largest dome in the United States until 1955. It's an awesome thing to behold. Until you're standing under it, you can't imagine the scale, nor can you explain in adequate detail the way it makes you feel--the history, the nostalgia, the uncanny way the structure managed to survive multiple years of complete and utter neglect and even willful destruction.

But survive it did. And thrived! Can you see why I was inspired to write an entire novel about this magical, mystical, historical place? Riley Cartwright, the main character in Bibliointuitive, is just as strong and indestructible, not to mention magical and loveable. Much like West Baden, she tackles her demons and comes out the other side an icon reborn, a source of strength and awe.

I decided to bring Bibliointuitive to the place where she was born this week. The place where two towns converge on a creek that contains gold--the profitable and healing waters of the springs, which have been revered for over a century. There's something about this place that makes you feel like you've been dropped onto another planet or certainly into another time. Everything in the French Lick and West Baden hotels are done to perfection--from the food, to the décor, to the service, to the restaurants, to the gardens, to the display cases (with original china and letters and photos from the 1800s), to the immaculate holiday decorations, to the fully functional train (and transport trolleys), to the steakhouse (where the waiter said he'd been working for 24 years!), to every single thing. And I'm so glad I was able to bring a small taste of this magical place (which is truly in the middle of nowhere Indiana!) to my book.

Also, another fun fact: French Lick is the birthplace of tomato juice. They serve it with every meal in the restaurant and it is SO good.

More info from Google: A tomato juice company was formed in French Lick and given the secret recipe in order to make the juice in large quantities for the hotel. But once folks had a taste for it, the demand for tomato juice increased substantially, and by 1928, canned tomato juice was available on the commercial market.

Check-out this article:

One hundred years of tomato juice.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/40eae5_dcaaacec516f405eb6fc1d035c16b48a/480p/mp4/file.mp4

My Week in Paradise: A Yellowstone Adventure

Paradise Valley, Montana. An aptly named little slice of heaven that flanks the Absoraka range and is about a twenty-minute drive from the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. My husband and I have been coming here for years. It’s our fall getaway and this year didn’t disappoint. We couldn’t have asked for a better week.

8/22/2021: First full day in Yellowstone. Slept like a log after nearly an entire day of travel, where everything went smoothly, but still…very tiring. We stopped in Billings for lunch at the Montana Brewing Company where I had a huckleberry bear that was delicious. Then a two-hour drive to a cabin we rented on VRBO, which overlooks a huge expansive vista of mountains, fields, and valleys, and where the deer come in droves on schedule every night at dusk to allow us free access to watch their peaceful dinnertime. As we are staying on the Absaroka range (in Emigrant, MT), I was reminded of Longmire, this great series on Netflix that my husband and I were so obsessed with last winter during COVID—we binged-watched all six seasons. It’s about an intriguing, rogue cowboy Absaroka sheriff with a tough exterior, a heart of gold, and a chip on his shoulder. The series is based on the novels of the same name by Craig Johnson. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s a perfect pairing with Yellowstone!

Our cabin (home-away-from-home for a week):

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/40eae5_10d35bab6a0b44b0a4007dc2858adda6/480p/mp4/file.mp4

8/23/2021: Yesterday was the most amazing day! We headed out the door by 8:00am and went directly to our favorite breakfast restaurant in Gardiner, MT (the Yellowstone Grill) and had the hugest meal—for me, biscuits and gravy, for my hubby, pancakes and eggs. The best kind of fueling for our day of hiking. Before we left, we scrolled through the Yellowstone Day Hikes book to map out our travels. While drinking our coffee, I got the most wonderful unsolicited and unexpected email from Sarah, the docent at the Cabin at Wildflower Woods (Gene Stratton-Porter’s home in Rome City, Indiana), which I had just toured in July. I don’t know why, but sometimes in life you have an instant connection with someone and that was the case with Sarah and I on that hot summer day at the lake when she showed me GSP’s world of wonder. I hadn’t heard from her since, but in the email she said she has just finished reading my novel, Punk, and wanted to tell me how much she enjoyed it. She handwrote some sweet, kind, poetic words about the book and then took a photo of the notes and emailed them to me. This was such a delight—to hear from her again and her love of the book—my head was in the clouds after that!

Anyway, after leaving the breakfast place, we got on our way, stopping to take photos at the Roosevelt Arch next to the park entrance (see photo above), and then paid our weekly pass and drove in, as always, in awe of the scenery and beauty of this majestic place. Not twenty minutes into our drive, there was a traffic jam; people jumping out of their cars and running toward something moving near a creek-bed along the side of the road. I screamed at hubby to “stop the car” so I could see what all the commotion was about and squealed in delight at the sight—a mama black bear and her two cubs, plucking the meat from several newly caught fish for their breakfast! Thankfully, the mama bear seemed completely unfazed by the crowd of forty tourists gawking and clicking away, trying to get the best shot. Amazing!

After that first bit of excitement, we headed to the hiking trail, Slough Creek. As my hubby prepared our backpack, I sat in the car watching a flock of Cedar Waxwings devouring a huckleberry bush and marveled at the many natural wonders of this park (both great and small!). Hiking straight up a steep incline, I quickly remembered how hard it is on the lungs to handle elevation, but after a two-hour hike that included thick forests, wide open fields, and a lake view, we felt invigorated and refreshed. Unfortunately, our favorite lunch spot, The Beartooth Café in Cook City, was closed because it was Sunday, so we settled for The Bistro across the street, which was fine, but not the same. Taking slow viewing hours to get home in the car, at the end of the day, we decided to make our own dinner back at our cabin and after our big meal, I was ready for bed, but forced myself to stay up to catch the full moon. I was waiting and waiting, constantly pointing my Night Sky App toward the horizon, but there was nothing to see but the dark mountain face, so I finally went to bed. Not fifteen minutes later, my hubby opens the bedroom door and whispers, “Come quick, it’s happening!” and there it was, rising like a cratered phoenix, a big white spotlight peeking out from behind its hiding place to say hello. You can’t feel anything but small and insignificant in the presence of such natural wondrous beauty, its visage at once miraculous and mysterious. I’m so glad I woke up to see it!

