M. E. Tudor

  I can’t seem to get myself back into a writing groove, and I don’t know why. I have tons of story ideas, but I can’t seem to get my butt in the seat in front of the computer long enough to write anything. This is really bothering me because I love to write, but something is blocking me. I get a motivational newsletter from Jay Shetty every day. I learned about him through Mel Robbins ’ podcast. A recent newsletter he sent out included the prompt: How can I create a consistent way to complete tasks I don’t feel motivated to do? This leads to a link to an AI chat with Jay Shetty, where you get about 100 words worth of questions before it moves you to the full-access that you have to pay for. And I’m not buying. But in this newsletter, he suggested trying something for just five minutes. He also suggested checking out Mel Robbins’ book, The 5-Second Rule . I haven’t read this book yet, but five minutes should be easy to manage. Right? I have listened to Mel Robbins’ book, The Let ...

  I was looking for a picture to convey how crazy busy my life has been, and I found this one. Then, I decided I need to create a board like this so I can keep track of what I need to do, what I'm currently doing, and what I've completed. Well, I might have to have a board about this size for just the "To Do" list.  I don't know about anyone else in the self-publishing business, but does it feel like it's getting more and more overwhelming? When I started 13 years ago, there was Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and MySpace. Now, there are still all of those, plus TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, Patreon, Substack, Discord, and a few more that I can't remember. How can you get any writing work done when you are trying to connect with people on all these other platforms? It makes me tired just thinking about it. And God forbid, you be like me, who is working two part-time jobs and dealing with family on top of squeezing in some writing time.  This ...

3126187   ©   Bonnie Avonrude   |   Dreamstime.com Happy July! In the U.S., we will be celebrating the 4th of July. Hopefully, the celebration will remind people that we are a nation of immigrants. A melting pot of cultures that should be celebrated. Unfortunately, with the current people in leadership, I personally don't see much to celebrate because I fear they are going to try to take away the very freedoms our forefathers fought so hard to make available.  But, let's not discuss that. Let's talk about happiness. It's often fleeting, but sometimes it shows up and stays for long periods of time. Sadly, mine has been fleeting for a number of years, but big changes have been happening over the past year and I'm starting to see the light at the end of a long and very dark tunnel.  I hope that all of you have something to celebrate this month, even if it's just waking up to a new day.  I'm going to be promoting my book Learning to Love Again  this m...

  9993715 ©  Irina Voloshina |  Dreamstime.com I hope this Pride month has been going well so far. It has for me.  I've almost completed one of the books I've been working on. This one I've been writing for about a year. It's an age-gap romance. It covers topics of revisiting past pain and moving forward. I've been writing it under the working title " Trying to Love You ," which was inspired by the Trisha Yearwood song with the same title. It's one of the many great songs on her  Jasper County CD .   My original idea for the book was that it would be about a woman trying to show an older woman that she could love her if the older woman would just let her.  As I wrote the story and it evolved, it immediately became more about the older woman, Cam, who is forced to face the past where she grew up in rural Indiana, a place she had not revisited in a very long time. When Cam picks up a younger woman at a gay bar in Indianapolis, she has no idea that she ...

 Can you believe it's already May? And the Kentucky Derby just happened over the weekend. Most people probably don't care, but it's a big deal here in Kentucky, although I never watch it. Someone told me the horse that won was supposed to be a descendant of the Secretariat. That's a famous horse the was the subject of a movie.  I've been working on this post for a couple of days and was going to put on a recipe to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, but that has already passed too. I did go to a Mexican restaurant for dinner on Sunday and had a very yummy vegetarian chimichanga.  Here's a picture of me with my mouth full, totally unaware that my daughter was taking the picture. That cute little girl is my youngest granddaughter, Deborah.  As I mentioned in my last post, there have been a lot  of changes in my life. I have a new apartment that I am slowly making my own. I have a new car and it's blue! My favorite color.  I have a new song that I've been wearing out....

2024 was a wild ride. One that I don't ever want to repeat. There have been a lot of changes in my life over this past year and I'm praying things are going to stay calm for a while. Melissa Etheridge's CD "Your Little Secret" is probably my favorite of all her CDs. One song on there that summarizes this past year is "Change," which I have attached a link to the music on YouTube for your listening pleasure. But, as the song says, "The only thing that remains the same is change." It's true whether we like it or not. 2025 is starting off to a rocky start on many levels, but my goal for this year is to publish two new full-length books. I've started several over the past three years since I published "Learning to Love Again, " but I have not completed any of them. In fact, just about all of them have stalled out, but I believe that was due to my crazy personal circumstances. Things are calmer in my world, at least for the moment...

