Personal

Spring Renewal

This has felt like the longest winter ever. The excitement of all the upcoming changes coming this summer are making the seasons pass so slowly. But while I wait, I’m trying to grow this spring by embracing my hobbies and spending lots of time finding emotional and mental renewal in the small, beautiful moments of life.

This is my new pet, Pearl the half moon betta fish. He keeps me company while I tend to my houseplants, draw, bake, and knit. It’s nice to have a little friend to take care of. Side note: if you have any tips on how to safely move a betta fish from Ohio to Missouri, please do let me know in the comment section because we’re brainstorming already!

Book Review

The Mysteries of 2021

Winter is finally over! 2021 has been a weird year so far – too much snow, an ongoing pandemic, and a lot of time to pause and reflect on what is important and what is not. I haven’t been blogging/writing/publishing as much during the winter season, which seems apt. It’s an icy time of hibernation for a lot of creatures. But now spring is here and with it comes renewal and the light of hope for better times to come.

Photo by Irina Iriser on Pexels.com

So, while I don’t have a lot to share regarding new projects, I thought I’d share some books I’ve read this winter that were the most enjoyable. They’re all mysteries since that’s definitely what I’ve been gravitating towards. All of the descriptions have been taken from Goodreads:

  • The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen: A killer who targets lone women, who breaks into their apartments and performs terrifying ritualistic acts of torture on them before finishing them off. His surgical skills lead police to suspect he is a physician – a physician who, instead of saving lives, takes them. But as homicide detective Thomas Moore and his partner Jane Rizzoli begin their investigation, they make a startling discovery. Closely linked to these killings is Catherine Cordell, a beautiful doctor with a mysterious past. Two years ago she was subjected to a horrifying rape and shot her attacker dead. Now the man she believes she killed seems to be stalking her once again, and this time he knows exactly where to find her…
  • A Hex for Danger by Esme Addison: The annual Mermaid Festival is the setting for Esme Addison’s sunny-yet-sinister second Enchanted Bay mystery, perfect for fans of Heather Blake and Bailey Cates. The small town of Bellamy Bay has its share of skeletons in its closet, but it isn’t used to bodies turning up in the local history museum. After all, this coastal North Carolina town is much like any other…except, of course, for the mermaids. Helping to run the family business, an herbal apothecary while keeping her supernatural secret hidden is no easy feat for water witch Aleksandra Daniels. But somehow she’s still found time to help her friend Celeste, who has her own Caribbean mermaid heritage plan the annual Mermaid Festival. As fun-seekers throng the beaches, Alex gets to know and is intrigued by renowned artist Neve Ryland, who’s in town to decorate the local park with a mermaid-themed mural. Celeste, however, is less enamored with the artist, as Neve has been spending entirely too much one-on-one time with her boyfriend Jasper, director of Bellamy Bay’s history museum. Then, a reception for Neve ends abruptly when the artist is found dead in his office.The police investigation nets Celeste who asks Alex to find the true culprit. With the help of her magically-inclined aunt and cousins, Alex dives in to clear her friends name. But there was more to Neve Ryland than met the eye…and Alex fears she may be in way too deep. Will she catch the crook or be next on the hook?
  • The Black Echo by Michael Connelly: For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal…because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam “tunnel rat” who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.
  • Classified as Murder by Miranda James: Aging eccentric James Delacorte asks Charlie the librarian to do an inventory of his rare book collection—but the job goes from tedious to terrifying when James turns up dead. Relying on his cat Diesel to paw around for clues, Charlie has to catch the killer before another victim checks out.
  • Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell: Four women with nothing in common, united only in death. Four brutalized victims of a brilliant monster – a “Mr. Nobody”, moving undetected through a paralyzed city, leaving behind a gruesome trail of carnage . . . but few clues. With skilled hands, an unerring eye, and the latest advances in forensic research, an unrelenting female medical examiner – Kay Scarpetta – is determined to unmask a maniac. But someone is trying to sabotage Kay’s investigation from the inside. And worse yet, someone wants her dead . . .

What have you been reading this winter? Has it been a time of slow growth and reflection for you too? Feel free to let me know in the comment section.

Thanks for reading and happy spring,

Tiffany

Update

First Published Painting!

An unseasonably warm February has put me right in the mood for spring. I’m so glad we got to skip winter almost entirely. This year is really starting to feel like a year of change and growth already, and the seasons seem to agree.

The Ampersand Project, the publisher that accepted my first painting, decided to make it a featured post instead of just using it to illustrate a story or essay. They really liked the story behind it, and (while obviously biased) I do too! Anyway, I just wanted to share.

And to wrap up this brief update, I just wanted to share that Ephemeral Elegies is going well – we’re currently scheduling our May issue, so feel free to send over any confessional poetry you have sitting around!

Thanks for reading,

Tiffany

Personal, Update

Making Progress…Slowly but Surely

It’s already June! It’s crazy to think about how quickly this year is flying by, but it’s been a great one so far.

Regarding writing, I’ve had three acceptances so far this year: two short stories and one poem. The more I try to write longer works, the more it seems apparent that writing shorter things just comes more naturally. So, I think that’s what I’m going to focus on for a while.

black hanging bridge surrounded by green forest trees
Photo by Kaique Rocha on Pexels.com

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and share a bit:

Here’s one of the short stories from this year – “Appendix A

And here’s a poem that won’t be in print until February but is available online already – “The Vanishing Act

And stay tuned for July 8th when my short story “St. Isabelle’s Downfall” comes out in that issue of Fiction on the Web. It’s one of my favorites of all the stories I’ve written, and it’s taken literally 7 years to find it a home!

Thanks for reading!

-Tiffany