8/24/2021: Apparently, everything around Yellowstone is closed on Monday, so we didn’t have much luck finding breakfast yesterday. Ended up buying pre-packaged muffins from the grocery store and coffee from the local to-go cafe. Then we were on our way, driving to a trailhead that sits at the base of a mountain. This trail starts slowly, flat and sunny, then branches off in two directions (reminds me of Frost’s Road Not Taken, “two roads diverged in a yellow wood”), one trail goes up a mile to a peak and then back down again, the other trail stays straight for two miles, then down a huge, steep cliffside (with many switchbacks) ending in a spectacular waterfall. We definitely “took the road less traveled” by tackling the latter (Osprey Falls trail) and I’m still debating if we made the right call. When you read a trail guide that says “10 miles,” you think, sure I can do that, just go slowly, enjoy the sights, then you actually start hiking and at around mile six when your feet feel like they’re poured in concrete and your mouth is so dry you feel like you’ve eaten twenty cotton-balls, you wonder at your mental capacity to comprehend logic and reason. When we finally made it back to our car, I slid slowly into the passenger seat, selected “Finish” on my MapMyRide App, and typed into the Notes: “I want to die.”

Anyway, we survived and after a hot shower and a long nap, I was nearly back to normal again. Out to dinner to historic and lovely Chico Springs, where we had Prince Edward Island mussels (P.E.I. home of my favorite, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables), steak topped with fresh gorgonzola crumbles, potatoes au gratin, broccolini, followed by a dessert of salted caramel chocolate cake and latte (for hubby) and sambuca (for me). OMG, the best meal after a long day of hiking!

At the bar, sitting next to us, we met a local woman who works for the film industry, making costumes, and is currently working on a movie they’re making right here in Emigrant, MT! She was telling us that they still make quite a few westerns out here, which makes sense because the surroundings are ideal for that type of story (i.e., horses, ranches, wide open spaces, rolling hills). We talked for the longest time, and she mentioned that she was really into genealogy and asked if we had traced our family histories yet? Nope. Well, by the end of the night, hubby and I both agreed that we would look into ancestry.com to do a complete work-up of our mutual backgrounds, since we are mostly in the dark about our own family origins. I told her about my book, Punk, which is loosely based on my grandmother’s diary from 1932, and she said that the 1900s are only just the beginning and that she was able to trace her family back hundreds of years. Whoa! We exchanged numbers and I can’t wait to get home and sign up and see where the history leads us—I told her we’d send her our results when we’re done.

8/25/2021: We decided to lay low after our long hike on Monday. Ate breakfast back at our favorite place, this time I got the “Old Faithful Plate,” the standard eggs, bacon, toast, hashbrowns. Then we drove to a short one-mile trail called “Artist Paintpots.” It’s a boardwalk that weaves in and out of these naturally bubbling pools of mud, hot springs, and small geysers. The colors of these sulfur smelling pools vary from deep sea-green to creamy white to rust brown, so you can see how this trail received its name. We took a lot of photographs, and I forced my hubby to take several “publicity” shots of me with my new book, Bibliointuitive.

On the way back to our cabin, we stopped at a food truck for “Follow Your Nose BBQ,” which was delicious, especially their spicy pickles and cold slaw. After a quick nap, we headed to Chico Springs again, this time to soak in their Olympic-sized hot springs pool. It is somewhat like a floating bar, as there were many revelers who were…um…let’s say, “over-served,” which made us laugh and join-in. Vacation is vacation, after all.

Sometime later, sufficiently pruned, our muscles turned a happy mush, we drove home, showered, and headed to The Outpost for dinner, a small one-room rustic restaurant with about twenty animal heads staring down at us as we ate a scrumptious Caesar salad and large pizza, people-watching the whole time—anglers, cowboys, ranchers, family groups, locals, and tourists. To cap off the easy day, we started watching a new series on Netflix called Manifest. We only got through one episode but loved it so far—very intriguing.

8/26/2021: We slept in a little and opted for to-go scones and coffee from the to-go café (I wasn’t impressed with their huckleberry scone but loved the strawberry-chocolate).

We set our sights on Lamar Valley, which is known as the place where the Yellowstone wolves roam (after they were successfully released back into the park in 1995 following total annihilation from over a hundred years of hunting). Unfortunately, on this day we didn’t see any wolves (you have to get up really early and have a large spotting scope to catch a glimpse), but we were satisfied with the spectacular views, not to mention the traffic jam caused by a lonely buffalo who decided to walk down the middle of the double-yellow line of the road, causing both sides to stop and wait patiently for him to make up his mind.

We decided to hike two trails that are both known for their initial steep incline (1,000 feet ascent respectively) followed by a flat, clear lake (Trout Lake Trail) and a rocky cliffside (Warm Creek Trail). Both trails left us out of breath (by the elevation and by the breathtaking vistas).

In between hiking, we stopped again in Cook City and this time The Beartooth Café was open, so we sat inside, drinking in the atmosphere (a rustic cabin) and eating our bison burgers and nachos. So good! We made it home a few hours later and after a quick nap, headed to Sage Lodge (a rather fancy restaurant and hotel up in the hills overlooking Emigrant, MT) for our 6:30 reservation. We ate inside (soup and salad for me, steelhead trout cakes for hubby—everything locally sourced and amazing!) and then took the remains of our glasses of wine out to the expansive patio area that sits at the base of a mountain. They have gas firepit areas set up, surrounding by Adirondack chairs, so we plopped down next to a young couple from Minneapolis. In the middle of getting to know them, it started to rain (massive drops) and I thought, wow nothing is subtle or small here in Yellowstone, even the rain is huge!

8/27/2021: Yesterday woke up fresh as a daisy after that wonderful evening. Went to our usual for breakfast—a long wait (line out the door), but they have the best biscuits and gravy and that is always worth the wait. Then we drove two hours to a new trail we had never hiked before—somewhat near the southeast entrance of the park—called Avalanche Peak. This one goes straight up and up and up (2,000 feet incline in elevation, leading to 10,000 feet at the top). My knees and hamstrings were barking after an hour, but we kept going until we stepped out of the forest and into the clearing, a huge rockface bowl and a stunning 365-degree view from the top. As the wind whipped and the temperature dropped, we didn’t care because of the triumph of making to the peak. At the top, I watched a little curious groundhog that kept popping in and out of the tumble of rocks and wondered, how does anything survive up here? It’s like being on the face of the moon. We stopped to take photos by Sylvan Lake because it reminded me of Sarah, my docent friend from the Gene Stratton-Porter house on Sylvan Lake in Indiana. Hours later, back at our cozy cabin, we decided to stay in and eat our leftovers, sit on the balcony and watch the deer, and catch up on another episode of Manifest. All around, a wonderful day.

