It’s been nearly 4 years…

Since we went to Africa.

Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa.

I remember seeing signs about Ebola and Malaria in the airports. Going through temperature scanners. In Rwanda, the entire Jeep had to go through an x-ray machine!

And this was all before the pandemic. We had no idea what was coming.

We were so fortunate and privileged to be able to visit the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. The price had doubled from the previous year, and I could see that it was only going to continue getting more expensive.

I took a ton of photos, but for previously stated reasons (car accident recovery), I stopped blogging about our travels.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t share a photo every now and then.

Silverback
Baby!

We hiked two different days to see the Mountain Gorillas, and both days were equally amazing. Plus, an earlier hike to see the Golden Monkeys.

I often wonder how they are doing.

If you are fortunate enough to ever get the chance to go, it is once in a lifetime.

Back to writing!

I did it?

Oh, my ever-lovin’ knocked noggin, I think I actually updated my website!

It took forever because my FTP software no longer links to the server, and I have to dig around behind the scenes and I, well, make mistakes. I upload things to the wrong folders, have to start again.

But!

It’s not perfect, but I think it’s done. I still need to check some links.

These are the pages I’ve updated, and, please, note, if you’re a frequent visitor (hahaha), you might have to hit Refresh to make the new pages load.

Home

Books

Bio

Deceiving Derek

Catching Claire

Before Brady (now on preorder!)

Just Janie (currently exclusively on preorder at Apple Books)

Trusting Trey – TBA

That only took, like a week.

My next website is going to be a heckuva lot easier to maintain, I hope.

I thought you might like a picture of an elephant

I took this photo from a mokoro (canoe) in Botswana at Linyanti Bush Camp in Chobe National Park, Botswana, in late November 2019. Isn’t the elephant magnicient?

I used to to blog about my travels but haven’t done so in quite some time. It was a lot of work, and I need to reserve my computer time for writing and business of writing now that my noggin has been koko-bonked (IFYKYK).

But from time to time I’ll share some of my fave photos.

We visited Rwanda, then traveled via Kenya to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (where I bought some seemingly indestructible sunglasses to replace a pair forgotten at the Victoria Falls Hotel during high tea), three camps in Botswana, and then Cape Town in South Africa.

I adored the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda, but in Botswana the elephants were my fave. They are so graceful. They are loving. They persevere.

And so do I.

I am a turtle writer. I am slow. And a lot of that is because I’ve been in 3 car accidents that, accumulatively, have greatly impacted me physically. But I am determined. I am attending various body therapies. And I do not know how to give up, a trait I inherited from my grandfather.

This elephant reminds me of Duke. Steadfast. Resolute. Thirsty for life.

Just a note that if you visit the Duke page, it is from my original website and most of the links to articles about my grandfather on the web no longer work. But his Wikipedia page stands.

I took my author photo in my bathroom

So, this is what’s going in the back of the Love & Other Calamities Romantic Comedy books:

Yeah, I took my author photo in my bathroom! With my phone.

It’s in black and white in the books (unless a reader reads on a tablet with colour), and it looks fine. Good enough! Until I can set up the “big camera” and take proper self-author photos for my new website.

But my website is still old, and when I imported the picture into the new home page, it looked weird. It was suddenly obvious that’s a shower curtain behind me.

A couple of YouTube tutorials, and this is what I’m hoping to pull onto the home page instead:

Not bad for my first time using Affinity Photo. I like the blue behind me. I managed to accidentally cast a shadow. A splash of over-exposure and it’s not so obvious that I’m, ahem, mature.

I like my Cruella tinsels.

Wish me luck getting the new website pages built!