Why Poplar is the Best Dog and A Kickstarter Update

As of Day 1 of the campaign! 

 

I didn't set out to write a story with a telepathic dog. In fact, I didn't plan on any dog at all. But when I was working on the early drafts of what would become LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD, Poplar showed up. 

Yes, characters do appear like that. A gift from the subconscious that any writer worth her salt doesn't turn away. So Poplar stayed. Even as the story morphed and changed. Even as other characters got cut and never returned to the manuscript. 

And when I look at the story, she is its heart and soul.

I'd like to say I created Poplar as an amalgamation of all the dogs I've owned throughout my adult life, but I think she really created herself out of my memories and relationships with our canine companions.  

Let me introduce you to them.

Maxwell Smart

I didn't grow up with pets of any kind. The night before my wedding in 1988, my sister asked if she could bring over our gift as 'it was fragile' and she didn't want to risk bringing it the wedding. 

Sure, we said, come on over. 

And she walked in with a 12 week old puppy. A Lhasa Apso aka a white ball of fluff. 

Maxwell Smart Dog, age 6 with our first born kiddo, circa 1994

Unfortunately, all our photos of Max as a puppy are somewhere in photo albums in a storage unit. He was a clown of a dog and set himself as the protector and best friend of our son pretty much from the start. 

Max was a great first dog to have. He was patient and gentle and playful. Would hop in any car ready for adventure. Max was also something of a Houdini and found many ways to escape our fenced in yard to ride shotgun for the day with our town's animal control officer. 

 

Tigger 

Tigger with her favorite thing in the world: A tennis ball

 

Max lived to be almost 17! When he passed in December of 2004, we weren't going to look for another dog for a little while. It was winter. I had 2 young children to care for. But my youngest (8 at the time) held me to my promise that we would look for a dog once there was no longer snow on the ground. 

In March of 2005, Tigger found us. When we got her records from the dog rescue, we discovered she'd been born the day Max died. The kids ever after believed that Max sent her to us so we could stop being sad. 

Tigger was a hound/lab mix and one of the most responsive dogs I've known. She loved to learn tricks and when she was old enough, she and I passed the tests to become a therapy dog team. We spent many years visiting hospitals, nursing homes, and adolescent psychiatry facilities. She was a natural. Always knew the exact person who needed her love. 

 

Dustin

I swear, this photo was not staged.

 

When our kids got older and busier, it was clear that Tigger needed a canine friend. So we adopted Dustin. Then we found out that he was part Jack Russel Terrier. AKA terror. 

Terriers are a special breed of intense. And Dustin had a lot of trauma from being a feral stray. But Tigger loved him. He became her puppy and she civilized him. Dustin was definitely a challenge, but over time, he became a very sweet cuddler, albeit a menace to other dogs. 

Mya

 

Mya cosplaying a babushka

 

Sadly, Tigger died of cancer when she was 10 and we quickly realized Dustin needed a companion. So we adopted Mya - a border collie mix who had been shot as a puppy and only had 1 eye. She was very much my dog. Extremely sweet with people. Unpredictably fear aggressive with other dogs. Though she and Dustin were definitely pack. 

Dustin and Mya made the transition with us to empty nesting and our move to the farm where we live now. In fact, when I came out here in 2020 at the beginning of covid (while my spouse stayed in Boston, treating ICU patients), they were my loyal companions. 

 

Gigi 

 

1 year of Gigi

 

Mya got lymphoma in 2024 and after 6 months of chemotherapy, died in early 2025. Dustin - probably well in his teen years by then (we were never really certain how old he was) - died of heart failure about 6 weeks later. We were heartbroken, but definitely not ready for another dog. 

Until Gigi found us. A lovely mix of shepherd and hound, Gigi is a lot like Tigger was in terms of her emotional intelligence, responsiveness, and gentleness. Unlike Mya and Dustin, Gigi is exceptionally well mannered with other dogs and knows how to alter her play style to suit her companion. She's also the first dog I've ever had who naturally retrieves a ball and drops it at my feet on command. So these are all my good dogs. 