8/28/2021: Our last day! We ate at our favorite breakfast spot, then went directly to hike a four-mile trail, only to get stopped a mile in by a storm, quickly hightailing it back to our car. Oh well, we drove around instead and watched the buffalo and pronghorn sheep frolicking on the plains. After the storm blew over, we hiked the Lost Lake trail, which is one of our favorites and much like its namesake, starts with an incline up a wooded hillside where it opens up to a lake (that seems to appear out of nowhere) with crystal clear waters, fringes of lily pads, and ducks drifting by languidly. We took a lot of photos and sidestepped a small snake on the trail, finishing with a box lunch on the front porch of the Roosevelt Lodge, sitting, eating, and watching the world go by on the rocking chairs. Have I mentioned the wildflowers—goldenrod, toadflax, lupin, yarrow, thistle, rabbitbrush, aster, and so many more—beautiful!

We fly out soon and I’ll be sad to leave our perfect piece of paradise, but I know fit as much into a week as we could and now back to reality and the hope and anticipation of the next trip!

The Legacy of Sue Lynne

For those of you that don’t know me, you may be wondering why I dedicated this book to “Sue Lynne.”

When I was a girl, Sue Lynne was my best friend.

Like Kathy in Bibliointuitive, Sue Lynne was adopted from Korea as a baby and died in an accident when I was twelve. The accident wasn’t the same as described in Bibliointuitive, but I was there during the accident and her death had a profound impact on my life.

What I have learned as an adult is that when you lose someone at that age, you begin to question everything. When someone is there with you every day and then one day they are not, you wonder why, what is the point, who makes these rules, why am I here and that person is not, what are we all doing here, and why are some people still here while others are taken away?

Unfortunately, in my twelve-year-old mind, I didn’t process these questions in an open, thoughtful, intentional way. Instead I withdrew from thinking about Sue Lynne all together and went on with my life. I’m not proud of this fact, and quite frankly, the survivor’s guilt manifested in many other horrible unintended consequences that were probably much worse than if I had forced myself to process what had happened back then. Instead, in my early life, I made one bad decision after another, and grappled with self-destructive tendencies and depression. Thankfully, as a mature adult now, my life and my actions (and my processing of Sue Lynne’s death) have afforded me time to reflect and to become a much more integrated, happy, and stable person.

Writing this book was part of that journey—to help me understand the meaning of Sue Lynne's death (and life and death in general) and why I made the choices I did. I’m not saying I have all the answers now—in fact, I'm a complete work-in-progress, always seeking and trying to understand the meaning of life, but this book was the beginning of my effort to explain (with this fictionalized story) how to process these greater, deeper thoughts and feelings.

At the same time, I had an idea for a love story. In my real life, as a twelve-year-old girl, I wasn’t injured in the accident that killed Sue Lynne like Riley was in Bibliointuitive, but there were others more directly involved in the accident. I’ve always wondered what ever happened to them and if they were negatively impacted by her death as I was. To this day, I’ve never spoken to any of them, so I don’t know the answer. But as I started writing, I wondered if there was a chance for redemption for people involved in accidents, and thus began my journey to explore this.

Another aspect of this story came from my own semi-supernatural powers of intuition when it comes to reading and writing. A month after Sue Lynne died, my mom gave me a diary (see video below) and sent me to the library. This triggered something in me, where I not only processed the actions of reading and writing in my physical everyday life, but I began to feel the sensation that I was somehow connected with the book I was reading and eventually (much later) with the book I was writing. I can’t explain it, but I know it to be true.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/40eae5_fcdc1cb850304ef79d9ddc2351896039/480p/mp4/file.mp4

Finally, this story is a tribute to Sue Lynne and the spunky, funny, spirited, interesting girl that she was and my love story to her and her memory, one that I hope lives on through this book and through my life.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/40eae5_c16aebc3be704c2da45c0f82f90e214e/480p/mp4/file.mp4

Bibliointuitive: What is it?

Did I really just make up a word for this book? Um…yeah…so the answer is YES, I did that. BUT, this is a word that I have used in my own head for the longest time. When these weird, coincidental things happened to me, I needed a way to explain them to myself and so I called them “MyBiblio” or my “Bibliointuitive.”

Now you’re asking, what the heck is it? Well, when I read a book (and now when I write a book), something from the book will either appear or pop-in or happen in my real life that is related to the book. I know how this sounds, but I swear, I’ve been checked out by a professional and I’m not headed for the looney bin or needing meds!

This is just something that happens to me, is a part of me and my everyday life.

AND I would venture to say that many of you have experienced it too. YES? NO? MAYBE? Let me know! Don’t forget to use the hashtag: #bibliointuitive or #mybibliointuitive

I’m really curious to see if anyone else has Biblios besides me. I’m hoping my Biblio island is more like a large peninsula or maybe even a portion of a continent that we can then fashion into a vacation destination. We can meet around a circle of beach chairs sharing our Biblios over a stack of books and a never-ending supply of book-related stories and analysis. This would be my perfect happy place!

My new novel Bibliointuitive, is a fiction novel set in French Lick, Indiana about a twelve-year-old girl who is involved in a car accident that changes the entire trajectory of her life. Although this is a work of fiction and a love story about hope and redemption, I was inspired to write this book based on my own tragedy at the same age (see my other blog post about Sue Lynne for more information). You can buy Bibliointuitive here.

Below I have provided "evidence" and understanding of how my own Bibliointuitive works. Sorry in advance for the length, I have a lot to say and I've been holding it in for years!

Where My Writing Journey Began – from my diary:

6/15/2016: Watched on CBS Sunday Morning – guy who hiked 7 highest peaks and north and south poles in 139 days. If he can do that, then I can do this! On the drive into work, there was a huge rainbow over the east side…I took a photo of it. I know it was Sue Lynne, giving me a sign to start. Heard “unwritten” on the radio: “Today is where your life begins, your book is still unwritten.” I thought, I KNOW! I’m working on it. Haha. Also, ok, so I have this issue that haunts me all of my days, I don’t understand it, but I know it to be true….it seems to only affect me: Things get connected in the universe through me. Sometimes through books, sometimes through movies, sometimes through people.

Mostly through books, but here are a few random ones this week. Last night before bed I watched a movie I had DVRed over a month ago called Imitation of Life from 1924. The intro with Ben Mankowitz described how Peola was obviously the result of an interracial relationship, and how this movie was very controversial. Then I wake up this morning and I watch CBS Sunday Morning from several weeks ago, also DVRed, and there’s a whole story about how this date was the anniversary of the 1967 Loving Law, which went to the Supreme Court so that interracial couples could marry. Also, as far as the type of random coincidences that happen to me all the time, last week I randomly was talking to my supervisor about a quote from one of my favorite movies, Meet Me In St. Louis, “The Plans Have Been Changed” and then the next night, that movie was randomly on TCM and I happened to be home to watch it—why would a movie that is basically considered a Christmas movie be on in June? And why had I quoted it the day before, I never quote that movie. Anyway, this is my life.

