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February 2026 Musings Delight Happy February, friends! I hope your new year is off to a great start and that 2026 will be a happy, healthy year for you full of pleasant surprises and many blessings. Whether you made resolutions or not, may this be the year you make steady progress toward your goals and maybe see a dream or two come true! This month I have been musing about delight. Delight in the small, simple moments of life, specifically. The chance to rise above circumstances and find joy in the simple blessings all around us arose often this January as we experienced arctic cold and two severe winter storms here in North Carolina. My younger self, born and raised in sunny, warm south Florida, would have been despondent until winter was past and spring arrived. I am excited about the arrival of spring this year as always, but I also spent time appreciating winter’s stark, icy beauty. There were special moments with birds singing to one another, and an incredible afternoon when a flock of hundreds of birds landed in and out of a field in tandem. The sound of their wings all beating together was nature’s music at its most beautiful, and something my children and I will never forget. Dark, lacy tree branches against a clear blue sky, a Cardinal in the snow, and the magical morning after the ice storm when our whole backyard appeared to be made from sparkling crystal were all moments to be cherished. My hope is that we can all delight in more small moments of magic each day of the year as we appreciate them for the gifts they are! In writing news, I was pleased to have a microfiction published in the wonderful Literary Veganism Journal. My middle grade fantasy Monster Mountain would be a fun choice for family read aloud time on snow days when the children are home from school, and may inspire some adventurous outdoor play!  If leaving the cold behind and taking a road trip south for freedom and a fresh start sounds more to your liking, you may enjoy my YA novel Free Sings the Sea!  I hope you all have a fabulous February, a Happy Valentines Day, and delight in the cheerful yellow Daffodils emerging to announce that spring is indeed on the way! Love, Stac
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August 2025 Musings Endings Happy August, friends! I hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer! Here in North Carolina, it has been one very hot summer. The end of the summer season and the month of August always mean it’s time to celebrate my youngest son’s birthday!  He turned twelve this year, which has me musing about endings. Next summer his childhood and tween years will be over, and he will be a teenager. Sometimes I handle endings by intentionally looking forward to something in the future. When we look ahead instead of staying stuck in the past, we open ourselves to finding moments or events to anticipate and be happy and excited about. Perhaps even better, we can practice living in the moment. No regrets about the past, no projecting into the future, just an acceptance of what is, and then there are no endings, only continuous beginnings. If reading’s in your future and you’re in the mood for a swoonworthy summer romance before summer says goodbye, you might consider purchasing a copy of my YA contemporary, FREE SINGS THE SEA. There’s also some awesome FSTS merch. There are t-shirts and tote bags, water bottles and yoga mats— I use mine every morning and love it! My MG fantasy, MONSTER MOUNTAIN is perfect for back-to-school reading and will immerse kids in a spooky, fun adventure in the North Carolina mountains! I am thankful for the excellent review it received this month from Readers’ Favorite.  I’m also grateful this month that my piece THE SEARCH was published in Cosmic Daffodil Literary Journal.  In writing news, I am currently revising the second book in my SEASIDE series and plan to pivot to self-publishing beginning with them early next year!
And finally, friends, if you haven’t reviewed Free Sings the Sea and Monster Mountain on Amazon, would you please consider doing so? Good reviews are a blessing to authors, and a large number of reviews helps with the algorithm and our books getting discovered by readers rather than languishing in the background unnoticed. Thank you if you take time away from your busy life to do this, and I appreciate you! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac April 2025 Musings Spring and Monsters  Happy Spring, friends! And I hope you had a Happy Easter as well! The warmer weather and beauty all around me have me musing this month on renewal and rebirth. The Azaleas and Dogwoods here in North Carolina are out and painting the countryside with the colors of spring. As I write this, there is a symphony of birdsong outside my window. A mockingbird, one of my favorite birds and a most magical one, lands high in a tree and sings to me from the hundreds of songs he knows every morning as I leave for work. Every season, every morning actually, is an opportunity for a fresh start. What hopes and dreams need to be reborn in your life? Winter and its time of rest is over, and it is time for renewal, for fresh starts, for taking stock and making changes. This spring, come alive with glorious nature all around you! Turn inward and discover what you really need, and then turn outward and make it happen. Or at least take a big step toward where you want to be! Sing with the birds every morning simply because the sun came up, and it is a new day. These beautiful warm days also have me longing for the sea. If you’re like me and dreaming of the salt-scented ocean, you might enjoy my YA novel FREE SING THE SEA. Join Shanna and Free on their road trip to freedom and discover that a whole new life might be right around the corner just waiting to begin!  And great news this month for middle grade fans— my MG fantasy adventure MONSTER MOUNTAIN is out in the world! 
