Laura Benedict's Blog, page 5

Fancy New Author Photo Number One

I’ve been waiting for weeks to start sharing my new author photos with you! They arrived only today, so I wanted to post one right away. In the end, I chose four different ones. Each has a different mood, though not a single one is particularly serious or grim. This is Mischievous Laura. It’s the one I’ll be using for SMALL TOWN TROUBLE, my black cat detective novel that’s part of the Familiar Legacy series (cozy/mystery/romance). It’s coming January 8th in paperback and as an ebook, and is p...

Preparations and Pecan Sandies

Happy Monday! This week before Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. Our girl comes home today, and (nearly) all my work is done so I can decorate and bake and decide if I want to build a big LEGO project or do a puzzle over the holiday. Oh, and I have a ton of wrapping to do.

I spent Saturday and Sunday afternoons shopping the fleshpots of Carbondale. In future I may leave all my local shopping until the Sunday before Christmas. The stores were open late, but were empty, and the...

Renewal

“As wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
Always, for ever and new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed.”
― Ovid, Metamorphoses

 

Never the same sky twice.

 

 

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Friday-Saturday Serendipity, 15 December 2017

Serendipity makes a life worth living.

 

Is it still Friday? Okay, sort of. At least it is where I am.

I don’t know about you, but it’s been a crazy week here. Well, I’ve been feeling mostly crazy because my SAD has gotten a bit out of control, so everything feels more difficult than usual. Christmas! End of year lists! Plans, plans, plans! But everything besides work has gone by the wayside, covered in gloomy winter clouds. And when the clouds come, I retreat into my shell. Life becomes surr...

I Am the Kind of Person Who…

 

I am the kind of person who keeps flowers out of reach of her cats.

Husband told me about a podcast he’d listened to about visualization. I’m a sucker for new ideas about how to change myself and the way I relate to the world. You’d think I believed in perfectibility or something.

Visualization is what it sounds like it is: Imagine yourself as the kind of person you want to be. Don’t worry about those 21 days to solidify a habit. Don’t look at change as an insurmountable task. Don’t try to...

Behinder and Behinder

https://www.laurabenedict.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0918.m4v

 

Tuesday was a behind and behinder day. About 2 a.m. this morning I found myself drowsing over my computer in a strange, head-wavering, sleepy state. My mind was half-dreaming, and when I would rouse myself I had to carefully go over what I’d just written. Mostly I discovered rambling, unpunctuated sentences that had no meaning. And that was just my blog at the Kill Zone today.

I think I rescued it fairly well. Pop on over and re...

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You Know I Have A Thing For Birds

One of the pleasures of not having young children any longer is that I get to do crazy things like have a second Christmas tree in the house. Oh, sure. I know many of you overachievers out there started with two (or more!) Christmas trees from Day One, no matter how many children you had hanging about. But I didn’t even realize people sometimes had more than two Christmas trees in their homes until I was in my forties (Sheltered much?). My second Christmas tree is all about birds. It’s a smal...

Graffiti and Gift-Wrapping

How was your weekend? Did you have unexpected/expected snow? Did you spend lots of time reading?

On Friday I had a very exciting conversation with my Mulholland editor. I’ve got a couple weeks’ worth of fine-tuning to do on The Stranger Inside, but it’s not due until right after the holidays, so I have time to think on it. It’s always great to work with an editor who has lots of interesting, story-expanding ideas about my work. I’d planned to sketch out my game plan–but then I got an unsettli...

Wanting and Hoping

We humans are so adaptable. We’re like machines of want, with very short memories. Just let me publish one story and I’ll be happy; just let me have this car, and I’ll never want another. Endless wants. Endless needs. Sometimes we need to pause and breathe and remember.

The pile of things we feel entitled to.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. —Epicuris

 

 

*photo purchased from iStock

The pos...

Saturday Serendipity, 9 December 2017

 

 

Serendipity makes a life worth living.

 

Bits and Bobs

Some people can’t see pictures in their imagination. Fascinating.

An unconscious man was brought into a Miami hospital. He had a do not resuscitate tattoo. It was complicated.

Santa Con: Santa craziness arriving today in a city near you!

Dogs Saving Kids

TinyBuddha wisdom: Embracing the Imperfect Life

 

Books and Film and Such

16 fab lit gifts based on Myers-Briggs Types

Goodies for the lit lover’s planner.

Less than a month before Sm...