Diary Entries Related to my Writing and my Biblio Merging:

9/5/2016: I finished Hemingway’s Garden of Eden, which was strange and fascinating, and in many ways quintessential Hemingway, while also being completely different. I still don’t know if I understood all of the sexual undertones. There was so little action for Hemingway, but I kind of liked that. And I liked how Hemingway described his writing process – the way it came to him and he was in the story – in the writing and in his real life. That’s the way I feel when I write now! I’m right there and it’s just like when I read a book – where I’m lost in the story – except this time, I’m actually writing the story I’m lost in!

9/8/2016: You know, I just realized something…I don’t hear or see or encounter things about the book I’m reading in everyday life now. There aren’t hints in people, radio, tv, books, nature, everywhere in my real life – could these occurrences be gone?! That’s weird when it was something I had haunting me for years and years. Maybe it’s because I’m writing the book instead of reading it. FINALLY.

11/3/2016: Funny, went through Sue Lynne’s birthday without any incidents this year. I felt her in the car ride into work and several times throughout the day, but no major incidents or other reminders. Maybe that’s a good thing. I think it’s because I’m writing this book to her and about her. It’s taken the edge off. She no longer feels she needs to reach me and scream at me “Where’s my book AMY!!!” I get it now. I’m doing it.

3/2/2018: Today, I was feeling down, and I pull into a parking lot and what comes on the radio but Let My Love Open the Door, which is my special song in Rue, the one that Josh requests. I burst into tears. Is God trying to tell me to keep writing, despite the fact that no one is reading my work? No one even knows I’m writing?

5/14/2018: THAT day today – the anniversary of Sue Lynne’s death. It’s been 35 years today. I cried a lot, wondering if she would have grasped life. I think she would have. She was really spunky. She most certainly wouldn’t have ended up in Indiana like I did. I think she would have ended up in New York City or some big city somewhere. I can’t imagine what she would have been – maybe into graphic design – she always had such neat, tight handwriting. She would have been great for industrial design or pattern design. Something like that. I don’t feel her as often anymore. I think this is because I don’t need her like I used to. This writing has made my life better, which I’m sure she’s up there like, “Duh, told you so.” And because of my writing, my spiritual life is better – I pray more, think more about my place in the world and my reason for being.

10/6/2018: Scott and I went to French Lick on Thursday night and stayed at the historic hotel – it is truly amazing there! It is a marvel that both the old hotel buildings still exist and are restored to their original glory. I definitely felt the ghosts of the past – one of the workers there was going up in the elevator with me and as she pressed number 6, the door had never opened. I said, well, that’s because of the haunting – she didn’t laugh, she said, yes, it happens all the time, especially on 6, and in fact, she had been up there earlier and when she got out of the elevator, the door stayed open until she had made her delivery and came back. I believed it. We were staying on 6. Anyway, made me wonder if I need to set my next book in this town. It has a lot of kinetic energy and something more…something supernatural…floating around…I love it.

1/24/2019: The universe is sending me signs again. This time about Rue and about her being blind. Just watched something on CBS Sunday morning about a blind runner. And it just seems like I can’t stop writing Rue’s story.

2/15/2019: A few years ago, I’m on a plane reading Charles Dicken’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood and I realize the date in the book is exactly 150 years to the day from this day when I happen to be on a plane reading this exact book at this exact moment in the story where it says the date and I calculate it in my head and realize it’s exactly 150 years ago. Talk about a tingle up my spine – I remember feeling an entire chill course through my body! These incidents happen to me – these frequent “coincidences” – over the course of my entire life as I read books and now as I write books – why? What do they mean? What should I do about them? Write about them?

The First Entry Where I Try to Fully Articulate my Bibliointuitive:

3/10/2019: So, I’ve been lightly testing out my theory about these coincidences. I’m reading No Highway, a random book from the 40s I found on a best-of list on Amazon. I checked-it-out of the library the other day. The book is by Nevil Shute, who I love, and have read two others – A Town Like Alice and On the Beach – both excellent. No Highway, which is all about planes, plane engineering, and potential plane issues that could lead to a crash, and then Scott and I hear an Ad on the TV about a new Amazon Prime series called The Widow. We know nothing about it, we’ve never watched a series on Amazon before, and we start watching and of course, it’s about two blind people and a plane crash. Double-bibliointuitive (Rue – more stuff about people who are blind, and No Highway – about a plane crash!). Then today I start watching American Idol, which I DVR’ed last Sunday, and there it is – a blind girl who sings like an angel (much like Rue!) and it makes me cry. Anyway, maybe I’m reading too much into things (literally reading too much!). I know it’s crazy. But this has been happening to me as long as I can remember – I read a book about something, you name it, whatever random thing it is, and then other things, people, shows, Ad, books, church talks, etc. start to happen related to the current book I’m reading. And now, these things happen related to the book I’m writing. Before I started writing (nearly 3 years ago), it would happen even more frequently with whatever I was reading. I finally realized God and Sue Lynne were telling me to WRITE a book instead of just reading it. Then these stories all came to me, in my head, like specks of dust in my eye – specks that I can’t get rid of. Yes, an irritant, but also, a joy. They keep coming to me! I have to do something with them. So, here I go. Write, write, write, and hope one day God will execute the plan he has for me. I mean, I’m already mid-way through his plan, I get that, but what does the rest of it look like? Do I ever get published or does this all just stay stuck in my head?

3/12/2019: Turned on the Today show this morning and the first words out of Savannah’s mouth were about a plane crash in Ethiopia and how it was the same Bowing 737 type of plane (Max 8) as a crash last year and how now they’re debating grounding all of those 737s. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I’m halfway through No Highway, which is all about a potential flaw in the tail of the Reindeer planes and how they can’t decide if they should ground those planes or not and the moral and financial dilemma faced by everyone involved. #Biblio #Scary #Did my Biblio cause a plane crash?

3/15/2019: Every day, more about the plane crash that I caused. They finally grounded all flights. I’m trying to finish No Highway quick, so I can move onto the next book in hope that it won’t cause any more Biblios. Holy crap.

3/18/2019: Logged in this morning and of course, the Google symbol is all about the guy who invented the raised street dots for the blind (the truncated domes). Seiichi Mikate. More blind stuff – for my Rue Biblios. Luckily, I haven’t heard any more about plane crashes. Probably because I’m done reading No Highway.

4/7/2019: Started Bibliointuitive today. It came to me during a walk, how to start it. I’m not sure where it will go. Page 1 is done. Of course, I haven’t finished Rue, but I’m still seeing blind people in everything every day – last night we watched a movie I had never seen or heard of before called Road House with Patrick Swayze. Of course, there was a blind guitar player in it.