 

 

And Poplar? Well, she has a little bit of all of them in her. I am indebted to each dog we've shared our lives with for helping me bring Poplar to the page with clarity and honesty. Along with a nose for cheese.

As for the Kickstarter, you can help bring more Poplar to the world with your support! Now that we've reached the initial funding goal, anything raised beyond this will go toward the audiobooks of book 2 and 3 in the trilogy, all with Poplar being the best good dog on the page. 

---

Subscribe to BlueMusings and receive my short story collection, STRANGER WORLDS THAN THESE, as my gift.

 

Blue Musings is a low volume e-newsletter containing notifications about book releases, sales, recommendations, and free original short fiction in multiple drm-free formats. Your privacy will always be respected.

Being Vulnerable

I did the thing.

I put together a kickstarter campaign to help fund the audiobook production of LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD.

Can I tell you how much I struggled just to consider doing this? How hard it is for me to ask for friends, readers, and strangers to pledge money to my project? It was difficult enough to write my story (as KS defines it) and be clear on what I needed and to put together rewards for backers that would be something interesting and unique that I could offer. The hardest part? The video.

Kickstarter encourages creators to add a short video to their campaign. Fine, I thought, I'll do a slide deck. But best practice seems to be for the creator to talk directly to potential backers. 

AARGH. 

I'm a writer. And a neurospicy one at that. I work in a little room, at my computer, alone (maybe Gigi curled up at my feet), usually dressed in torn jeans and flannel and with major bed head. Being seen is uncomfortable.  

So I split the difference - created a few slides to introduce my video, did the voice over, added about 90 seconds of me talking about the project and myself. 

Total time to put together and record that roughly 2 minute video? Four days. Four full days. Maybe 40 hours of work and at least 20 takes. Video is *hard*. Kudos to creators who work in that medium. I know I couldn't. 

After getting really wonderful feedback on the campaign and making some important changes, I sent it off to the powers that be at Kickstarter for approval. 

If they give me the green light, I'll set the campaign to officially begin by mid May. 

Stay tuned! If you'd like updates, please consider subscribing to my email newsletter Bluemusings. 

---

Subscribe to BlueMusings and receive my short story collection, STRANGER WORLDS THAN THESE, as my gift.

 

Blue Musings is a low volume e-newsletter containing notifications about book releases, sales, recommendations, and free original short fiction in multiple drm-free formats. Your privacy will always be respected.

And done

 

Screenshot of the chapter and scene info. The overarching reminder for me as I was writing the story is that everyone is where they need to be, not necessarily where they want to be. 

 

I completed the manuscript for EVERY SKY A STRANGER this week. 

Here are some metrics: 

Total words: 82,000 

Number of POV characters: 9

Chapters: 17

Scenes: 53

Writing progress: 

18,000 words between January 2024 and December 2024 

I had recently finished LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD and was preparing for its February 2025 release. After working on book 1 for close to six years, I was worried that I would have the same problem with book 2. I spent a lot of time reviewing my half-baked notes early in 2024. While I had had a plan for where book 2 was going to begin, once I got into the first few chapters, I realized the story wasn't really moving forward. I had all these characters standing around waiting for stage direction. Not good. I quickly shifted the entire plot plan (such as I had) and made life harder for my characters. Much better. 

34,000 words between January 2025 and December 2025

I made steady progress through the story's middle in 2025, though I knew it would need to be stronger. And until fall of 2025 when I attended the Writer Unboxed Unconference in New Mexico, I wasn't sure how I was going to fix it. I took dozens of pages of notes that week and in the margins, I had this note to myself: Each major character needs to have a "trolley problem" moment. Once I figured this out (and it took me until the end of 2025), I was able to see the entire structure of the story, as well as the overarching structure for all three books of the series. 

30,000 words between January 2026 and March 2026

This is where my fingers flew over the keyboard, but it wasn't without work. In early 2026, I was working up to the book's climax when I stumbled and didn't know how to proceed. So I assembled each of the major plot threads separately as if they were their own books and read through them one at a time. (I do not recommend working with a complex structure like this. It was the only way to tell the story, but it tested me as a writer.) This allowed me to see where the writing needed to be smoothed or expanded or changed and set me up to create a cohesive whole. 