82966173   ©   creativecommonsstockphotos   |   Dreamstime.com Just a couple of weeks ago I was feeling hopeful and wanting to write, but my depression is back and I am struggling to make it through each day without alcohol. The alcohol withdrawal is part of my depression, but things going on in my home life are part of the problem too. I'm not going to into details about that because they are just too depressing to talk about.  I've been struggling with alcoholism for several years. It's a disease that runs in my family and I always feared that I would suffer from it. I fought it for a long time when I was younger, but as depression and dealing with teenagers doing bad things over took my life, I went to alcohol for relief.  I'm going to start seeing my therapist again next week and hopefully she can help me get out of the funk that I'm in. I used to see her earlier in the year and she was wonderful. She helped me get to a happy place and hopefully she can...

  I have exciting news!  College Hill: Season One  is now available on Kindle Unlimited. So, for those of you who didn't want to fool with Kindle Vella, you can now read this season that follows Jamie Edwards and PJ Thomas from my book  Suddenly   through a portion of their first semester in college together.  Season Two , which is on Kindle Vella for now, starts shortly after Fall break and will go to just before Christmas break. Season One introduces two characters, Kayla Martin and Lori Weaver, who will have a bigger role in Season Two and become two important characters throughout the remainder of the story. At least, that's the way I see them in my mind right now.  I plan to make Christmas break its own season. When our characters go home for the holidays, there's going to be lots of drama.   I'm also starting to post episodes of  Ridgway Moon  on Kindle Vella. The story is still dragging, so I want to get it out there and get ...

24487119  ©  Paul Schneider  |  Dreamstime.com This summer has been absolutely nuts. There has been so much drama with my family that has seriously interfered with my writing for the past few years, but I'm getting back on track. The good thing about all that is that it's given me another story idea that I'm putting down the first notes for.  I have been working on new episodes for College Hill: Season Two . I'm going to make College Hill: Season One available on Kindle unlimited soon. And I'm going to start posting episodes of Ridgway Moon. Life has been so crazy that I have not been able to complete a book, but I want to publish new content and that's where Kindle Vella is a good source for me to post new material.  I'm trying to decide which book I want to make permanently free as a draw for readers and something to give away for newsletter subscribers once I get my newsletter back up and running. I think it's going to be Sheltered by Love . It's...

This is the new cover that Ida at  https://www.amygdaladesign.net/ created for me. She does amazing work and has created several covers for me.  This year got off to a rocky start, but the waters seem to be settling down. I've finally been able to work on some writing projects, including a 10-minute play that I'm going to enter into Emerald Theatre Company's annual contest. This will be my third time entering. My first attempt was successful, and they picked my play "Is She or Isn't She" to be performed. That play is available for purchase on Amazon .  I'm editing Ridgway Moon, which is sort of a sequel to Learning to Love Again , and deciding if I'm going to put it on Kindle Vella. I've gone back and forth with it because I'm afraid it won't get a lot of reads there, but I want to put out something new. I'll be making my annual trip to Ridgway, Colorado, on May 26th, so hopefully, that will give me plenty of inspiration to finish the ...

This picture sums up the way my life has started this year. It's been a shipwreck. I've managed to survive the wreck, but in many ways I feel like I'm in pieces, like this ship. Sometimes you have to make really hard choices and changes. I can only pray that I have made the right choices and the right changes.  I haven't been listening to much music lately, although I did get a copy of Dolly Parton's Rockstar CD from the library and I listened to it in my car. It's awesome. If you have gotten to listen to it yet, check it out! Rockstar! I've been listening to a couple of podcasts. The main one I've been listening to is the Lesbians Who Write podcast . I have been listening to this podcast for a few years now and I really love it. The two ladies who run it, TB Markinson and Clare Lydon are excellent lesbian writers and fun to listen to.  Another podcast I've been listening to for the past couple of years, and a lot here lately is the Be Positive Sta...

I haven't gotten much done with my books this month. My life is still a chaotic mess, but I've been reading and listening to music more than I have in a while. I was so thrilled to see Tracy Chapman perform her classic song "Fast Car" with Luke Combs, who has made it a hit for himself. I had hoped they duet would happen after the song became so popular again and it was an amazing performance.  Tracy is another songstress who touches my heart a lot when I'm thinking about the changes going on in my life. In fact, during previous changes when I was first coming to terms with my lesbianism, I was listening to Tracy's CDs " Telling Stories " and " New Beginning ." I feel that my life is headed for a new beginning and hopefully that will mean more telling stories for me.  I'm still plugging along on my next YA lesbian romance, but it's been slow going. But, I have been reading and I would highly recommend this book by fellow lesbian fict...