4/19/2019: Another week down in the books. Literally and figuratively. Writing this week wasn’t horrible. Biblio is coming along nicely – still only in Chapter 1, but I haven’t had to agonize over a single thing yet – it’s all just there when I sit down at my trusty computer. Strange – the whole thing – the story – the concept – the writing inside of a circle which is inside of a circle inside of a circle. Blowing my mind actually. Thankfully or not thankfully – not sure yet which – the signs from the books I’m reading have stopped – so I know now that is because I started writing Bibliointuitive. I guess I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer…I was trying to force myself to finish Rue first, but then I realized why wait? I can work on two books at once.

4/22/2019: Great weekend. I took two naps on Saturday! I finished one of the chapters of Biblio – all about Sue Lynne’s 9 lives, and of course, one of the first words out of Pastor Phelps mouth on Sunday at service was some random story about Harry Houdini and his “nine lives” like a cat. I mean, seriously? I don’t remember the last time I’ve heard anyone speak about 9 lives and the moment I finish writing the words, they’re in the mouth of a completely unrelated person. This is MY Biblio! And why I’m compelled to write this story!

4/26/2019: Friday. I made it through the week. I listened to Mobituaries podcast on the way here – the one on Sammy Davis Jr. and wouldn’t you know, this morning, I turn on recorded Dateline this morning and it’s about the murder of a son of the guy who owned the hotel in Miami where the Rat Pack played – and there was a big photo of Sammy Davis Jr. and the other 3. Not Biblio because no book, but still….so unrelated…and yet connected through me, and oh, btw, Sammy Davis Jr was blind in one eye.

5/6/2019: Great weekend! Author pilgrimage weekend to Gene Stratton-Porter home, Limberlost. Got up and drove there, having my own Biblio along the way – a big sign that said “VERA CRUZ” right after I finished reading the first chapter of Ship of Fools all about Veracruz, Mexico. Of course.

5/17/2019: I had to two Biblios yesterday, which doesn’t surprise me since I have been neglectful of my writing lately and whenever I do that, they come back hot and heavy – the usual drum beat to tell me to get crackin! The first: Went to a work conference yesterday, and the first speaker talked right away about the definition of “matter” and how people matter. I felt the hair on my head tingle. I had just written the beginning of Chapter 2 about how Riley looks up the word “matter” in the dictionary. The speaker even said the exact same definition I had just written! Crazy! Then last night, I was home alone, and I had just finished watching a movie on the DVR when it flipped off and there was the final question to Jeopardy on channel 13 – something about who said, everyone must come from somewhere. And the answer was Alex Haley – Roots! And I had just re-written the title of Rue to potentially be Ruets (roots!).

9/4/2019: Biblio, just started reading Tarzan of the Apes (for the first time, believe it or not) and we’re out for drinks with Tom last night and he brings up Tarzan out of the blue! He was talking about religion and how can anyone hold someone accountable to know about the bible and if they grew up like Tarzan on a desert island with no access to books.

10/23/2019: Down in Florida for the week. I haven’t written a word, so had a Biblio: Reading Colleen McCullough’s Bittersweet, which I had never heard of before – found it in the library. Love it, almost done with it. Then I’m trying to watch something new on my streaming services and lo and behold the first thing I click on is McLeod’s Daughters, with a plot about two Australian sisters – same as Bittersweet, two sets of twin daughters from a rector in Australia. Alas, the book is much better than the series though.

10/24/2019: I had a Biblio weird thing yesterday morning, in the story, I changed the “large pink glasses” on Mrs. Peters to large red “Sally Jessy Raphael” glasses and wouldn’t you know it, I’m watching E! Daily Pop during my lunch and there is a question where the answer is Sally Jessy Raphael. When was the last time I thought of Sally Jessy Raphael before yesterday? Maybe 25 years ago and then twice in the span of two hours.

11/13/2019: Biblio: Just finished reading Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. It was good, although a little too dark for me. Anyway, as I finished it, sure enough, I turn on the TV to watch the last 5 minutes of E! News and they’re talking about the book and how it took 11 years to get the movie made. I recorded the movie, but haven’t watched it yet – I think I’m afraid to based on the depressing aspect of the book. Maybe this weekend.

12/1/2019: Biblio: So the other day when I spent all night thinking about a new first chapter (the 7 minutes in the closet chapter), I was thinking about writing the scene during Halloween and make it a haunted basement, but then my story wouldn’t work out because I had already written that it was near xmas for Riley when she was still in the cast. Anyway, so then I thought, it will have to be an enchanted forest of xmas trees instead, so the timing will work out. So that’s what I wrote (a winter scene). Then not 8 hours later, out of the blue, the grandbabies tell me we HAVE to go see Frozen II, which apparently just came out, so we go – and the entire movie is about an enchanted forest.

2/25/2020: Another strange Biblio: Starting writing the chapter where Riley meets Jane and of course, I modelled her after a girl from my high school – a very studious, adorable girl who was quiet and shy and kind. So, I’m home in NY last week and I’m eating breakfast with Eric and Nicole and the kids, and I ask them if they ever see anyone from Spencerport and Nicole says, Oh yeah there’s one lady in Ian’s school who’s a teacher’s aid. Ian, do you remember her name? Ian thinks for a minute and says, “XYZ?” And Nicole says yes! And I said, omg, do you mean XYZ? It was HER, the girl I had just written an entire chapter about. I literally hadn’t spoken her name or heard a single thing about her since 1988 and wtf, I write a chapter about her and there she is about 5 days later being spoken of by my nephew, out of the blue, no prompting.

5/12/2020: Two biblios strong this morning in the span of 10 minutes. So this morning, I went downstairs to play with the boys for a bit in between meetings, when they started a New Orleans style parade with a tambourine and stick and maracas, it was so cute and I said, you’re making me a New Orleans parade! Then I came upstairs and went through some jewelry I had stashed in a Rubbermaid tote, so I found this perfectly blue and perfectly empty Tiffany’s box that I have no use for and that I don’t even remember why I have or what used to be in it, so I throw it in the trash. Well, I sit down for 2 minutes to start the new book I’m reading called How to be Lost and in the first page it takes about Tiffany’s and about New Orleans.

5/28/2020: Started reading The Alchemist yesterday on the beach – WOW. Too weird because I had several Biblios already with this book and that just makes me think I am destined to read this book about fate and destiny and your “personal legend” (your personal purpose for life) right now, right here, right when I need it. And right before I publish Rue (I hope!). Kira’s been editing and then onto the next step of designing a cover and formatting it in book form. I’m not sure what happens next after that, but following the steps, knowing everything (like the Alchemist says!) happens in its own time and by its own steps. Basically, the same quote from the Bible I’ve been saying in my head for 5 years – “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In all way acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths.”