In the final month of writing, I drafted the entire last 25% of the story.  

At this point, the first half is at least on its 3rd revision. The middle at 2nd revision and the last 25% has been revised once. This is typical for my process. By the time I get to the last sections of the book, my writing is much bolder and more confident. Those last few chapters typically need the least amount of revision. 

I've sent it out to a handful of trusted readers - trusted in that I can trust them to be honest with me to help the story be its best before it goes off to the editor.  

The metrics only tell part of the process. More importantly is how I feel about this story. And how I feel having finished it.

I am quite pleased with the shape of it. The characters - despite how well I know them, despite the fact that I created them - still have the power to surprise me. Their voices have become distinct in my mind and on the page. I found an ending that is both surprising and inevitable (and, I hope, satisfying). Certainly it sets up the starting place and conflicts for book 3. 

Sitting here, I feel as if my brain has been hollowed out. For the past 2 years or so, I've been living with this story and these characters in my mind. This was especially true in those last writing months. And now that it's finished, the sense of their company is gone. I know they haven't gone far and they will return when I start drafting the final book in the trilogy, but for now I feel empty. 

EVERY SKY A STRANGER will be my 10th published novel. I'd like to say the process gets easier with each book, but that's not really true. Each book is a universe of difficult in its own way. Honestly? I welcome that. It means I'm stretching and growing with every piece I write. 

Each story changes me. And that alone is reason to write. 

 

---

Subscribe to BlueMusings and receive my short story collection, STRANGER WORLDS THAN THESE, as my gift.

 

Blue Musings is a low volume e-newsletter containing notifications about book releases, sales, recommendations, and free original short fiction in multiple drm-free formats. Your privacy will always be respected.

"Despite Everything, Create"

Button a gift from ZZ Claybourne

Being a writer, I meet a lot of other writers in the virtual confines of social media. Others, I meet on the rare occasions we gather in meat space. One of the writers I met physically before we connected virtually is ZZ Claybourne, AKA Zig Zag, AKA C.E. Young, C. Young, Clarence Young, and Thor MF Jones. 

He was wearing the most amazing and lush purple great coat and had a fabulous presence and smile. Of course I had to talk to him and buy a copy of the book he was debuting at the time THE BROTHERS JETSTREAM: LEVIATHAN. (which I absolutely loved!)

I enjoyed the hell out of meeting him and have gone on to enjoy the hell out of all his subsequent books. 

 But that is not the point of this blogpost. 

The button in the photo above is from Clarence and I have looked at it every day since he gifted it to me. 

The one thing in this life that belongs to me is my creative imagination. For me, that looks like a few different things: but mainly knitting and crochet, ceramics, and writing. And what the pin's motto means shifts depending on the context.

One day, it may mean create the hell out of things, no matter who is watching/reading/participating. One day it may mean create your weird-ass corner of the world so you have something that belongs only to you, where you can dance badly and joyfully. Another day it means create your big old fuck you to the universe. 

I'm crawling toward the finish line for the sequel to LITANY FOR A BROKEN WORLD. Some days it's a handful of words at a time. 'Cause if you don't know, creating is hard. And when the world is showing its cruelest face, it's even harder. 

Sometimes, the thing you're trying to create is like a mean old bass on a line, refusing to be reeled in. 

And sometimes it's both.

That's where I've been lately. Stunned nearly mute by the cruelty our species is capable of. And struggling with a story that is just plain difficult. 

So at the beginning of the week, I deleted some social media apps from my phone and programmed in a hard limit of 30 minutes a day for others. What I noticed, almost immediately, was my head was full of story instead of dread or static. 

I was able to sit with the characters when the writing felt hard instead of looking for an easy dopamine hit. 

It feels a lot like magic when the words find their path to the page and snick together in just the right way. 

This is me creating. Despite anything. Despite everything. 

Come join me. Let's dance. 

  

---

Subscribe to BlueMusings and receive my short story collection, STRANGER WORLDS THAN THESE, as my gift.

 

Blue Musings is a low volume e-newsletter containing notifications about book releases, sales, recommendations, and free original short fiction in multiple drm-free formats. Your privacy will always be respected.