This month I was also honored to have my piece, NEMESIS, published in Feminine Collective! You can read it here.
Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac February 2025 Musings Precious Moments Happy February, friends! I hope your 2025 is off to a wonderful start and that you will have a joyful, healthy year. Our New Year has definitely been off to an exciting start with the news that my daughter Lacey and her husband Nathan are expecting a baby girl! The happy news has me musing this month about the passage of time. Surely I was just pregnant with my daughter, and now she is going to have a daughter of her very own! Where did all of those years go, speeding by into the mists of time? When life races by us as it always does, we can glance back over our shoulders and remember special moments too precious to forget. Then it is important to turn and look forward again, so we don’t miss the special little moments in the here and now that will in turn be precious memories in the future. This month, perhaps focus on a special moment that makes your soul happy. Read a book to a little one curled up together under a cozy blanket, have a leisurely cup of tea with a friend or loved one and catch up, or sit outside under a tree and listen to the birds sing. The special moment will be different for everyone, but if you stop, breathe, and reflect, your heart and your dreams will tell you what you need. I wish you many special, happy moments this month and all throughout the year! In writing news, my short story BONFIRE DREAMS was published in the Volume 12- 2025 edition of County Lines Literary Journal. If you haven’t read FREE SINGS THE SEA yet, I invite you to buy a copy where books are sold, join Shanna and Free on their hope-filled journey, then check out the beautiful merch inspired by the story!   And…more exciting news this month! I absolutely love the cover for my MG fantasy MONSTER MOUNTAIN releasing next month! The reveal was on the amazing blog of my dear friend Carol Baldwin- check it out here! And get ready for the adventure of a lifetime to begin because MONSTER MOUNTAIN is now available for pre-order!  Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac  November 2024 Musings Your Writing Friends Happy November, friends! I hope you have been enjoying your fall and this most wonderful time of the year! We’ve had some beautiful leaves here in North Carolina this season. Our house is decorated for Christmas already, and we’re all excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas! But the most exciting news of all is that…I’m going to be a grandma! My daughter Lacey and her husband Nathan are expecting their first child in June, so expect plenty of updates and pictures galore in the future! In bookish news, it’s time for Christmas shopping, and Free Sings the Sea would make a terrific gift for those special readers in your life! 
There is also beautiful FSTS merch for lovely presents or stocking stuffers!  Free was also featured on Christine Alemshah’s wonderful blog, and I enjoyed my interview with her very much! She is running a giveaway for a copy of Free Sings the Sea right now, so make sure you get your entry in before the 29th for a chance to win!! The winner will be announced on November 30th. In other news, I am grateful to have been published in Harpy Hybrid literary magazine with my flash fiction piece entitled MOONLIGHT AND COOKIES. And finally, I am thrilled to be working through developmental edits on my middle grade fantasy MONSTER MOUNTAIN releasing on February 4th! If you have young readers in your life who love fantasy, adventure, and giant monsters, then stay tuned for exciting updates for the next few months!  This month, I’m wrapping up a year of blog posts with a focus on being a writer as well as a single mom. For this post, I wanted to point out how beneficial it is to find and have friends in the writing community. Of course, this advice goes for all writers because even if you have a spouse, friends, or children who support your writing, only another writer can really understand the joys and hardships that go along with being a writer, as well as the challenges of dealing with the publishing industry. There are many places to connect with other writers both online and through writing conferences and retreats, but I found my tribe on Twitter (X). There is a thriving writing community on Twitter, and besides the fun of connecting with friends every day, there are a couple of benefits that truly enrich the life of writers! -SUPPORT. Where do you go when you’re discouraged because you’ve received another agent rejection? When you’re overjoyed because you’ve just been offered representation? When you’re promoting and marketing your book and could really use some back-up? The writing community of course! This is where you will find your friends who will be there for you through the ups and downs of the writing life and a publishing career! -BETA READERS. Another benefit of being a part of the writing community and making friends is that you will always have eager readers for your works in progress. From professional critiques to friends simply reading and offering first impressions and advice, it is always helpful to have another set of eyes on your work! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac  September 2024 Musings Time To Write! Happy September, friends! And Happy Fall! I hope you have all had a lovely Autumn season so far with cooler temperatures and the excitement that comes from looking forward to the holidays. The scenery is already gorgeous here in North Carolina, with golden tipped leaves that seem to turn every forest with sunlight filtering through it into a fairy glen. Homeschooling is in full swing once again at my house, and there is much excitement over the release of FREE SINGS THE SEA into the world on September 3rd! 