Anyway, the two Biblios right away in The Alchemist: (1) Last night we watched some James Bond movie with Daniel Craig and one of the first locations in the movie was “Tangier” as it said in big bold letters on the screen. Scott said, “Where is Tangier?” and I said right away (as if I really knew!): “In Morocco, the northwest corner of Africa.” Then I said, “Well, I think anyway, I don’t really know for sure.” Then I googled it and sure enough, I was right, which is crazy (I thought) because I have no idea how I knew that. So, on the beach today, I start reading The Alchemist and guess where the main boy ends up in the story? Tangier. (2) I had just written in my Notes yesterday that I had had a dream about Bobbi that night, and I guess I was still wondering what that was all about, since it was my first one about her since she died and she was so real and pretty and young and fresh in the dream (very similar to a poignant dream I had about Sue Lynne many years ago that still sticks with me, her big brown eyes especially). Anyway, I was still thinking about that on the beach, when I read in The Alchemist a quote from page 15, I can’t remember the exact words, but something about Dreams being the language of God. Which is basically what I was thinking about the Bobbi dream – that it came from God.

6/4/2020: I wanted to mention a big Biblio. We flew back from Florida on Monday night, and I had just finished reading The Alchemist on the beach, so I started The Touchstone by Edith Wharton on the plane ride. Keep in mind, I randomly picked both of these books from my tub of a books at the lake, simply because the library’s been closed because of COVID, and I don’t have access to any other books right now. I had to scrounge through the tub to find books I hadn’t read yet – there aren’t many, but I selected these two because they were toward the top of the pile. Anyway, I get to page 34 in The Touchstone and what does it talk about but Alchemy and the making of gold (which is a major theme of The Alchemist). Prior to reading The Alchemist, I had ZERO notion of alchemy and of the making of gold or other elements, such a strange new topic, I thought while reading it, what is this stuff all about and why does the author assume it is something for all the world to know and be familiar with, and then here is another book, written 60 years before referring to the same thing! And I, Amy Q Barker, am reading both books, one after the other, together in time, right now, here in 2020. #Biblio

7/25/2020: Biblio (not book related) – last night some people came up to us in the boat, while we were swimming out front, and chatted with us for a while. Anyway, they mentioned about the new comet that’s been up in the night sky lately – about how you have to go out in the boat about an hour after sunset and then you can see it off to the northwest. So I started watching this series called When Calls the Heart and wouldn’t you know it, the show is about Halley’s comet.

7/28/2020: Btw, writing Biblio if I haven’t mentioned it before now – with Rue – of course I wrote about San Fran and the fact that Josh is originally from Arizona (why? I’ve never been there!), and yet I select an editor (Kira) out of the blue on a website I’ve never used before based solely on her photo (her experience was NOT related – she worked only in the non-fiction world before me), and yet Kira is perfect for me – like a glove – and she lived in San Fran for 5 years and she currently lives in Tucson, AZ. How does that happen unless things with Rue were meant to be?

9/24/2020: Thought of a good Biblio – when I gave Svetlana my copy of the Holocaust Diaries – and afterwards found out she grew up in the same town! Also, another Biblio, just finished reading The Nightingale, also about WWII and I keep seeing things on TV about Hitler’s SS, etc.

11/5/2020: Been having a few Biblios lately, but this one this morning struck me. I’ve been struggling with what to read as I’m here in Florida. I was going to bring a bunch of books from home, but since Allegiant only allows bags at 40 lbs., I ended up only bringing one book, The Kite Runner, which so far I hate. Who wants to read about sodomy rape of a 12-year-old boy—WHO?? How is this a best seller?!!! Makes my flesh crawl. Anyway, so instead, I started looking through the books that renters have left in our condo, and I first picked up and read Midwife of Venice, which I enjoyed – nice easy beach read. Now I’m reading No Country for Old Men, and I love me some good Cormac McCarthy. Anyway, last night’s read (at the Cottage for dinner) – page 63ish—was about this character’s thoughts on the death penalty, well, more explicitly, watching people die that way. Anyway, at the same time, since I’ve been here in FL, I’ve started watching the first season of The West Wing on Netflix, which is sooo good, I can’t believe I never watched it before! Anyway, the episode this morning first thing? All about the death penalty and if the president should stay this execution or not. The episode is titled something about The Sabbath.

12/21/2020: Other unrelated Biblio, wrote on my Instagram about the Road Less Traveled with my black-and-white photo of our tree tunnel up on the hill. The day I posted it, Scott and I were watching an episode of Seinfeld and sure enough, he mentioned something about the Road Less Traveled. Another strange Biblio was that I wrote in Punk something about Didi’s hope chest, which of course, I completely made up…well, sure enough, while Aunt Linda was reading the book, she sends me a picture of her mother’s actual hope chest! She still has it. The other thing going on, related to Rue, is that The Cliff House is closing after 157 years, which makes me sooooo sad!! Where will Rue go when she wants to get away…where will Roy go?

1/10/2021: On another note, on the writing side, I have been negligent, as far as being fearful to start back up with Biblio. I’m about 90% confident that this is the next book I should work on with Kira, but it’s a total mess right now and not even 50% done, so then I get scared to work on it. Plus with Punk about to launch, I’m devoting ALL of my time to that until it’s up and running, then I can come back to Biblio. But it’s almost like I want to finish Biblio first because the whole premise of the story is so unique, and I don’t want anyone else to snatch up it from me before I’ve had a chance to publish it. Granted, how would that happen? I don’t know, but that IS my worst fear. Not to mention, Biblio IS actually based on ME and my life and how I ended here in my life right now with my books and with my strange tie to books and life. How could anyone else steal that? Right? I hope not, but I fear it sometimes.

1/31/2021: Finished Jane Eyre for the umpteenth time and of course, all about Mr. Rochester right as I’m launching a book all about Rochester (Punk).

2/8/2021: Biblio – we started watching this new series on Netflix called Longmire. Of course, the main character (Longmire) calls his daughter “punk” and there is an episode where he leaves a letter for her addressed “Punk” – right as I was working on the publishing and promotion of Punk.

3/5/2021: Friday. Made it through another week. Yesterday I heard one of my favorite Biblio songs in the car ride: Let My Love Open the Door. It thought about it a lot, about how it was such a good song to select for the Josh & Rue meet-cute, and how that was how it all began –the Rue story and my writing story (as I cried, I always cry when I hear it) that this is what I’m supposed to be doing, regardless of what anyone thinks, this is WHO I am, this is me. I was meant to think of that song for that book at that time to make that story work, and I’m meant to be here at this time, working out all of the details of my new story, Bibilo, in the timing that is right and in the way that is right, for me, and no one else.

