M. E. Tudor

Today is the beginning of NaNoWriMo 2023, and I've decided to work on a new YA romance this year. It has been almost two years since I published a new book! I can't believe how time has gotten away from me, but I've started about five new projects in this time period, so my goal for 2024 is to finish at least three of them, including the YA romance I'm about to start.  I had been torn about finishing a book I started during Camp NaNoWriMo in April or starting a new story. The story I started in April may not have 50,000 words left, but if I finish it next month, I can get it out to readers before the end of the year. Yes, I realize that is an overly ambitious goal, and that's why I decided to work on a new story for NaNoWriMo and start editing the book I started in April.  Yesterday was Halloween, and it was my partner's birthday. She turned 65 yesterday, and I adore her. This year has been a wild ride, and I'm learning to handle the ups and downs better. T...

  224183155   ©   National Library Scotland   |   Dreamstime.com The above picture is from air raid damage done at one of the hospitals of the St. John's Ambulance Association during one of the World Wars. This picture is a pretty good reflection of the way my life looks right now. One big jumbled mess. I just posted the post I wrote in Colorado at the end of May. I wrote that post before my life, and my daughters' lives imploded.  I have not written more than a few pages since the first part of June because life has been so screwed up. I haven't been able to sit down for more than a few minutes at a time to work on my writing business. I'm completely unfocused and having a really hard time cleaning up the mess that my life has become. Things are slowly starting to calm down, and I'm praying that by the end of August, I will be able to sit down and finish one of the two stories I've been toggling back and forth between and get something published this year....

I'm writing this post from beautiful Elk Meadows, a small community in the mountains above Ridgway, Colorado. This picture is the view from the house my daughter is renting for the week. She comes to Colorado every summer to get her sons, who live with their father in Montrose, Colorado. She usually stays for a week and visits with her cousin who lives here in Ridgway. I come with her just about every summer, or at least every other summer.  I lived in Elk Meadows and Ridgway with my ex-husband back in the 1990s, when my girls were still little. It's a beautiful small town. Paradise really. But, like the Eagles say in their song The Last Resort, "Call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye." The town is getting bigger, and the cost of living here has gotten out of reach for a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives. It's really quite sad. I miss seeing this view every day, but I wouldn't trade it for my Kentucky home, where the love of my life, Rosa, ...

  This is a picture from my backyard from a few days ago. I love how green everything is. You can't see them, but honeysuckle vines are blooming on the back fence row. They aren't as fragrant this year, which is a bummer, but they are still pretty.  Last month I mentioned my friend who had been diagnosed with dementia. I wanted to let you all know that she is in a very nice memory care assisted living facility and doing very well. Her doctors have found a medication combination that keeps her from having illusions and feeling very good. That has been super good news for everyone who cares about her. On a sad note, a sweet lady who was my friend and the aunt of two of my grandchildren died of liver cirrhosis. We knew she was having health issues, but no one had any idea how bad things were. She went to live with her youngest brother, the boyfriend of my youngest daughter, and the father of my youngest granddaughter. Within a few days of moving in with them, my friend went to th...

  Happy April. I hope your month is starting off well. I'm a little sad this week, I had to cut down my lilac bush last year, and I'm really missing it. This time of the year, I usually have a bunch of them in the house, filling it with their lovely fragrance. I have two new bushes, and I'm hoping they will bloom by next spring and that our weed bushes won't take them over. That's what happened to my other lilac bush. I don't know what the weed bush is called, and I guess I should look it up since it's popping up all over our property. It's very invasive and took over my lilac bush despite me cutting the weed bush down several times. But my ornamental cherry trees are blooming, and their white petals are falling all over the yard giving it a pretty mixture of green and white with the occasional yellow dandelion poking through.  Anyone who has read my books knows that I use a lot of references to nature. I love being outside. I love trees and flowers. I l...

I know I'm not the only one who has had this feeling of AAUGH!  Just when you think life is finally going your way and you're going to kick that football over the moon, some Lucy jerks it away at the last minute. My main, and really only goal, for 2023 is to get my shit together, but it is hard.  I make a schedule that I think I can stick with, and someone throws a monkey wrench in my plans, and down I go. For those of you who read this blog, all five of you that may still be following me, you know that my life is complicated.  When my partner and I got together 24 years ago, I had no idea of the hell my children and I were going to put her through, and I'm amazed every day that she's still here,  or rather hasn't thrown us all out on the street.  It's her house. We survived my two daughters' psycho teenage years, raised three grandchildren, took care of my partner's mother and son when they were sick,  and now we're about to become great-grandparent...