I have been thrilled and thankful that FSTS received a 5 star review from Readers’ Favorite!  It was also this month’s book spotlight on Cozy Clean Romance Books! I was honored to be interviewed by Mariana Rios and Russell J. Fellows on their blogs, and featured in issue #36 of ‘Why I Wrote This Book’ on The Miramichi Reader. 
Finally, I was blessed to receive this lovely review on Carol Baldwin's wonderful blog.  Launching a new book into the world is an incredibly exciting time, but not without its challenges. With all of the hype, marketing, promo, interviews, and hard work, it is very difficult to find the time to simply sit down and write. For the busy mom, the difficulty can seem impossible to overcome. This month, I would like to continue my series by suggesting three helpful tips for finding the time to lock in and write!
1- A little goes a long way! Some mornings I only have time to write a couple of sentences in my current work in progress, but I will soon have two manuscripts in my Women's Fiction series, SEASIDE ready for professional edits and publication. Those marathon days of writing are few and far between when you’re a mom, and very short sprints often have to be our goal. But one word, one sentence, one chapter at a time, you will be meeting the goal of completing your next project! 2- Create a writing nook. A writer should have a special, cozy spot to create and dream, a place that brings joy, but also says to the mind, “Okay, time to work!” The place doesn’t have to be fancy. Under an afghan in the corner of the couch will do, or a sunny spot at the kitchen table. A thrift store desk with a vase of wildflowers on it under a bright window could also be a magical place to write. Once you have chosen your special place, it’s important to go there every day for even a few minutes to create and dream! 3- Include your children. Many moms feel guilty for taking time for their own writing, but including your children in your publishing world is a wonderful way to accomplish your goals and spend time together. A supply of notebooks and sketch pads pulled out only during Mom’s writing time will result in precious keepsakes for years to come, and might even inspire a future writer! Nap time for little ones or an afternoon quiet time for older children are also great times to sneak in some writing! These are only a few tips for encouragement, but the important point is to find what works for you! Writing the next project is an important priority for writers so we can take those stories coming to life in our heads and tell them, and somewhere a reader can pick up that work and find joy in the reading! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac August 2024 Musings You Time! Happy August, friends! I hope you had a great month and a beautiful summer! It still feels like summer here in North Carolina where I live, but I have felt a hint of that magical fall breeze a couple of mornings! I have been busy school planning for our homeschool this year, and it is always a joy to settle into the comfort of a fall schedule with holidays to look forward to. I wish you all a safe and happy school year! In wonderfully exciting news, Free Sings the Sea is available for preorder and will officially be out in the world in a few days! September the 3rd is release day, and I will keep you posted on all of the book news and events in the coming months!  If you would like to learn more about FSTS and my writing life, I was happy to be featured in Authority Magazine here, and on the wonderful Books and Bevies Blog here! 
I am also thrilled to announce that Free Sings the Sea merch is now available for purchase! I hope you love it and have a little time to browse and shop. #FreeandFawn4Ever! In the midst of all of these wonderful happenings, there has been some hardship as well. At the beginning of the summer, due to difficult life circumstances, I had to increase my workload outside of writing considerably. I will finish up August’s newsletter by continuing my series on the blessings and hardships of being a single mom and a writer with a topic that is close to my heart right now, and one that I hope will help you as well. When life gets busy and crazy as it so often does, you must allow yourself the space to LIVE YOUR DREAM!