3/8/2021: Yesterday morning, had a Biblio with Rue. All weekend, I was debating about doing a Goodreads Giveaway with Rue, when out of the blue, I see that this girl who I sent a copy of Rue 6 months ago for an Instagram review has just NOW published her review—which was a good one (4/5). Anyway, that was nice…so basically, my whole head was filled with Rue all morning and then Scott logs into Colonial Hills service and there on the screen is a slide of a Tree Tunnel – which is, of course, is the cover of Rue – and Scott says (NOT knowing that my head had been full of Rue all morning) – honey, look, there’s Rue! It was so cute – the fact that he is so in tune with me or that Rue was so much in the energy yesterday – they he saw that and said it out loud. I laughed and said, yep, look at that! And of course, I thought: Biblio!

3/15/2021: Biblio last week – finished reading Gene Stratton-Porter’s Keeper of the Bees, and of course, everywhere was bees, bees, bees. Watching the 4th or 5th season Great British Baking Show and there was Kim-Joy making so many decorations with little bees and then came along a real-life little bee to land on one of her decorated bees.

4/28/2021: Biblio for today – I just yesterday (in the story) added a few words about Jurassic Park and how certainly there would be no Biblio (for Riley or for me!) because what are the chances that something to do with dinosaurs would come up? Well, I log into Instagram and see a screenshot – on the cover is a big dinosaur – one of the Instagrammer is reading this book and posted a picture of it (all-books-great-and-small – her handle).

5/25/2021: It is Tuesday at 11:13am and I have just finished writing Bibliointuitive and wrote the words “The End” exultantly and with the joy of a good work rendered!

6/2/2021: A Biblio from yesterday. I just finished reading this book (second in a series) called Wild at Heart by KA Tucker. Anyway, when I read the first book (The Simply Wild) I noticed that she named her main character Calla and I was thinking how I didn’t love that name because it’s a flower and an unusual name, but I love the books anyway. But then last night, Bob and Melody and Rob and Julie and I went to the Porthole for dinner/blues-jam and what is one of the first things Melody brings up? How she had a credit on QVC and so she ordered a box of Calla Lilies and then the PO told her there was another box of lilies waiting for her (that she didn’t order). Anyway, she called QVC and they couldn’t explain it (the shipping or the extra box) and neither could the PO, so long story short, she has been inundated with Calla Lilies.

7/8/2021: See my video blog and other notes from my Digital Detox week – so far, it’s been the MOST amazing week! I have to record here the number of Biblios and other coincidences I had at the Gene Stratton-Porter house yesterday. First, my tour guide, Sarah, was amazing – somehow, an instant connection with her, from the first words out of her mouth. She told me, among other things:

Gene liked to publish her works on her birthday, just like me! She said she had been looking into her own grandmother’s story and so I told her about Punk. Then she mentioned how they speculated that Gene wrote the book Harvester Man (my favorite!) about this house (Rome City lake house), but it was written BEFORE it was ever built, and Sarah says innocently, “What do you call it when you dream something before it happens, and write about it, and when you write about it and then you make it happen.” My jaw nearly hit the floor. I looked away, thinking, holy crap, do I tell her about Bibliointuitive? No one else knowns, except Kira! But I figured, YES, this is a sign, so I said, “I actually have a word for that, it’s Bibliointuitive, which is the name of the book I’m about to publish!” Then I explained the premise of the book and how it was still secret right now, but that me having this conversation with her at this moment in time was probably also a Biblio for me and that I would never forget it! Anyway, that opened up a whole new conversation that kept going all day. It was coming in so fast that now I’m blanking on all the Biblios and things I had in common with Sarah and with Gene. Gene had a notebook of words/expressions that she liked to use in her books (I took photos) that explained the meaning behind words that were confusing. I have my “expressions” Word doc that I reference all the time. I live on a lake house in the woods and use it to write in peace and in nature, so did Gene. Gene got up and wrote for 3 hours every morning before beginning her day (also just like me!). She preferred to write non-fiction, but the fiction made the money, so she wrote more fiction (this was not a Biblio, but still interesting to me). For a woman of that era to be SO scientific and technical was RARE and just one of the AMAZING things about her. Sarah said she had a friend who suggested when writing to first sit down and do a stream of consciousness, spewing it out quickly before beginning to focus and write. I said, this is exactly what I do most mornings (write here under these Notes, then get to the book itself). Sarah asked me what book I was reading right now, and I said the Promise of Provence by Patricia Sands, which I thought was perfect for this trip because it’s about a woman who travel to France by herself and is experiencing everything for the first time there, and I feel a little like that too, traveling here to Rome City/Fort Wayne by myself and having to find everything myself, and how wonderful that is!

7/12/2021: My latest Biblio: I’m reading Patricia Sands’ The Promise of Provence, a sleepy (sort of slow) romance about a woman who goes through a divorce and decides to spend a vacation doing a home exchange in Provence. Here’s the weird part – I learned about this book because I was researching author interviews and came across this FB page that’s all about traveling and reading (Book Roadtrips) which of course, I’m ALL about. Anyway, they interviewed Patricia Sands, who lives half the year in France and half the year in Canada (which is kind what her books are all about), but here’s where the weird Biblio happened. I bought this book and started reading it, and about a day into it, Scott tells me we have to go to a funeral in Bloomington for an old college buddy of his, whose wife just died in an accident. So we get to this funeral – which is more like a celebration of life at an art gallery, and I don’t know anyone – I don’t know the husband or the woman who died or any of the people, except a few of Scott’s other college buddies that I’ve met once or twice. Anyway, I learn that the husband and wife, lived in France half the year and do bike tours in Provence and surrounding areas, including biking with people around the Tour de France. When we talked to the husband, he said they lived very close to Avignon and started the business 20+ years ago. So, then this book of course is all about a woman who loves to bike who goes to Avignon, Provence area of France to rejuvenate her life after the divorce, including starting to bike again!

8/6/2021: Biblio – as I added the dates for the book Jurassic Park referenced in Bibliointuitive, turned on NetFlix to watch the “Movies That Made Us” and of course, one of them is Jurassic Park.

I think we’re all caught up—now you get the idea of what I mean by “bibliointuitive,” so I hope you enjoy the book and don’t forget to tag me when you have your own Biblios and hashtag #bibliointuitive #mybibliointuitive

Thanks everyone, love you, Amy

Rue: One Year Later

First, let me say thank you to everyone who has supported me and my writing journey--it’s been a wild and crazy ride!

