Saturday, May 10, 2025

Short stuff!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1711:

This morning, it definitely feels like summer! There was a light mist when we first got up, that then swiftly blanketed the whole canyon view, then just as swiftly burned off. It reached a high of 79 degrees in our neighborhood yesterday, and we actually felt the need to open up this morning to let some cool air in before the temperature rises…since it is supposed to be in the 80s today. Next week is supposed to go down to mid sixties, more normal for this time of year. But today I am going to try to do a 40 minute walk, so I can skimp on second walk if too hot. Consequently going to make this another short post because I need to get going to get the walk in before my 9am zoom call.

In fact, didn’t do second walk yesterday, too tired, too hot, and it felt like a good day for a break. Also, third day day not taking any advil, and everything (swelling, discomfort in right arm) continued to be manageable.

I also got my 500 words written yesterday, as well as some research I needed to do on a building where my protagonist was heading off in the next chapter. Finally got a good photo of it. So many of the buildings near the center of San Francisco were lost in the Earthquake and subsequent fire of 1906, often rebuilt with buildings that become the ones everyone remembers, that it can be hard to find early photos. This building, the Church of the Lady of Guadalupe, was completed in 1880, destroyed in 1906, and I finally found a photo of it that was labeled 1880. Really remarkable building.

Thought I would take a break from roses and give you some shots of a variety of plants.

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