My Life
Lessons from #Life Drawing #4
Yesterday, I wasn't sure what life lessons I'd learned at drawing class, but when I went to bed last night, I slept the way I most like to. I lay down and woke up nine hours later, to the sound of mynahs chattering, doves cooing, and the nuanced melody of rain in the...
Lessons from #Life Drawing #3
More lessons from life drawing! I began dreading class two days before it was scheduled. In spare moments, I'd think of excuses: “I could be sick. I do feel kind of headachey. I could plead a dentist appointment, maybe even try to get one, because that tooth really...
Lessons from #Life Drawing 2
It’s lessons from life drawing class again. Three hours in the middle of a Thursday when I check out of “normal” life and enter a secret, sunlit world in the jungle in Haiku, Maui, and study, and attempt to draw, naked people. The location is convoluted to get to, so...
Lessons from #Life Drawing
I’ve paid good money to look at a naked woman, and all I can think is that I should have worn orthopedic shoes. I hold my pencil in the awkward grip of someone who hasn’t come to the page in years as I gaze at the model on the stage. My lower back aches from standing...
Ten wise things from turning fifty
Been thinking ten wise things I've learned from turning fifty. Yesterday was one of those big birthdays—you know, the ones where people do retrospective slide shows or big parties or go on a cruise to see...
Island Fire, Toby Neal's first #YA novel, is here!
Island Fire - Toby’s First YA Novel, is here in time for Christmas! Suitable for ages 10-100! Raves from Advance Readers: “Island Fire is another fantastic page turner from Toby Neal. It sucked me in until the very end and I feel like I know each of the characters...
How have #smartphones changed us?
How have smartphones changed us? I was an initial resister to the smartphone, having vague “mental health” concerns about intrusiveness, getting overly attached to my device, not being present in the moment, and being tracked by government agencies just because they...
My Writing
Debuting #SydneyRyeKW with Rough Road, a Blood Orchids prequel!
Debuting the brand new Sydney Rye Kindle World with Rough Road, a Blood Orchids prequel novella starring Lei and Sydney Rye, together for the first time! Rough Road is a prequel to the first book in my long-running Lei Crime Series, Blood Orchids, and falls right...
4 Tips For a Successful Author-Assistant Relationship
I have the most gloriously overqualified assistant ever. Two years ago, another author friend, Christine Nolfi, heard I was looking for someone to help me manage the increasingly overwhelming demands of my self-publishing career. She gave me her sister's name. Tricia...
Going Analog to Beat Writer’s Block
Going analog to beat writer’s block is a desperate measure, something I never thought I’d have to do. I don’t know how long I’ll be analog. It may be permanent. “What are you saying?” You may well ask. “Didn’t you just write a cyber mystery about a woman who’s always...
Wired In, Paradise Crime with Sophie Ang, is here at last!
Wired In, Paradise Crime novel with Sophie Ang, is here at last! My MMA-fighting FBI tech agent with a dark secret finally has her own series, set in Honolulu. Sophie first appeared in Book 4 of the Lei Crime series, Broken Ferns. She was so compelling that I gave her...
Red Rain is here! #LeiCrimeSeries 11
Red Rain, Lei Crime Series 11, is live today! I worked hard to resolve the cliffhanger ending of Bone Hook related to what happened to Stevens in record time, and I'm proud of this book! What a suspenseful tale. Red Rain was just amazing to write, the first Lei Crime...
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