Second, I've learned so much in the past year--mostly gratitude for everyone who has been so kind as I have "put myself out there" for all to see, hear, and read. It's a VERY scary thing to write, publish, and promote a book! Although the characters and stories are fiction, they all have a piece of me laced into every word, thought, and feeling. I'm so grateful! With this latest third book I'm about to publish, I feel much less nervous/anxious to launch and that is a direct result of your support and understanding of me following my dream. Thank you!

Third, a year in and I’m amazed, humbled, and grateful to still be receiving great reviews every day like this one for Rue and this one for Punk, both from the other day.

Fourth, on this one-year anniversary of publishing Rue, my debut novel, I decided to take a trip down memory lane to see where it all began - From My Diary:

11/3/2016:

Book idea (Rue):

Story of Saturday Morning Bird Hikes – from my time at Cool Creek Park, with the old guys and their “soft ball” songs and how someone (a lounge singer?) learned songs from the 40s from them. Story of San Francisco – a piano player at night in the Scarlet Huntington. What does she do during the day? Does she have another job? How does she know all of these songs in her head? Photographic memory? From the bird hikes? What is her life like that’s she able to play like this at night in this location? Where does she live? Must be a hovel in China Town, to be able to afford.

Coincidentally, on this same day, I also wrote this in my diary, which would later become the book idea for Punk:

Story of Grandma Q – growing up in Rochester, working at McCurdy’s, the courtship with Paul before she married Grandpa. A guy who falls off the face of the earth right before the wedding, and the diary ends abruptly with no explanation.

Back to Rue:

11/25/2016:

Started a new book today from my idea the other week. Not sure where it’ll go, but I couldn’t keep myself from starting it. It had to be written, like a force leading me forward.

11/27/2016:

Watching TCM this morning. Daisy Kenyon—I’d never even heard of this movie before, but it was great, with Henry Fonda, Joan Crawford, and Dana Andrews. It’s about a love triangle and I wonder if I might put a book together about a love square instead of a love triangle. I have been thinking how to make this story also be about polar opposites—a person who is quiet, shy, small who falls in love with a tall, loud, popular type. I don’t know his name yet, but hers will be Rue, tiny and quaint, but packs a punch.

12/9/2016:

Things have been slow-going on the book. I’m still trying to find my voice for Rue. She’s so different than me and from anything I’ve ever written. This one’s going to have to ruminate longer, so I let things pop in naturally, at the proper time.

12/12/2016:

Woke up the other night realizing Rue’s story might have a tentative title of The Scarlet Rue because she’s a lounge singer at the Scarlet Huntington in San Francisco. Or maybe just plain Rue. I had an epiphany the other day: I thought I would do the whole thing from Rue’s perspective and call it Rue, but then I realized maybe I would tell the story from the four character’s points of view instead. I got a little sad, though, wondering if I would lose Rue in the mix, so maybe instead Rue will be the main focus of the story and almost everything will be about her thoughts and feelings, but I’m going to put in a few chapters where she’s on the periphery. I don’t know if it’ll work…we’ll see…

12/19/2016:

Making good but slow progress. Almost done with Chapter 2. I can only write what I know and what I feel. Shouldn’t readers out there be inspired about real-life characters and how they survive struggles? Such a difficult balance to manage though.

1/3/2017:

Wow, it’s 2017 already. Wasn’t the best week of writing…not enough time or motivation. It’s all still floating around in my head. Something about Josh being from a big family, youngest boy of 6, let’s say, has to have all of the attention, exact opposite of Rue. He wants to be seen from all angles at all times. Rue wants not to be seen in plain sight. I also thought about figuring out a character who is “blissfully oblivious”– like someone who has no tact and has that overinflated sense of self but can’t see past her nose—thinking it’ll be the other girl in this love square (Alyssa). On a different note, I want to speak to the fact that there are so few novels for woman my age that have drama without trauma. That’s the space I want to fill. Why does everything have to be about rape and violence and horrible people? I hope to change that.

1/20/2017:

Wow, I haven’t written here in a while. But I have been writing Rue every day, so that’s why. I think I’m at about 28,000 words now. It’s going well. The other day, while driving in the car, I realized I have been writing almost every day now for 7 months. EVERY DAY! I went from thinking about writing a book since I was 12 YEARS OLD and never doing it to now writing every day and making progress on TWO books. Crazy. I’m proud of myself. Even though no one else has read a word or even knows I’m writing. I’m still glad I did it. I have more to go. Miles to go before I sleep, as Frost says.

2/26/2017:

I’m about 62,000 words into Rue now. Going well, but difficult to write because (1) not at all about me – actually, exact opposite of me (2) scary not knowing if I'm a good writer or not (3) reading other books and going to bookstores makes me want to die now – something that used to be my salvation and joy – is so, SO painful now – like a weight around my neck – how to keep writing when there are so many other books out there and probably all better than mine (4) what the hell am I doing anyway? what makes me think I can be a writer? Anyway, regardless, Rue's still coming along, even when I have bad days and thoughts. So, the reason I’m writing here again in this diary after nearly 2 months is because Bobbi is unexpectedly coming to Indy for work and I’m thinking about telling her my secret and giving her a copy of my book. I’m paralyzed with anxiety about it. What if she hates it? What if she tells me to never show this to another living soul? What if she thinks it’s the worst piece of drivel she’s ever read? I’ve written down a bunch of caveats to give her with the book, but still…I’m afraid, very afraid. Lord, give me the strength to go through with it!

Note: Despite my fears and anxiety, my friend Bobbi (God bless her and rest her soul!) told me to keep going, so I did. Skip ahead and I finished writing Rue on 5/2/2017. Then, months later, this entry:

2/18/2018:

Rue is done, but lately, every day, I’ve been having this thought: I must turn Rue into something different. The same general plot, but she is blind! It’s been driving me crazy, and I can’t seem to get it out of my head: Rue must be blind. I can’t explain it, but I must give it another try with Rue being blind.

Note: Believe it or not, I spent the next YEAR rewriting Rue as a blind character, completing hours of research to know what it meant to live independently in a big city as someone who is blind. It was just about the most difficult thing I’ve ever done and I’m so proud of myself for creating such a rich, captivating, empathetic character--readers really seem to connect with her. Maybe someday I'll write a sequel to Rue, but for now, I'm working through the massive backlog in my head of new, original story ideas about other characters, people, places, and adventures.

So, that was just a snapshot of my writing process and a year after publishing Rue, I'm happy and humbled to still be following my dream AND to be a few weeks away from publishing my THIRD book – WOOT! WOOT!

Thank you all again for your amazing support!

Love,

Amy