It is unbelievably easy for us to give up on our creative dreams and get lost in a sea of mundane real life tasks and responsibilities. Investing in you is easier said than done, I understand, but worth it. One practice that may help you accomplish this is to put yourself on your schedule! You time is important time. Not in a selfish way of course, and our children and families must come first. But even a few minutes a day invested in your dream or something you love can have tremendous benefits. Some mornings I only have time to work on one or two lines of the novel I am currently revising, but a little adds up to a lot in the end! Please don’t give up on you. Even if it’s only a few minutes a day of doing something you love, schedule it in. Do something every day that makes your soul sing! Love, Stac April 2024 Musings You Are Worth It! Happy April, friends! I hope you are all having a beautiful spring! North Carolina this time of year is unbelievably gorgeous. The Azaleas and Dogwoods are flowering, and the air is full of the sweet scent of blossoms blowing in the breeze. Old, cold winter tried to make a couple of last stands, but spring triumphed in the end as she always does!  This month I had the pleasure of attending a book birthday party for the lovely Lindsey Hobson and her spooky fun middle grade book THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW. I loved this book, and you can join in the fun by watching it on YouTube here! This month I also have some very exciting news about FREE SINGS THE SEA! Can you believe it will be out in the world with us in only four months? This weekend I was able to make final tweaks to the cover and choose some special interior art. That means cover reveal time will be very soon, and I can hardly wait for you all to see it! I am also planning my merch, and am so excited about having some amazing products for you to choose from in the near future. #FreeandFawn4Ever!  In the midst of all this excitement, I have had to make an intentional effort to invest time in writing my next project. I believe this is a balance all authors must eventually find, and one that requires a great deal of hard work and energy. With this in mind, I’ll finish up April’s newsletter by continuing my series on the blessings and hardships of being a single mom and a writer by giving you a magical secret that can help you find the time and energy to accomplish your goals. A bold statement, I know, but I’m confident because the secret is a simple one, and it is… EXERCISE! Yes, me, the person who has been encouraging you all year to simplify, is now suggesting that you add something else into your day! It sounds crazy, but slipping in a little time to exercise each day will actually give you the energy and strength to write and take care of your family that you need. I have exercised in different ways through the years, my favorites being walking each day with my baby in a sling and working out in my living room to videos with my kids laughing beside me. It doesn’t matter so much what you do, only that you are moving each day and enjoying it. A walk out in nature does wonders because listening to the birds sing and feeling the sun on your face is magic in and of itself. You might have to get up a few minutes earlier, or walk on your lunch break before you eat, or find some other way to tap into the magic of exercise, but if you are consistent, I can promise that the day will come when you wonder how you ever lived without it! One final thought…YOU ARE WORTH IT. You have to believe that you are valuable in order to invest time in yourself, and you are. If you are a single mom, you’re running yourself ragged taking care of everyone else, that is a given. Please don’t neglect yourself. And when you feel stronger and more energetic, everyone around you will benefit as well. Please join me next month when we will discuss another way you can prioritize your writing and your dreams! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac  March 2024 Musings Housecleaning— Or Not Happy March, friends! And more importantly— Happy Spring! We made it through another cold winter, and that is something to celebrate! Here in North Carolina, we are living in a painting again, one painted by the Master’s hand. Everywhere I look, tiny baby green leaves adorn the trees and bushes, and color has returned to chase the drab browns and grays away. I hope all of this new growth and life inspires you and fills you with joy!  In bookish news this month, I have been busy creating a list of book reviewers, bloggers, and podcasts in anticipation of FREE SINGS THE SEA arriving in September! Please let me know if you would like to be added to my list, or if you would like to be an ARC reader in the very near future! You can always find me here or through my socials via my LinkTree. #FreeandFawn4Ever! This month, I am continuing my series on prioritizing and finding time to write. Always a challenge for any writer, it can seem insurmountable to a single mom. We’re going to continue looking at small tips and tweaks throughout the year that may help, and this month we are going to focus on housecleaning— or not! I’m going to leap right in here with a statement that will make some of you decide I am crazy! You may be right, but here it is anyway- HOUSECLEANING IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT. Still here? Yay! For some, this might be hard to accept as true. I understand. I grew up with my mom turning the kitchen chairs upside down on top of the table and mopping every single week! And she cleaned out the refrigerator almost as often. To this day, I love the smell of Pledge! But if you are trying to find more time to write, it will definitely have to be a priority, even above shiny clean floors and crisper drawers! Here are three ideas to consider when faced with the daunting task of housecleaning: -Organization is your friend! By now, you probably think that I’m not only crazy, but that my house is a big mess too! Actually, it usually has the appearance of neatness. Baskets are my favorite prop, and they will be your best allies! From the kitchen to the living room to kids’ rooms, almost everything can look neat and aesthetic tucked away in a basket. And focus on surfaces! If you keep the surfaces of tables and bars clean, the whole house will appear tidy. Mail can go in a basket, and backpacks on hooks by the door. You’ll be amazed at how much better you feel when you step into a clutter free room! -Try your best to keep the actual cleaning casual and routine. Quickly take care of dishes right after a meal. Every few days, put on your favorite song and sweep or vacuum a room. Clean the bathroom one morning before you hop in the shower, but only when it really needs it. There are no strict rules on how often you have to clean your house— you make the rules! So instead of spending hours housecleaning, you can choose to sit down and write instead. And that’s much more fun than mopping! This final tip dips a little further beneath the surface because it has more to do with how you think of yourself and less to do with the actual logistics of cleaning. -It’s important not to base your self-worth on how clean your house is, or worse, what other people think about you or your housecleaning. You are only one person, and there are only so many hours in the day. You simply can not do it all. And creatives need time to dream and create. Never forget the magic you are making when you write— you are creating something out of nothing. You are bringing whole worlds and characters into existence from your imagination. And through your work, hearts may be touched and lives might be changed. So go ahead— put down that broom, make yourself a cup of tea, and sit down to write something that makes your soul sing! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac   February 2024 Musings What’s for Dinner? Happy February, friends! I hope you are giving and receiving much love this month! Valentine's Day is fun, but my very favorite moment in February comes every year when the first Daffodils bravely push their way through the hard, frosty ground. The cheerful yellow flowers will open by the end of the month and seem to trumpet out the good news that we have indeed made it through another winter, and spring is on the horizon!  If romance is what you like best about February, then you may love the sweet romance between Shanna and Free in my debut YA contemporary novel FREE SINGS THE SEA, coming this September! A cover reveal, ARCs, and preorders are happening very soon. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to be an ARC reader and join Shanna on her journey to freedom before anyone else, or you can always reach me through my Linktree and socials. #FreeandFawn4Ever !  This month I also attended a YouTube Livestream YA Author Book Talk Q&A with my good friends and fellow Monarchs, Rebecca Wheeler and Sandy Green. We had a lot of fun talking all things books and our love of clean reads! You can find it along with many other inspiring videos for authors and readers such as our virtual book birthday for Diane Blue Brooks Britt’s precious picture book SIMON THE SNAKE on YouTube! You might remember from January that this year I am going to focus my monthly musings on tips and encouragement for writers who are also single moms. Our subject for this month is simplifying meal planning and preparation so you will have more time for, well…writing! Imagine for a moment you are lost in your story, living and breathing what your characters do, and real life has faded away. Perhaps the clash of battle rings in your ears as two armies face off in the final fight for good over evil, or your protagonist has just found her first love after years apart, and your heart beats faster as he pulls her into his arms for the embrace she has waited a lifetime to feel again. Suddenly a cry echoes through the house, wrenching you away from your other world… “Mom! What’s for dinner?”  Ugh. That pesky question that comes to pester you not once or twice, but every single day! But don’t despair, I have a couple of ideas that may help. We love our characters, but we love our children most of all. Here is a way to prioritize your family, while still finding time to write yourself back into your fictional world! I could write a book on all the tips that could be helpful here (and may do just that!), but for the sake of not letting this newsletter turn into a novel, I will mention three now. The bottom line is— organization is your friend. I can hear the groans from my friends who are more free-spirited and resist structure, but a little goes a long way, and it will help you be more free in the end to live your passions and dreams! 1: Take a few minutes each weekend to meal plan. I have a simple grid I make copies of and fill in with spaces for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day of the week.  It isn’t as daunting as it sounds, especially if you have set meals for certain nights, so you only have to be creative for a couple of meals each week. Children love knowing what to expect! Once you have filled in your meal plan, your mind will be at ease because you can always answer the what’s for dinner question quickly & slip right back into your writing world! You can also post it on the fridge, and even little ones will have fun looking to see what’s on the menu. It will also help you utilize your leftovers for lunches or for an easy dinner so you will have more time for writing! 2: Now you have your meal plan, and it will be easy to create your grocery list from it. This will help you with the second tip which is— minimize trips to the store! Only go once a week, or better yet, use instacart! Every second that you spend running to the store is a second you could be writing. And let’s be honest, would you rather spend that hour with canned goods and cranky fellow customers, or on a beach or in a fabulous fantasy world with your characters! 3: One last idea for writer moms to consider is morning prep. I know mornings are stressful. Many of my writer friends are teachers and have to be at school at the crack of dawn. This last tip might not be easy, but it will reward you at the end of the day when you are the most exhausted! Simply do everything you can for each night’s dinner in the morning. Chop all veggies, thaw all ingredients, set out any canned goods you will need on the stove and ready to go. And as a busy mom, the crockpot is your best friend! Imagine being weary at the end of a busy day and your whole house is full of the delicious smell of chili, soup or spaghetti sauce ready for you to simply scoop out and serve! Being a mom is hard work. Writing is hard work. But both are also joy-filled, meaningful callings that will enrich your life beyond measure! The trick is in the balancing. I hope these tips will be helpful to someone this month— please let me know in the comments if something works for you, or if you would like to share other ideas! Join me next month as we talk about finding time for our writing while still tackling that meddlesome little item on our to-do list called… housecleaning! Much love to you all, and as always, thank you for being with me on this journey! Love, Stac  |
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